If Philippines is a Pacific Island(er), why do teachers teach that it's an Asian country?

Question

to be specific, it's a Southeast Asian country.........i thought pacific islanders are Samoa, Hawaii, French Polynesia, etc... i'm confused...

Answer 1

to the east of the philippines is a vast ocean called pacific ocean.

would not surprise me that the philippines would be considered an archipelago in the pacific.

Answer 2

IMHO, I think the misconception that the Philippines is a "Pacific Island" in the sense of Polynesia-Micronesia is due to two things:
First, how people call the Philippines "Philippine Islands" or "PI." That's not the official name of our country.
Second, since the Philippines is an archipelago (composed of many islands) located in the Pacific Ocean, it can be considered a "Pacific Island" in the BROADEST sense. Heck, Papua New Guinea is an island in the Pacific. So is Taiwan.
If you look at a world map or a globe, the Polynesian and Micronesian islands are a bit far from the Philippines; and that the Philippines is pretty near Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia.
I honestly prefer calling the Philippines an archipelago in Southeast Asia, so I don't contribute to the confusion.

Answer 3

The Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan are archipelagos along the western Pacific rim. And they are Asian countries. People of these countries may be called Pacific Islanders too. But in present times, the Polynesians, Micronesians and Melanesians are the ones more identified as Pacific Islanders.

Answer 4

the archipelago of the philippines is located southeast of mainland asia and submarine land bridges would show that it is part of that mainland. as such it would be easier to consider the philippines to be asiatic. pacific is so vast and it would be more difficult and confusing even so to include the philippines there where there are different island groups like aleutians, hawaii, fiji, samoa, polynesia, vanuatu, the solomons, micronesia, palau, the marshalls, etc. this would be very apparent if you check a map that inludes the oceans or a good sized globe and you will see that the philippines is both asian and pacific but really and easily more identifiable with the southeast asian region

Answer 5

The Philippines is a Pacific Island and an Asia country. It is near Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia...

Answer 6

If you are asking about the country, it's because the Pacific Ocean is on side, and Asia is on the other... Therefore the Philippines is both. If you are asking about the people, Filipinos originated in the pacific islands (and that includes most of Indonesia).

Answer 7

Geogprahically, the Philippines lies atthe gateway between South East asian and the Pacific, dats why. You got the South China Sea to the East and Pacific to the West and the population is predominantly rooted closer to your South East Asian neighbors.

Answer 8

the philippines is a country located in the pacific (yes it is a group of islands ) but the big difference is it an an independent country. (so they say) most pacific islands are not self governing they are territories

Answer 9

Asian is a race not just a geographic location. Asians are in asia and in pacific islands and many other places. Samoans, Hawaiians, and Polynesians are also nationalities within the general asian ethnicity. I think youre confusing ethnicity with national origin.

Answer 10

now i'm confused too. why should they considered filipinos pacific islander, while the rest of its neighbour is group as asian?
i think bcoz filipinos looks alike closer to the polynesians and micronesian than those of small chinky eyes and fairer chinese, japanese and other asians. and philippines is an archipelago in pacific ocean just like other countries like japan and new zealand. but i'm still confuse though.