As a man living in a foreign country, far away from the Philippines, navigating the world of online dating in a different country from your own can be challenging. There are significant cultural differences between all countries in the world and so learning about those differences is important in order to be sucessful.
We put together some quick information for you that we think is a good start. We do not intend for this to be comprehensive advice and there is a lot of information available online, including YouTube videos that you can watch from foreigners that have been here or who live here.
Give our advice a read, and then sign up. There is no better way to learn than to just dive right in and give it a try.
Good luck!
General And Specific Knowledge Take some time to learn about the Philippines if you have not already. If you meet someone you are interested in, then learn about the island and city of the Philippines they are from. This country has over 7000 islands and a nation separated by seas leaves each island with distinct differences, from local dialect to agricultural contributions. A lot of places have a slogan for their city, like Bacolod on Negros is the "City of Smiles" and is known as the Sugar Cane Capital and the Maskara festival. Cebu City is "The Queen City of the South", a famous tourist destination, known for the best Lechon Baboy and yearly Sinulog festival.
Family And Religion When you learn about the Philippines, you will know that family is particularly important. You will also learn that this is a Catholic country through and through, with the small exception of the southern Philippines being Muslim. If you get in a serious relationship with a Filipina, you are going to have to be OK with both of those things. Family is more important here in a relationship than it likely is in your own country. It is just the way it is. If this is something that gives you hesitation, we suggest you do some more research on these matters.
Respect This should be obvious, but we should say that some Foreign men do not treat Filipina women with respect on our site and so we have to remove their accounts. Always show respect to all members of our site. If you have a problem with someone, you can block or report them.
Cultural Differences Being Transgender (a Ladyboy) is quite common here in the Philippines. We have accommodated for that fact so that users can specify their gender in that way. Now, if you suspect that someone you are chatting is not being honest with you about their gender, you can ask, but we warn you that you might be offending the person you are chatting. If you aren’t sure, it’s better to just move on to someone else.
No Divorce Something you will need to understand right away is that there is no legal divorce in the Philippines (still as of 2020). There was rumor that a law was being considered to finally allow for it, but it hasn't happened yet. There is the notion of an "Annulment" of marriage but it is extremely cost prohibitive so only a few can, or will, pursue it. Consequently, it is common for men and women to have relationships outside of marriage. When we say it is common, we really mean it. You will be asked while chatting women; "Where is your wife?" or "Are you married?". You will likely find this very strange but that is the way it is here. On the flip side, you may be chatting with a married woman or a girl that has a Filipino boyfriend!
Money Things A lot of the Philippines is a relatively low-income country and most of the women you will meet come from large families. There are economic hardships for many of the people here, but remember, you are on an online dating site trying to seriously meet someone. You are also, likely thousands and thousands of kilometers away and have never met the person you are talking to in person and perhaps not even on video chat. If the girl you are chatting is serious about you, she will not put a strain on the relationship by asking for money, because we all know that would be strange to be asked to send money to someone you have never met, right? Also, there is something called phone “load” here. It is a term for credit put on a pre-paid phone plan that allows the user to purchase internet data or phone calling / texting plans. If a girl says she can’t talk to you because she doesn’t have load, she basically is asking you to send her money or she won't talk to you. Please report those who ask for money or phone load so we can get them off our site.
Sweet Words Take your time, if you meet someone and they are calling you “dear” and “my love” after just chatting a few minutes, you should be careful. They are likely moving fast because they are telling a lot of men the same thing to build trust. We all know it takes time to build trust, not flowery words. Also, if you are chatting someone and the first thing they start telling you is all of their problems without even knowing you, then you should proceed with caution. It is likely a prelude to asking for some assistance of some sort.
Trust Your Instincts While it is important to be sensitive to cultural differences, continue to listen to your instincts. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.