Archipelagic

Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea franchise is very stimulating. As a Filipino, I am from an archipelagic country, and I can relate to the islander culture and supposedly brown people of magical Earthsea. Publishers market this franchise as sci-fi, but it seems also fantasy—maybe "science fantasy" as some call it.

Source: tatoeba (10518763)

The Philippines is like a blend of Hawaii and Mexico. It was unfortunate that English replaced Spanish as an auxiliary archipelagic language after the decisive Spanish-American War of 1898. I sometimes nickname the Philippines as "Blue Hawaii." In any case, Tagalog seems to be strengthening in the islands, as the common person prefers to watch television in Tagalog rather than English. When I lived there in the 1970s, foreign shows were in English, but local shows in Tagalog. In recent time, American shows, Japanese anime, Korean dramas, etc. become dubbed in Tagalog. With the indigenous language, the Philippines is a highly aural-oral culture, emphasizing television, movies, videos, radio, chit-chat, etc. in lieu of much literature.

Source: tatoeba (10781886)

Of Ursula K. Le Guin's writings, I favour Always Coming Home, in which people live like Native Indians in Northern California in the far future, and her Earthsea series, a magical archipelagic world, where there are brown people. Publishers market her stories as sci-fi.

Source: tatoeba (10996609)

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the Philippine elite started switching from Spanish to English as the archipelagic elitist language, especially in written form, as a consequence of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Meanwhile, indigenous languages have continued to be the aural-oral mainstay, with Spanish loanwords being quite common. In 1937, administration chose Tagalog as the basis of the national language. As time passed, code-switching between English and indigenous languages became more prevalent. As a result, the Philippines is a linguistic hodgepodge. English is like an effervescent pink drink, and Tagalog is a grey shark in the seas. Spanish still rings nostalgically of bygone majestic good ol' days for many Filipinos. Tagalog is still not as fully "intellectualized" as its cousin Indonesian, which Indonesians use in university-level education and has extensive literature.

Source: tatoeba (11218297)