The Other Side Of The Coin!

[i am bob]

 

Filipinos are usually very polite, and try not to offend foreigners openly

 

I don't notice Filipinos being any more or less polite than Canadians where I am from.  I see them trying not to offend visitors to their country openly in the same way Canadians try not to offend visitors openly (even Americans Hee Hee).  I see filipinos joking with each other when the visitor is out of hearing and now that I have been here a long time I even get included in the joke (told to me by the ones who speak English).

 

The point of all this is I see no difference between filipinos and Canadians in this matter.

 

Some of the things the local filipinos talk to me about are:  Foreigners who loudly and openly 'go after' some young girl who is then embarrassed by all the public attention.  (They talk about how the foreigner should learn some of the local customs about being discrete in such things.)  Foreigners who complain because some goods or services are not available to them here.  (They talk about this being Philippines and the foreigner should realize this is how things are here.)  Foreigners who assume some filipino would be happy to wash their car for 50 pesos,  (They talk about foreigners learning the social structure of the country and that guy is a mason not a car wash guy and he would rather be an unemployed mason who is between jobs than an employed car washer.)

 

 

:AddEmoticons04230:

[Thomas]

Of course no one person  nor any group is always right.

What?! I thought you and I are allways right  :)

(I mean when I'm stubborn about it. Well. I have been wrong 6 times in life, when I have been stubborn too. E g when I were small kid and my father had joked fooled me the singing style is pronounced canón instead of cánon, and I believed he sure had told me corect, he being half profesional musician, so I disagreed when my teacher told I were wrong   :lol:

In my own dealings in the Philippines, I have found that there is minimal deductive reasoning / problem solving skills.

Well. Many Pinoys have problem solving skill, but it's at an other level. Many Pinoys are good at repairing things we count as junk, or they make something ELSE of it !  :)  

(E g making stoves of junk cans.)

And in average they are BETTER than westerners at taking care of family.

So while I can see that I and others like me are thought of as 'rude', the reality is that if you show a dog how to do something, enough times, the dog finally gets it! If you are right, you are right! So rather than accept that the foreigner is right, which then means that someone else (the Pinoy) is wrong, and rather than learn from this and give credit where credit is due, the foreigner is then labled as 'rude'.

Well. Such can be told in rude or unrude ways in western messure too, some kanos ARE realy rude,

BUT I agree it's crazy Asians count it as rude to tell even very bad behaving people they do wrong   :bash:

(I told an example recently in an other topic how one sister had wasted the whole family land by having big parties, and gpong on with it, expected the sibblings save the land by do most of the paying!!!   :th_unfair:

An other example I heared just a few days ago. A brother work abroad and send money to the upbringing of his sons, wife and sons living with an aunt. I don't know reason why he send the money to the youngest sisters.  Anyway she refuse to further the money either to the wife or the aunt "because she don't want to"!!! The family go on only SOFTLY ADVICE her to pay, instead of telling her sharp she has to...  :bash: 

So, while there are some Pinoys who think I am rude....... I also have a very high succes rate in accomplishing what I am setting out to do. Damned if I do and damned if I don't. For those of your career military guys...... Depending on your rank, do you REALLY expect a please and thank you and hand holding and a detailed explanation of each and every damn order you are given? Is the person telling you what to do want to be rude? Or perhaps do they have a bigger picture or higher level of responsibility and a job to get done!

Well. I don't know effectivity level of military in other countries, but in Sweden we use military as example of how to do things extreemly NOT effective   :lol:

Actualy in Sweden in the most effective companies we say "please"   :)  and even involve all employees in deciding.

(=The bosses decide the BIG decisions as company goals and system, but everyone are involved in deciding details how to reach the goals. = "Flat" organisation with few or no middle bosses.) That's slower to start, but in many cases it become much more effective in the long run, specialy in develop and service companies, because then are much more brain capacity used and faster "local" decisions than in old style "Pyramid" companies, plus biger chance to get employees committed.

[Adventurer]

Great topic, I have been thinking the same thing myself lately. We can often look at things like how Filipinos act strange like on Facebook twisting their fingers in really weird poses but maybe they think the same when they see foreigners walking along the street dressed like goofy with a big money bag on their stomach, their baggy cargo shorts, big tennis shoes and sweating like a pig lol.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Adventurer

[Bruce]

We can often look at things like how Filipinos act strange like on Facebook twisting their fingers in really weird poses

 

Maybe you want to take another look at those really weird finger poses.......

 

I have watched the social changes in the 4 years I have been going to Phils. The music went from a electronic / mildly distorted vocals in 2009 to a manufactured dance heavy base beat music in 2010-2011 to now, (sadly) rap music. I see more tattoos on younger people now than 4 years ago and if you take a few steps back to examine what you are seeing, you notice that the Philippine people are simply copying what they see in music videos, video games and movies. They are copying Americans....... bad Americans......

 

Such as gang signs when photographed. They may not realize it or understand the negative and destructive behaviors that go along with gang life, but they see the videos and others on facebook making the gestures.... so they copy them.  While there is gang activity in Manila and Cebu.... there are far more kids who see the hand signs and simply copy them because they think it is cool and they want to belong to the cool class of people.

 

I think that most of us 'older' forum members do our own thing and are not really aware in detail of that the younger people are doing. But, as I have 10 computers set up for use on Samar in a small café, I see what the kids are logged onto and the music they download and the groups of them standing in front of a computer all watching some American made music video and copying the dance moves and the cussing and the hand signs.

 

In riding my motorcycle around, I hear Hey Joe 100 times a day. But now, I also hear a "F**k You and other American sayings, yelled at me by kids, who are really just copying what they see in the music videos. 4 years ago, I never heard a kid yell at me as I rode by.... 'You want to eat S**T?' in Waray language. But I hear it now at least once a day. These kinds of social behaviors by younger kids are learned behaviors. They see on the TV, they learn or adapt it to their language and then they act out in the same way as they see the people in the videos act out.

 

So I think that those of you who have spent a lot more time in Phils can also comment on the social changes they have seen over the years with the population copying (negatively) what they see from American TV, music videos and video games. I do not expect it to get any better..... While not common, I have seen a few kids with their pants falling off.... just like those darling American kids... in the videos. However I bet not one of those kids realize what they are copying started in American prisons when the inmates were not allowed belts and were given over sized pants because it occupied at least one hand to hold them up all the time. Now it is some social comment we are told.... Funny how kids copy negative behaviors and not positive behaviors...... Very few kids want to copy A grade students or math teachers.....

 

Gang Signs

 

Gang Signs

 

 

 

 

  Hand signs used by gang members to identify their membership
or to antagonize members of other gangs.

.  The "Primo" Sign"Power"
"Victory"  Number One
 Piru Sign: "Blood" Kitchen Crip

 Bishop Brims
 
 "C": Crip "C-C": Compton Crip
 "U": Underground Crip "H": Harlem Crip
 
 

[i am bob]

Hehe!!! Bruce, you sound just like my mom... in the year 1965. " Kids these days! They dress so strangely! The hair! And what's with that hand thing? Piece sign? What's that suppose to mean? Piece of what?" ;)

[Thomas]

It reminds me of when Nixon was American president and had a speach in public an arabic country and happily made a hand sign, which for arabs means something like "Go and ?????? yourself homosexual style"   :hystery:    Not so popular in countries, where it's a crime to have homosexual relations...