Hi, I'm Filipino hailing from the island of Cebu. My dad is from Mactan Island, my mom is from Bohol.
There are 49 distinct dialects in the Philippines. Distinct, as in, as different as French is from English. There are several variations of certain dialects, for example, my mom speaks Boholano Visaya while my dad speaks Cebuano Visaya, all variations of the Visaya dialect. It is similar to the difference between English and Ebonics where most of the words are the same - just the accent and certain words are different, but you can still understand each other for the most part. If you count each variation to each dialect, there are over 100 of them.
Tagalog, unlike popular belief, is not the national language. It is one of the 49 dialects. Pilipino is the national language. It is a language derived from all 49 dialects using Tagalog as its basic structure. For example, in Pilipino you say eroplano (a word taken from the Chabakano and Visaya dialects who use the same word for airplane), in Tagalog you say salipawpaw. But, because Pilipino is structured using Tagalog and because Tagalog is mainly spoken by Filipinos living near the capital, Tagalog is almost "lost" to be replaced by Pilipino in these regions, so Tagalog and Pilipino became interchangeable. But, there are tons of people working to restore the original Tagalog dialect.
I love BALUT! You can get it in certain "days". 16 day-old balut is called balut pinoy and does not have the duck yet - only yolk. 18 day-old balut has a little "substance" to the yolk, and 20 day-old has bones. I usually don't go beyond 18 day-old.
Then there's chicharon dipped in vinegar. Okay, I'm getting hungry. And it is the only place where you can order your Chicken McNuggets with Rice or Fries. And the Philippines is about the only place where all parts of the chicken is eaten - you can find grilled chicken feet (we call adidas!), chicken intestines, and chicken skulls strung on a bbq stick.
If you ask a Filipino how many islands comprise the Philippine archipelago, you are probably going to get the question, "High tide or low tide?".
Mabuhay!
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