Friendship often is placed on a par with kinship as the most central of Filipino relationships. Certainly ties among those within one's group of friends are an important factor in the development of personal alliance systems. Here, as in other categories, a willingness to help one another provides the prime rationale for the relationship. *
Filipinos usually make friends easily. They are warm and hospitable. They smile a lot, which makes it easier for strangers or foreigners to feel at ease with them. They can easily strike up a conversation with the person seated next to them, for example. Filipinos can communicate with peoples of other nations with ease because the majority of the population can fluently converse in English.[Source: Canadian Center for Intercultural Learning]
According to the blog casualsavant: “In Filipino, the word "barkada" means a group of friends. As with many things Filipino, the delineation of closeness is not exact. I've heard it described as a group of close-knit friends or simply a peer group. The best definition I can come up with is that to a Filipino, one's barkada is another form of family. This may sound frightening to foreigners, since surely one group of relatives is enough! While it must be admitted that our loyalties do beget corruption and nepotism, the upside is strong networks. The barkada has the best of both worlds, people who know you and love you anyway, but who will allow you to take them for granted... to a certain extent. This motley crew is my barkada. [Source: casualsavant.typepad.com]
According to humanbreeds.com: “Filipinos get friendly with each other so quickly but are so noisy when in a group. Filipinos are generally very friendly, so it is so easy for two Filipinos who have just met to turn into instant friends. The social experiment: If you bring 1 Filipino to a crowd of people, he/she is likely to blend in, be friendly and nice and sweet. But bring 10 individual Filipinos into a bigger crowd, these 10 individuals, who had never met before, are likely to greet each other, become instant friends and form their own mini gang. A group of Filipino people easily stands out of the crowd with its loud Tagalog dialect and even louder laughter.” [Source: humanbreeds.com, February 7, 2014
Filipinos are extremely social and hospitable; they also like to eat and drink often. You are likely to be offered a drink (coffee, soft drink, juice or water) and a snack (biscuit cake etc.) almost immediately on first meeting. It is socially wise to accept the offer; at least of the coffee or soft drink. If you are the host you should also be prepared to offer and serve a coffee/soft drink and snack. If invited to a family or other social occasion it is Filipino practice to bring along a small gift for the host and/or hostess, typically a cake or other small gift of very modest value. [Source: Canadian Center for Intercultural Learning +++]
Filipinos have a knack for humour. They can always find something to laugh about. They even love to craft funny anecdotes about socio-economic-political situations and adversaries in life. Filipinos love to tell jokes in social settings, but less so in the context of business. Humour may be self-deprecating, often relies on puns, but is rarely dry or cynical. Irony is often not understood or is misinterpreted. +++
According to humanbreeds.com: “Filipinos are friendly and sweet. It is just true, they are so happy and friendly and sweet and they honestly remind me of the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings....Filipinos love to live and enjoy life and like to go out. This means that Filipino individuals with very little money in the bank or the wallet are more likely to go and spend a big chunk of this money on a Starbucks coffee, a movie or a night out with their friends rather than saving it for a time that the money is needed.” [Source: humanbreeds.com, February 7, 2014]
****lead image from google/ctto
Interesting insights on the meaning and practice of friendship in Filipino culture. There's a lot to learn from the good aspects of their culture for sure.