Acculturation is defined as “the process and effect of significant change through mutual borrowing and adaptations by people of different cultures in contact with some continuity.
This paper deals mainly with the factors that cause acculturation of the Vietnamese, and their impact on the diversification of Puerto Princesa’s culture. This paper tries to evaluate if affecting or influencing a certain cultural perception will create positive results to both heritage and host cultures. It also looks into the positive or negative responses of the Vietnamese as they get accultured to the host city, thus, discovering ways to manage cultural conflicts and understanding others’ cultures. Thus, sociocultural factors as language, food, communication styles and behavioral patterns are looked into and used as contexts to determine how the
Vietnamese operate in the local community and thus speed up their acculturation and accommodation. Puerto Princesa is a city located in the western provincial island of Palawan, Philippines. Though the provincial seat of government for Palawan, the city itself is one of 38 independent cities within the Philippines not controlled by the province in which it is geographically located and is therefore an independent area located within Palawan.
As of 2010, Puerto Princesa had a population of 222,673 people, making it the least densely populated city in the Philippines. In terms of land area, the city is the second largest geographically after Davao City.
Today, Puerto Princesa is a popular tourist city with many beach resorts and seafood restaurants. It has been acclaimed several times as the cleanest and greenest city in the
Philippines
Waves of migrants from other Philippine provinces, and even other countries, have turned
Puerto Princesa into a melting pot of various cultures. Among the original inhabitants are the
Cuyonons who have a rich legacy of folklore and traditions.
Vietnamese Influence in Puerto Princesa City
Vietnamese boat people refers to refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship after the Vietnam
War, especially during 1978 and 1979, but continuing until the early 1990s. The term
“Vietnamese Boat People” is often used generically to relate to all the Vietnamese (about 2 million) who left their country by any means or method between 1975 and 1995. They fled to
Philippines for only one reason, to escape the communist state.
Viet-Ville, a small community of Vietnamese refugees in the Western Philippine island of
Palawan, has stood as a symbol of local hospitality and tolerance. Indeed, it has become a tourist attraction, providing a taste of Vietnamese culture and French-Vietnamese cuisine to both local and foreign visitors.
Some own bakeries in town, others own noodle restaurants or offer home-made jewelry and camp-grown vegetables at the local market.

Cultural patterns focus on the actions, behaviors and values of individuals. These are conditions that contribute to how people perceive and think about the world, and the manner in which they live. Generally, Vietnamese gained more self-confidence, self-improvement and selfexpression. They have learned to be more friendly, cheerful and fun to talk to. Similarly, their value for education has been heightened, taking their studies more seriously and responsibly.
On the other hand, Puerto Princesans were influence of the Vietnamese culture particularly their own food (French breed and chaolong).
As to Douglas Brown’s Acculturation Theory (1994), which explains the process on how the original or heritage culture is changed by several cultural factors, the Vietnamese worldview, self-identity and systems of thinking, acting, feeling, values, beliefs, perceptions and communicating are not totally disrupted by their stay in Puerto Princesa. Normally, it also goes to say that their heritage culture has been tainted by the host culture’s values, beliefs, perceptions and patterns of communication.
Nowadays, at Viet-Ville, the restaurant still serves food but only the cook is Vietnamese. The waitresses and the general manager are Filipinos; so are the security guards, the souvenir shop operators and the workers manning the French bakery. A stage where village residents once entertained restaurant patrons with Vietnamese music now has only traditional instruments on display. The musicians have all departed.