The first exposure to English occurred in 1762, when the British invaded Manila. However, use of English in that era was minimal and had no lasting influence. English became an important language in the Philippines in the period between 1898 - 1946, when the Philippines was under U.S. sovereignty. English remains an official language in the country.



English is the dominant language in business, government, the legal system, medicine, the sciences and education. Filipinos prefer their textbooks for subjects like calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, etc., written in English to Filipino. The use of English may be thought to carry an air of formality, given its use in school, government and various ceremonies. A percentage of the media such as cable television and newspapers are also in English; major television networks and all AM radio stations are in Filipino.



Advocates of English say that it is the wave of the future, with science, world trade and the Internet become more important every decade. However, Philippine-language advocates respond that although the growing influence of English may be unstoppable, English is an exogenous language that is difficult for the mass of Filipinos to acquire fluently, while tens of millions are acquiring the lingua franca and using it extensively on a daily basis. English will remain a second language in the country, while the endogenous Austronesian languages like Tagalog will come to play a more important role in both speech and writing.



In Hong Kong, English is the dominant language used by Filipino domestic helpers in daily communication. They use English to talk to the agency and their employers since a large number of Hong Kong people are able to speak fluent English. According to the results from our research, about 81% of Filipino domestic helpers use English to communicate with agencies regarding their work matters whereas 67% of them communicate with their employers in English. Most of them believe English as an international language is very important and it is beneficial to speak good English.