Cross-cultural training in the Philippines, for the office and for the household
English carries most of the working day in Manila, which is exactly why the misreadings are so hard to spot: they sit in what politeness protects, in how disagreement is voiced, in who decides. Asia Relocation Philippines runs the sessions that explain Filipino values, etiquette and business practice, for the assignee and for everyone who arrives with them.
A newcomer to the Philippines rarely gets a language problem. They get a meeting that ended in agreement and produced nothing, a colleague who said yes and meant later, a household helper who would rather fail quietly than say a task was impossible. None of that is in the words. It is in Hiya, the sense of shame that keeps a face saved, and in the respect for seniority that keeps a decision waiting for the right person.
The training exists to name those mechanisms before they cost anything: the central place of the family, the community spirit of Bayanihan, the Catholic calendar that shapes a working year, the Spanish and American layers under the surface, and the weight of a personal relationship in a business one.
Asia Relocation Philippines has briefed arriving managers and their households since 2011, in Manila and in Cebu. The trainers live here; they explain the culture from inside it and the newcomer's mistakes from having watched them, in English or French.
What the training explains, and what belongs to other pages
This page is about people. The city and the language have pages of their own, and the session tells you when you will need them.
Carried by the service
- Filipino values and social etiquette: family at the centre, respect for elders and authority, hospitality, collectivism over individualism, and the two words that explain most first-month surprises, Bayanihan and Hiya.
- Business practice: workplace hierarchy, how decisions actually move, how feedback and disagreement are given and received, the place of personal relationships in a deal.
- Communication styles: what a yes means, what a silence means, how a request is softened and how a refusal is hidden, and how to read both.
- The calendar: religious practice, festivals and family obligations, and what they do to a working week.
- A programme for each room: the assignee's office, the partner's household, the children's school, with the same trainer and different examples.
The programme is built from a short brief on who is arriving and what they will be doing here.
A different service
- The city itself. Districts, traffic at your hours, clinics and banks are a day in a car, not a session in a room: city orientation in Manila.
- The language. Filipino, Tagalog or Cebuano for the household, one-to-one or in a group, is language training, and the two are often booked together.
- The home and the school. The session explains how a building or a school talks to you; finding them is home search and school search in the Philippines.
- The paperwork. Immigration has its own codes and its own calendar: visa and immigration in the Philippines.
Any of these can join the same file, with the same coordinator. Name them in the inquiry.
One brief for the manager, another for the household, a third for the team
The same ten aspects of Filipino culture, taught from the side each person will meet them on.
Assignee briefing
For the person with the contract: hierarchy, decisions, feedback and disagreement, relationships in business, and the calendar. Examples drawn from their own role and industry in Manila.
Household programme
For the accompanying partner and the children: the building, household staff, the school gate, the neighbours, the market. The room where Hiya and hospitality are met daily, and usually with less support.
Team workshop
For a foreign management team, or a mixed Filipino and foreign one, in the company's own premises. How the two sides read the same meeting, and what each can change.
Pre-arrival session online
The values and etiquette of the first week, delivered on a call before departure, then completed on the ground in Manila or Cebu once the questions have become real.
A short brief, a programme, the sessions, then the questions that come later
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The brief
Who is arriving, what they will do in the Philippines, which country and culture they come from, and whether the company or the family is asking. The programme is drawn from these.
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The programme
The modules chosen and the examples set for your situation: a manager in Makati, a partner running a household in a gated village, a team in Cebu. Sent in writing before the first session.
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The sessions
In person in Manila or Cebu, in your office or home, or online. Interactive rather than lectured: the trainer works from the situations you have already met or will meet in the first month.
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The follow-up
A second conversation once you have been here a few weeks, when the abstract has become a specific colleague, a specific silence. The questions are better then, and so are the answers.
Four newcomers, and the room each one meets the culture in
Managers taking over a Filipino team
The meeting that agreed and produced nothing, the feedback that landed as an insult: the assignee briefing is built for the first ninety days in the office.
Accompanying partners and families
They meet the culture at the school gate, with household staff and with the neighbours, and they are the ones who decide whether a posting is renewed. The household programme is theirs.
Companies opening in the Philippines
A management team arriving together, or a Filipino team about to receive a foreign manager. The workshop runs on the company's premises in Manila or Cebu.
HR and mobility teams
Cultural training written into the relocation policy and delivered to a standard, with a report back on what the next arrival should be told before flying.
Manila and Cebu in person, anywhere online
Sessions in Metro Manila and Cebu, in your office or home, and online for any posting.
The values are national, so the programme does not change with the city; the examples do. A manager in Makati and one in Cebu meet the same hierarchy and the same Hiya, in offices of different sizes and in a different language of daily life. The trainer who runs the session knows the city the newcomer will work in.
Online sessions serve households before they fly and postings outside the two cities. The follow-up conversation, a few weeks in, is worth more in person, and we hold it in Manila or Cebu whenever the posting allows.
What newcomers ask about Filipino culture before they arrive
Everyone speaks English in the Philippines. Why would we need cultural training?
What are Bayanihan and Hiya, and why do they matter at work?
Is the training for the assignee only, or for the whole family?
Can it be delivered before we arrive?
What does a session for a team cover?
Who are the trainers?
How is this different from the city orientation?
Do you cover Cebu as well as Manila?
The language next door, and the service above
You understand the culture, you want the words
Filipino and Tagalog in the capital, Cebuano further south, one-to-one or in a small group, at home, at the office or online.
Language training in the Philippines →The whole relocation service
Housing, schooling, orientation and settling-in for the Philippines, on one file with one coordinator.
Relocation services in the Philippines →Tell us who is arriving, and we build the programme for the room they will meet the culture in
Trainers who live here, in English or French, before you fly and once you have landed.
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