Why this American chose the Philippines for life

when there's a traffic problem people are friendly yeah in America they would say uh bad words to each other and fight the two motorcycles come together like that at the intersection and you both smile and you go on America would not be like that meet Kelvin an American who moved to the Philippines 8 years ago to live the happiest chapter of his life he shared with me why family is so important in the Philippines how it feels to be the father of 2-year-old toddler at 71 and what the biggest misconceptions Americans have about the Philippines and Max let's go for it there's not agism actually agism is the other way yeah think maybe thanks to Hollywood or whatever you're like more important when you're young and handsome and less important when you get old and wrinkly here it's the opposite way the older you get the more respect you get and the more status you get and so we have the opposite of agism that we have in in other cultures and it's very family centered country I mean it's really really family centered there's there's ultrasound centers maternity ultrasound centers on every corner free health care and vaccines for the children uh they they really really really take care of uh F and they have a growing population what's the best thing for you about not the Philippines but about dumag the nice thing about dumag Getti it's a small Capital City you have everything here your malls your movies Cinemas your your immigration offices you don't have to be you know it's self-contained so if you want your camera fixed or you want all the services that you might need and we expect being from uh first road country we expect uh to have all the services we want so it's complete with only being maybe 125,000 it is crowded and it's 360 years old and the the layout of the streets is there was no planning there no planning for you know buses and trucks and and it's laid out completely wrong however uh you know when there's a traffic problem people are friendly yeah in America they would say uh bad words to each other and fight or even shoot at each other and here they just kind of smile and wave and the two motorcycles come together like that at the intersection and you both smile and you know go on America would not be like that I think many countries are not like that cuz they're all angry and in a hurry so the people are relaxed even the dogs are relaxed uh the dogs don't chase you like they would in America and try to bite you if you're on your bicycle or walking yeah and the the dogs are kind of um maybe they ate the Rowdy dogs I don't know so the uh the dogs are more friendly and the and the people are more friendly now it's not true in other parts of the Philippines you know like SAU or Manila it's different yeah different there uhhuh uh even bolo on the other side of the island it's a different culture more businesslike and it's a but they speak a different language they have a little bit different culture there's like a 180 160 languages here yeah and you know when you're in an island you're not really concerned about the other Islands uh you you have your own culture on your Island and you you know if you it's hard to steal your car because you can't take it off the island really hard so you know without a bridge to the next Island they're not too worried about the people don't seem to be worried too worried about the uh rest of the world or even the other Islands it's just us on our Island we're hanging out we're going to do karaoke and we're going to eat do you do karaoke I I've done it with them and uh what I notice is uh in America I have a bad voice I would feel very self-conscious because people criticize you in America but here it's not part of the culture so all the women think they're pretty because nobody tells them they're not pretty and when you sing nobody criticize you for singing badly yeah so you could just sing badly your whole life and uh so you don't have to be so self-conscious and there doesn't seem to be oh here's a really interesting thing about the culture yeah you put groups of people together of all different ages including the teenagers in America the teenagers have a an attitude and they separate themselves from the younger kids or the adults and and they they're really difficult they go through a difficult time but here it doesn't matter how old the people are when you go out so they can be 60 or 80 or 6 or 1 or 13 and they all this get along and you all get in the car and there's not a a pecking order you know the chickens say Peck at each other if you're low they don't play those games uh here so it's very very different than America it feels like there are big families like big groups of like friends the community the feel of community and they kind of support each other is the the thing here it's very uh this place is more since there's corruption and since have had to survive they really take care of their family and they really volunteerism and Community awareness is just starting to grow now they're really not Community oriented that much there is a a move for that and volunteerism is not part of society so they do have your on the job training but we you know when if you're in America you go to a website and everybody can volunteer somewhere and do something rather than sit around playing video games so we have a deficit there that we don't have that part uh integrated and of course we got the pollution problem plastic problem that's really serious we don't have any uh pollution because of Industry because there's not much here but we do have the uh the one use Plastics uh and there's if you don't pay the for the truck you have to pay a little ticket for the truck to stop if you don't have money to pay the pay the the truck to stop they don't stop so you basically you need to take care of each other if there is no like system working there is some corruption level and then you don't have much money so you need to stick together yeah your family is important and your children take care of you when you're older kind of like India so the idea is your children are your Social Security because you can't rely on anybody else I have two children one is 40 45 years old and one is two years old do they know each other uh no no my daughter doesn't want me to have a second family if I may ask how old are you 71 so how is it to have a like a one-year-old baby when you're 71 2y old oh there's no time for dementia and Alzheimer's you got to stay up you know you got to be sharp cuz kids every day there's new rules yeah you know they they learn they push the limits you know there's they try this they try that they climb on things so you got to stay sharp so it definitely keeps you young that's right there's no time for getting old that's nice in fact the the younger your wife and the children at home you live the longest yeah on the average I'm pretty sure yeah that's the thing cuz there's no time for just sitting around being depressed yeah that's not exactly yeah are you enjoying your life more yeah super happy how's the Health Care System here you experienced pretty good actually every uh neighborhood it's called bar guy has a Health Center and which is free and they give you Bas basic healthare uh they knock on our door twice they say oh we've got the vitamin A for your child oh the the vaccine for this is here now they come and remind you and then you go to the local Healthcare now there's four like four or five hospitals some two of them are brand new some people said you know for a serious problem you should go to Manila or Sabu or go overseas for some sort of specialist but for my regular Health Care uh I'm I'm completely happy hey guys just a quick announcement don't skip I'll be running a 3-day Workshop called FASTT track to views and profits on YouTube If you ever wanted to start your own channel this is the best way to do it you will learn how to choose the most profitable Niche and how to beat the YouTube algorithm you're going to love it I promise Link in description so sign up if it's for you and now back to the video do you feel home here like do you feel like perfectly like home or you still kind of feel that no I'm a foreigner in this country no I feel like I'm home cuz it reminds me of when I was a a kid and you can play with the children and talk to everybody and yeah you know it's more friendly but it's like like when I was young but always summer it feels like it's more on you all like the rules and how you behave it's more on you not on the government and not on the like some departments uh who create rules it's like you human being so you kind of it's on you how you behave and how you deal with the surroundings right compared to some developed countries yeah they well they have um if you have a problem every neighborhood which is called a baron guy has a captain okay and you take the problem to that Captain and he does mediation for at least three times to to solve the problem that you have with your neighbor or whatever the problem is in America they want to go to court and get money and the attorneys get $250 $350 an hour here the system is set up you have to try to mediate your problem at least three times before he'll give you a certificate to go to court the attorneys don't control the the system like they do in America yes and is is the system set up for the people in America no it's set up for the attorneys because they're the royalty now so we left Europe and we left royalty behind but we've created our own royalty the politicians and the attorneys did you have any cultural shocks when you arrived here well there is more Superstition here than uh you know than in America yeah uh which is kind of part of the culture it must be from way back before the before the Catholics came so I think there's a there's there's still that which which you uh you run into you know they're concerned about ghosts and demons and spirits and things like that yeah and there's 400 mythological creatures that that live here uh some people say Well they're living in other dimension and they're completely different than the Greek Roman there's one with looks like a mermaid but the story is completely different one with one eye like a cyclops but the story is completely different so they've developed their own mythological cre which is really fascinating because you think oh you know those stories the the Greek the Greek Roman creatures but they're it's it's a whole different set and really kind of wild yeah wild uh mythological creatures and a lot of people believe that they've seen them so it's not like uh it's very different than America where nobody's nobody believes that nobody's seen a Mythic creature here I run into at least 10 people 12 people that say they they have seen one I think it's something like 150 160 different tribal languages so they all learn to Gallow in school but they have their own local languages and their own culture and each language is a treasure because every language has its own expressions and stuff and their own songs you know some of the songs are really beautiful and sometimes you hear some of the songs and it sounds a little bit Spanish then it sounds a little bit moros lived in Spain so there was a little bit of Middle Eastern mixed in with the Spanish music so sometimes you hear with that here but then sometimes it's just their own unique songs and stuff what I think the biggest misconception about the Philippines let's say in the US for like average Americans what's the misconception about the place or just Americans don't know about the Philippines I mean Americans uh they're uh you know they're kind of centric about their their thinking they think that America is the middle the center of the world and the other countries don't count so they have uh when some some of them have Prejudice that they haven't traveled yeah uh about other people in other countries they feel like they're above them but the truth is if you look at the happiness scales the Philippines is is happier than most of the countries they're like number sometimes they're number three sometimes they're number number four number five on the happiest scales you know but and you got Denmark and Norway are way up there and but you got Philippines way up there and you got America which is the richest country down at 17 or something and people got two cars and huge houses and good health care why are they number 17 in the world so the the Americans don't really understand that that they haven't been uh they've been tricked they say if you work hard and you basically they're slaves for the corporations then you can be a millionaire someday well 99 99.99% of the time nobody they just they're just working slaves with a little carrot dangling in front of them to uh to and then the the quality of life here is so much better because you know you're friendly and you relaxed and you eat with people and you go to the beach and you know I live three blocks from the beach only rich people in America live three block three blocks from the beach I go over there I pay um 25 cents for a coffee for for and sit there and watch sun come up so I go in America it's $10 to park so you go to the park at the beach it's $10 and you better bring a $100 bill for any restaurant at least $100 for any restaurant uh in the beach I walk over there like I said for 25 cents and have have coffee and hang out and watch the sun come up so the quality of life and I could talk to anybody in town you know you just go around and talk to anybody you want you can't do that in America M they think uh oh they'd be so rude to you and angry at you you know suspicious of you uh but here you can pretty much be friendly to everybody I really can't think of anybody anytime you can't be friendly now the Americans are a problem because uh you know there's a lot of foreigners here there's like 5,000 foreigners in town and Americans are often arrogant and loud ex-criminals and stuff like that mentally ill alcoholics now of course they Australians are alcoholics too but uh we have I think the most problematic group in tetti are the Americans in fact we got a committee for unruly foreigners why do we have a committee for unruly foreigners you can delete this because they're yeah my first time in the US was in 2005 so I was like change student there kind of thing and people like on the street maybe it was like back then but people on the street if you ask someone like people are friendly and old to to respond maybe it's different now I don't know people get more like nervous and suspicious about like what's going on but Americans always like they have reputation to be like friendly well it depends upon you know what city you're in and what part of the city okay my first time it was a state of Maine oh Maine is nice main is nice they're nice people there they're they're far away from the they're more uh civilized in M yeah you were nice place yeah so it depends it depends on the place in the US because the US is huge I mean and and and really there's there's a lot of different cultures and stuff within you know micr cultures in there but the the big cities are uh you know dangerous well that's part of it they used to ask me what they they think that over going overseas is dangerous so if you leave America you're in danger well actually it's the other way around there's no Mass murderers here yeah you know there's mass murders every week in America they're because they're so angry they just want to kill everybody but it doesn't doesn't happen here they have misconceptions about the outside world and I have a lot of family members that don't have a passport never gone anywhere but they think they're better than other people yeah that's a lot of propaganda from many sides in the world you should step out of your bubble like any country it's basically not it's not only for the US I think it's like if you want to really understand how your place is you should go and see the world and maybe live abroad otherwise it's just impossible like even if you're like a smart person it's just you cannot you need to have a base to compare your place to the other place I think you need to go before you're 30 too where you're still more fible yeah the younger the better you know get people traveling when they're eight or nine or 10 and you know start seeing the world in different C cultures don't feel so uh some people come here and they they get into it they play basketball and and soccer they just ask to join you know and they get a massage and they sing and they do karaoke and then other people come and you say oh there's this problem and this problem this problem and they spend their time complaining about everything because you know the infrastructure is not as good and whatever they find things to complain about so it's really interesting watching the the the the foreigners come and the tourists come and they're different attitudes about how they integrate and how some of them just you really understand right away just be friendly and join in and have a great time and they have a you know and don't don't be so uh oh this is this and this and this and this I'm not going back no everybody hates each other over there they're all angry over there everything's expensive and they're all divided up I mean they're angry about everything it's not just politics or just it's an angry country yeah like Society is quite divided at the moment yeah it's all divided I mean the was it difference back then like let's say 20 30 years ago um when I was young it was more like the Philippines the children played outside you could talk to children without being accused of something you know uh now you have to be careful of everything in America everything you do and then and uh um people played uh you know people were more social and if you're different political groups when I was young you still you still were friends it wasn't so serious now like it is now and uh you know you could compliment a woman but now you can't compliment a woman no you can't no they go they would say uh that will be per they would report you you know yeah they just so you and and you're you know if there's an attractive woman you're not supposed to look at her what's the meaning of life for you the meaning of life well take care of your health be kind to yourself and others strive for happiness don't take things so seriously um always prepare for the worst but always be optimistic [Music]

Channel: Max Chernov

Views: 453,052

Keywords: max chernov, the philippines, american in the philippines, foreigner in the philippines, living in the philippines, life in the philippines, cost of living in the philippines, filipina wife, manila, philippines, living abroad, moving to the philippines, retire in the philippines, native life in the philippines, life in philippines, becoming filipino, philippines vlog, retiring in the philippines, dumaguete, retire in dumaguete philippines, moving from the us to the philippines

Id: KFSf6-9C-WQ

Length: 20min 23sec (1223 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024