On Thursday, I had the opportunity to interview Josh Burden about his cultural background. I met Josh my first semester, at Longwood, because he lived in the same residential hall as me. Although I have not seen him since the pandemic, I was glad to be sitting down with him and learning about his culture. Josh was born in the Philippines. He was born in Quezon City, just outside of Manila. Josh moved to America with his parents and sister when he was 9. However, he still has memories from when he was in school, what his house was like and what his town was like. Josh mentioned seeing homelessness, and low economic parts of the city. However, I really wanted to focus on the comparison of the power distance, proxemics and communication between others in the Philippines and America.

The objective of this blog post is to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of America and the Philippines. This is important because we should know what other cultures are like around the world. Not only does it provide good insight to the lives of others, but it expands our personal knowledge and allows us to be more open minded.

The Philippines have a much higher power distance score than America. The Philippines have a 94 power distance score and America has a 40. Josh did tell me that at school in the Philippines everyone was very quiet and serious. Whereas he said his experience at American school was a lot different. People would talk during class, nobody wore uniforms, he said it was a lot more relaxed. I believe this stems from the high power distance score that the Philippines have. Josh also brought to my attention of the anti littering laws in the Philippines. He told me these rules are strictly enforced and can have some very harsh punishments, as well as how obedient the people are in following the rule. After doing some research, I found you can be imprisoned or fined a large amount of money for littering. This is a prime example of the power distance in the Philippines.

Another difference I concluded between Philippine culture and American culture was their family privacy(proxemics). I asked Josh how his family life/structure was while living in the Philippines. He mentioned how they would all gather for a large meal once a week/every few weeks, and how important it was to them. After he told me about their great food, I asked about what they talked about during these gatherings. To my surprise, Josh said they just talk in the moment and don’t ask any personal or individual questions. I took it as they don’t “gossip”. Americans love gossip, everybody wants to know what everyone is doing. Josh even said he always talks with his friends about who is doing what, who is dating who, and that kind of talk. However, with his family he just talks about his academic and current life.

One last difference I noticed between Philippine culture and American culture was their ways of communication. In America, most people are very outgoing and passionate in their emotions and expressions. However, according to Josh in the Philippines people tend to themselves and are not outgoing. When I asked for an example of this, Josh told me a story of how he was with his older sister at a market. The worker at the market was very stern and serious and it intimidated him as a young boy. Now that he is older, he told me wouldn’t you want to be nice and smile to someone you are trying to sell something too? This was a great example because in America we have the smiling salesman who is looking to make a profit off you with their larger than life personality. Whereas in the Philippines, there is not much emotion expressed.

Josh really expressed how glad he is he moved to America. Yet, he admits he does miss his family members that live in the Philippines. He plainly put it life is just different here(America). He spent most of his life in America and has really taken advantage of his opportunity. Josh and I are very similar and I would have never guessed he was from the Philippines. We both love sports, hanging out with our friends and enjoy the same kind of music. Getting to know more about the Filipino culture was really good for me and I think good for Josh to express something he normally doesn’t talk about. We are all on the same planet, so why shouldn’t we get to know about other cultures? Not doing so would just be wasted knowledge and shared experiences.