The World's Busiest Maternity Ward

Your analogy with 100 years ago is a good one. I recall my daughters accomadation at Leeds University. Terraced houses that were not just side to side but back to back - relics from a byegone era.

LOL it was certainly a thought that ran through my mind as we sat in Manila traffic going from A to B.....but I see the point you are making.

During my time spent in Manila I must have visited 4 malls including MOA. Robinsons SMA etc. They were all pretty big. And all sold good ranges of cheaper and luxury clothing and consumer goods. The Malls wern't empty. I couldnt even get any attention from a shop assistant in the mobile phone shop one time as there was a queue. Being mindful of the large quantity of Tondo style shanties that were everywhere it occurred to me that there was some money being spent in these shops on consumer goods etc and concluded that there was at least a reasonable sized sector of the population that had enough purchasing power and were members of a middle class (too many to be the super rich, I thought.)

Social Security in its literal sense is how I would define "middle class" so take the houses for rent we have been refering to peso for pound ,like for like can the Teacher or Doctor call center worker afford rents of 8-25000 from monthly income? The maternity bill oss spoke of 60,000 is perhaps 40% of a years income what happens if serious illness arrives or unemployment?

What we where looking at may be "fur coat no knickers" lol

I went to one of the 2 Unis I mentioned in number 2. It has it's perks Is UP the only school exempted from the english language test?

1. Most families who are rich or above middle class will have at least 2 cars to combat the color coding scheme. My family has 4 but is now down to 3 because I got married and got one of the cars.

2. Downpayment is cheap and you can drive the car home. The rest of the amount can be financed and be paid over a span of few years.

3. This is not just about cars but generally of the culture, they tend to be materialistic and aspirational. They will loan money or use their credit card or save a lot of money to get a new car or a new laptop or a new phone. You would see mall workers with iPads, squatters have a TV but no refrigerator, etc.

I haven't come across anyone on the forums that has been able to exempt themselves in this way. From a lengthy conversation I had with UK NARIC there are some Philippine universities who's degrees enable those applying for spouse or fiancee visas in the Philippines for the UK, dispensation on the English Language test requirement. My wife's university wasn't one of them. They didn't give me a list but I seem to recall that De La Salle was an example they gave where the exemption is applied so I would have thought that would have covered UP too....

Very interesting, positive, and enjoyable programme, which sparked an interesting discussion here.

There are a lot of people in what I would like to call the "Cammella Homes demographic" - people who might perhaps afford a car, but who probably don't have one, and who can, if they are careful, afford a mortgage on a three bedroom house and a private school for one or two children. Very often, these are couples one of whom is an OCW in one of the better paid OCW occupations - engineer, ship's offioer, etc.

The rise of Cammella Homes is something that I find rather interesting - this is the classic aspirational new middle class.

If that's the case then that's one less task for us when we decide to apply for a spousal visa Haha way to go being a Green Archer!

A quick call to UK NARIC should confirm either way.


http://ecctis.co.uk/naric/

Thanks JohnAsh, will keep that in mind Not really worried about the English test though, I've always been mistaken as Canadian or American in the UK

Yes, its pretty obvious that your English is very good. Your posts read as though you are British though with a subtle hint of Americanese thrown in

I know wgat you mean. Though if you get excemption then its a bit of hassle that you wont need to bother with. And again when you are in the UK, as the ELT is also a requirement for ILR now and the test results seem to expire after 2 years ( some do at least ). My wife will need to retake hers for Citizenship next year. I am sure she will be okay but its extra hassle and more fees.

Why thank you! But my spelling is still very Americanized

Every penny saved is important! I don't really understand why they have to do it but then we don't really have a choice. I hope your wife does well, I'm sure if she is immersed with the British culture, her English will greatly improve.

I wouldnt say immersed. Getting used to it maybe

Well if you Google Juna and Citigroup you will find tweets from the organization Street Source. A Canadian relief organization that tweeted about meeting Juna, a former intern at Citigroup (CBPS) that is one of their Streat Source graduates. Steetkids International runs a program to prepare street kids to be ready for a job. They have a Facebook page.