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Dec 22nd, 2024, 4:10am
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Topic: UNIQUELY FILIPINO (Read 6039 times) |
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teagirl
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 Wellington
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carpe diem
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UNIQUELY FILIPINO
« on: Sep 15th, 2004, 3:57pm » |
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This thread is for the unique, wonderful, funny things that we Filipinos do. I hope that the careful observations made by other people or other Filipinos will be met with humor since we all know, we Filipinos love to laugh---even at ourselves.
Its about time we Filipinos let our friends from other countries know who we are behind the poverty, corrupt government and nursing factories.
I would like to invite your thoughts, first hand experiences or your ability to copy/paste if you see articles about the uniqueness of Filipinos or about the Philippines.
Also, any misconceptions that our friends abroad have will be given a chance to be corrected here. My foreign friends, this is your chance to demystify us! Ask questions!
My only request is this: If you see an article about this topic and you didnt write it, please credit the author by including his name here. Be it an ID/ a pseudonym or something that you lifted from the net, let the sources be known. Passing off others' opinions as ours is uncouth. IMHO.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:34pm by teagirl » |
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I love to sing in the shower. I'm good, too! All my shampoos think so.
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teagirl
Beginner
Wellington
# 1046
carpe diem
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Matter of Taste
« Reply #1 on: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:07pm » |
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Matter of Taste
by Matthew Sutherland
I have now been in this country for over six years, and consider myself in most respects well assimilated. However, there is one key step on the road to full asimilation, which I have yet to take, and that's to eat BALUT. The day any of you sees me eating balut, please call immigration and ask them to issue me a Filipino passport. Because at that point there will be no turning back. BALUT, for those still blissfully ignorant non-Pinoys out there, is a fertilized duck egg. It is commonly sold with salt in a piece of newspaper, much like English fish and chips, by street vendors usually after dark, presumably so you can't see how gross it is. It's meant to be an aphrodisiac, although I can't imagine anything more likely to dispel sexual desire than crunching on a partially formed baby duck swimming in noxious fluid.The embryo in the egg comes in varying stages of development, but basically it is not considered macho to eat one without fully discernable feathers, beak, and claws. Some say these crunchy bits are the best. Others prefer just to drink the so-called 'soup', the vile, pungent liquid that surrounds the aforementioned feathery fetus...excuse me; I have to go and throw up now. I'll be back in a minute.
Food dominates the life of the Filipino. People here just love to eat. They eat at least eight times a day. These eight official meals are called, in order: breakfast, snacks, lunch, merienda, pica-pica, pulutan, dinner, and no-one-saw-me-take-that-cookie-from-the-fridge-so-it-doesn't-count. The short gaps in between these mealtimes are spent eating Sky Flakes from the open packet that sits on every desktop. You're never far from food in the Philippines. If you doubt this, next time you're driving home from work, try this game. See how long you can drive without seeing food and I don't mean a distant restaurant, or a picture of food. I mean a man on the sidewalk frying fish balls, or a man walking through the traffic selling nuts or candy. I bet it's less than one minute.
Here are some other things I've noticed about food in the Philippines. Firstly, a meal is not a meal without rice - even breakfast. In the UK, I could go a whole year without eating rice. Second, it's impossible to drink without eating. A bottle of San Miguel just isn't the same without gambas or beef tapa. Third, no one ventures more than two paces from their house without baon and a container of something cold to drink. You might as well ask a Filipino to leave home without his pants on. And lastly, where I come from, you eat with a knife and fork. Here, you eat with a spoon and fork. You try eating rice swimming in fish sauce with a knife.
One really nice thing about Filipino food culture is that people always ask you to SHARE their food. In my office, if you catch anyone attacking their baon, they will always go, "Sir! KAIN TAYO!" ("Let's eat!"). This confused me, until I realized that they didn't actually expect me to sit down and start munching on their boneless bangus. In fact, the polite response is something like, "No thanks, I just ate."
(con't)
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| « Last Edit: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:27pm by teagirl » |
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I love to sing in the shower. I'm good, too! All my shampoos think so.
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teagirl
Beginner
Wellington
# 1046
carpe diem
Gender:
Posts: 87
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Matter of Taste
« Reply #2 on: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:19pm » |
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(con't)
But the principle is sound - if you have food on your plate, you are expected to share it, however hungry you are, with those who may be even hungrier. I think that's great. In fact, this is frequently even taken one step further. Many Filipinos use "Have you eaten yet?" ("KUMAIN KA NA?") as a general greeting, irrespective of time of day or location.
Some foreigners think Filipino food is fairly dull compared to other Asian cuisines. Actually lots of it is very good: Spicy dishes like Bicol Express (strange, a dish named after a train); anything cooked with coconut milk; anything KINILAW; and anything ADOBO. And it's hard to beat the sheer wanton, cholesterolic frenzy of a good old-fashioned LECHON de leche feast. Dig a pit, light a fire, add 50 pounds of animal fat on a stick, and cook until crisp. Mmm, mmm... you can actually feel your arteries constricting with each successive mouthful.
I also share one key Pinoy trait ---a sweet tooth. I am thus the only foreigner I know who does not complain about sweet bread, sweet burgers, sweet spaghetti, sweet banana ketchup, and so on. I am a man who likes to put jam on his pizza. Try it!
It's the weird food you want to avoid. In addition to duck fetus in the half-shell, items to avoid in the Philippines include pig's blood soup (DINUGUAN); bull's testicle soup, the strangely-named "SOUP NUMBER FIVE" (I dread to think what numbers one through four are); and the ubiquitous, stinky shrimp paste, BAGOONG, and it's equally stinky sister, PATIS. Filipinos are so addicted to these latter items that they will even risk arrest or deportation trying to smuggle them into countries like Australia and the USA, which wisely ban the importation of items you can smell from more than 100 paces.
Then there's the small matter of the blue ice cream. I have never been able to get my brain around eating blue food; the ubiquitous UBE leaves me cold.
And lastly on the subject of weird food, beware: that KALDERETANG KAMBING (goat) could well be KALDERETANG ASO (dog)...
The Filipino, of course, has a well-developed sense of food. Here's a typical Pinoy food joke: "I'm on a seafood diet. "What's a seafood diet?" "When I see food, I eat it!"
Filipinos also eat strange bits of animals --- the feet, the head, the guts, etc., usually barbecued on a stick. These have been given witty names, like "ADIDAS" (chicken's feet); "KURBATA" (either just chicken's neck, or "neck and high" as in "neck-tie"); "WALKMAN" (pigs ears); "PAL" (chicken wings); "HELMET" (chicken head); "IUD" (chicken intestines), and BETAMAX" (video-cassette-like blocks of animal blood).
Yum, yum. Bon appetite.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:27pm by teagirl » |
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I love to sing in the shower. I'm good, too! All my shampoos think so.
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teagirl
Beginner
Wellington
# 1046
carpe diem
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Posts: 87
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Filipino Names
« Reply #3 on: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:45pm » |
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Filipino Names
by Matthew Sutherland
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches"
-- (Proverbs 22:1)
WHEN I arrived in the Philippines from the UK six years ago, one of the first cultural differences to strike me was names. The subject has provided a continuing source of amazement and amusement ever since.
The first unusual thing, from an English perspective, is that everyone here has a nickname. In the staid and boring United Kingdom, we have nicknames in kindergarten, but when we move into adulthood we tend, I am glad to say, to lose them.
The second thing that struck me is that Philippine names for both girls and boys tend to be what we in the UK would regard as overbearingly cutesy for anyone over about five. Fifty-five-year-olds colleague put it. Where I come from, a boy with a nickname like Boy Blue or Honey Boy would be beaten to death at school by pre-adolescent bullies, and never make it to adulthood. So, probably, would girls with names like Babes, Lovely, Precious, Peachy or Apples. Yuk, ech ech.
Here, however, no one bats an eyelid. Then I noticed how many people have what I have come to call "door-bell names". These are nicknames that sound like -well, doorbells. There are millions of them. Bing, Bong, Ding, and Dong are some of the more common. They can be, and frequently are, used in even more door-bell-like combinations such as Bing-Bong, Ding-Dong, Ting-Ting, and so on. Even our newly appointed chief of police has a doorbell name Ping. None of these doorbell names exist where I come from, and hence sound unusually amusing to my untutored foreign ear. Someone once told me that one of the Bings, when asked why he was called Bing, replied, "because my brother is called Bong". Faultless logic. Dong, of course, is a particularly funny one for me, as where I come from "dong" is a slang word for well; perhaps "talong" is the best Tagalog equivalent.
Repeating names was another novelty to me, having never before encountered people with names like Len-Len, Let-Let, Mai-Mai, or Ning-Ning. The secretary I inherited on my arrival had an unusual one: Leck-Leck. Such names are then frequently further refined by using the "squared" symbol, as in Len2 or Mai2. This had me very confused for a while.
Then there is the trend for parents to stick to a theme when naming their children. This can be as simple as making them all begin with the same letter, as in Jun, Jimmy, Janice, and Joy.
More imaginative parents shoot for more sophisticated forms of assonance or rhyme, as in Biboy, Boboy, Buboy, Baboy (notice the names get worse the more kids there are-best to be born early or you could end up being a Baboy). Even better, parents can create whole families of, say, desserts (Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Honey Pie) or flowers (Rose, Daffodil, Tulip). The main advantage of such combinations is that they look great painted across your trunk if you're a cab driver. That's another thing I'd never seen before coming to Manila -- taxis with the driver's kids' names on the trunk.
(con't)
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| « Last Edit: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:47pm by teagirl » |
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I love to sing in the shower. I'm good, too! All my shampoos think so.
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teagirl
Beginner
Wellington
# 1046
carpe diem
Gender:
Posts: 87
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Filipino Names
« Reply #4 on: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:48pm » |
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(con't)
Another whole eye-opening field for the foreign visitor is the phenomenon of the "composite" name. This includes names like Jejomar (for Jesus, Joseph and Mary), and the remarkable Luzviminda (for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, believe it or not). That's a bit like me being called something like "Engscowani" (for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Between you and me, I'm glad I'm not.
And how could I forget to mention the fabulous concept of the randomly inserted letter 'h'. Quite what this device is supposed to achieve, I have not yet figured out, but I think it is designed to give a touch of class to an otherwise only averagely weird name. It results in creations like Jhun, Lhenn, Ghemma, and Jhimmy. Or how about Jhun-Jhun (Jhun2)? How boring to come from a country like the UK full of people with names like John Smith.
How wonderful to come from a country where imagination and exoticism rule the world of names.
Even the towns here have weird names; my favorite is the unbelievably named town of Sexmoan (ironically close to Olongapo and Angeles). Where else in the world could that really be true? Where else in the world could the head of the Church really be called Cardinal Sin? Where else but the Philippines!
Note: Philippines has a senator named Joker, and it is his legal name.
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I love to sing in the shower. I'm good, too! All my shampoos think so.
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teagirl
Beginner
Wellington
# 1046
carpe diem
Gender:
Posts: 87
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Why There Can Never Be A Fil-Am US President
« Reply #5 on: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:55pm » |
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10 Reasons Why There Can Never Be A Fil-Am US President:
1. White House is not big enough for the in-laws and extended relatives.
2. Not enough parking spaces at White house for 2 Honda Civics, Toyota Celica, 1985 Mercedes Benz Diesel, BMW (Big Mean Wife), and MPV (My Pinoy Van).
3. Dignitaries are generally intimidated by eating with their fingers at State dinners.
4. Too many dining rooms in the White House - where will they put the Last Supper picture?
5. White House walls are not big enough to hold giant wooden spoon and fork.
6. Secret Service staff won't respond to "pssst, pssst".
7. Secret Service staff are uncomfortable driving the presidential car with a Rosary hanging on the rearview mirror or the statuette of Santo Niño on the dashboard.
8. No budget allocation to purchase karaoke machines in every White House room.
9. State Dinners do not allow "Take Home".
10. Air Force One does not allow overweight Balikbayan boxes.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 15th, 2004, 4:58pm by teagirl » |
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I love to sing in the shower. I'm good, too! All my shampoos think so.
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mylane
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woo hoaaaaa, this is the first time i saw this thread.
Lemme read the other article before I contribute 
good job on this one, Doc May 
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teagirl
Beginner
Wellington
# 1046
carpe diem
Gender:
Posts: 87
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Philippines' Curse
« Reply #7 on: Sep 20th, 2004, 1:31am » |
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Once upon a time in the kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the Archangel found him, resting on the seventh day.
He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?".
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."
"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of earth..
"For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, but cold and harsh while southern Europe is going to be poor but sunny and pleasant."
"I have made some lands abundant in water and other lands parched deserts." "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a group of islands and said, "What are those?" "Ah," said God. "That's the Philippines, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful beaches, rivers, mountains and forests. The people from the Philippines are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent and humorous and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking and high achieving, and they will be known throughout the
world as carriers of peace and love."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance."
God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the idiots I put in the government."
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| « Last Edit: Sep 20th, 2004, 1:35am by teagirl » |
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I love to sing in the shower. I'm good, too! All my shampoos think so.
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nOrKAy
Premier Expert
 Happy Valley
# 130
If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree!
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Re: PROUD TO BE A FILIPINO
« Reply #8 on: Dec 2nd, 2004, 8:55am » |
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I'm not sure if this is the right thread where to post this.
Patricia Evangelista, a 19-year-old, Mass Communications sophomore of
University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman, did the country proud Friday
night by besting 59 other student contestants from 37 countries in the 2004
International Public Speaking competition conducted by the English Speaking
Union (ESU) in London.
She triumphed over a field of exactly 60 speakers from all over the
English-speaking world, including the United States, United Kingdom and
Australia.
The board of judges' decision was unanimous, according to contest chairman
Brian Hanharan of the British Broadcasting Corp.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------
BLONDE AND BLUE EYES
When I was little, I wanted what many Filipino children all over the
country wanted. I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed, and white.
I thought -- if I just wished hard enough and was good enough, I'd wake
upon Christmas morning with snow outside my window and freckles across my
nose!
More than four centuries under western domination does that to you. I have
sixteen cousins. In a couple of years, there will just be five of us left
in the Philippines, the rest will have gone abroad in search of "greener
pastures." It's not just an anomaly; it's a
trend; the Filipino diaspora.
Today, about eight million Filipinos are scattered around the world. There
are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose to leave. I used to. Maybe
this is a natural reaction of someone who was left behind, smiling for
family pictures that get emptier with each succeeding year. Desertion, I
called it. My country is a land that has perpetually fought for the freedom
to be itself. Our heroes offered their lives in the struggle against the
Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans. To pack up and deny that identity is
tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice.
Or is it? I don't think so, not anymore. True, there is no denying this
phenomenon, aided by the fact that what was once the other side of the
world is now a twelve-hour plane ride away. But this is a borderless world,
where no individual can claim to be purely from where he is now. My mother
is of Chinese descent, my father is a quarter Spanish, and I call myself a
pure Filipino-a hybrid of sorts resulting from a combination of cultures.
Each square mile anywhere in the world is made up of people of
differentethnicities, with national identities and individual
personalities. because of this, each square mile is already a microcosm of
the world. In as much as this blessed spot that is England is the world, so
is my neighborhood back home.
Seen thi s way, the Filipino Diaspora, or any sort of dispersal of
populations, is not as ominous as so many claim. It must be understood. I
come from a Third World country, one that is still trying mightily to get
back on its feet after many years of dictatorship. But we shall make it,
given more time. Especially now, when we have thousands of eager young
minds who graduate from college every year. They have skills. They need
jobs. We cannot absorb them all.
A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not so
much abandonment but an extension of identity.Even as we take, we give
back. We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support the UK's National Health
Service. We are the quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of the
world's commercial ships. We are your software engineers in Ireland, your
construction workers in the Middle East, your doctors and caregivers in
North America, and, your musical artists in London's Wes t End.
Nationalism isn't bound by time or place. People from other nations migrate
to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they are. British
society is itself an example of a multi-cultural nation, a melting pot of
races, religions, arts and cultures. We are, indeed, in a borderless world!
Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It's coming back that is. The
Hobbits of the shire travelled all over Middle-Earth, but they chose to
come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call people like these
balikbayans or the 'returnees' -- those who followed their dream, yet
choose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune.
In a few years, I may take advantage of whatever opportunities come my way.
But I will come home. A borderless world doesn't preclude the idea of a
home. I'm a Filipino, and I'll always be one. It isn't about just
geography; it isn't about boundaries. It's about
giving back to the country that shaped me.
And that's going to be more important to me than seeing snow outside my
windows on a bright Christmas morning.
Mabuhay and Thank you.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 2nd, 2004, 9:03am by nOrKAy » |
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nOrKAy
Premier Expert
Happy Valley
# 130
If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree!
Gender:
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Re:INSULTS FOR FILIPINOS
« Reply #9 on: Dec 2nd, 2004, 9:30am » |
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This is a hate letter coming from a radio talk show host Mr. Art Bell from
Nevada. I don't consider myself as patriotic but PLEASE READ THE REPLY OF A FILIPINA WRITTEN IN BOLD LETTERS AFTER AFTER READING THE WHOLE LETTER.
This is an open letter email by Art Bell, a radio talk show host in
Nevada(more info in the email itself). Here is yet another person who has
taken advantage of his power and privilege to use hateful words and racial
stereotypes that breed further ignorance and intolerance in our society.
Art Bell is a talk radio host who has two shows that he broadcasts from his
home in Nevada, that is rebroadcast by 400 stations across the country.
He's written 2 books. He lived in Okinawa, Japan for some years and had a
radio program on the English station here. And, though it's hard to believe
after reading the following letter from him, he actually has been to the
Philippines (he's traveled fairly extensively around the world).
Check out his website listed at the end to get a who's spreading this
hateful ignorance. And letter is so degrading, I think it's really
important that everybody read this and not attack him, but respond to him
in a civilized manner because otherwise his thoughts will be reaffirmed.
Understand that not everyone has a viewpoint like we do, and that this is
an opinion of someone who hopefully can be changed only by civil actions. -
May Munoz
...............................................
Filipinos.....*make me puke* (Art Bell)
As we've all come to notice, in the past few decades, Filipinos have begun
to infest the United States like some sort of disease. Their extensive
involvement in the U.S. Armed Forces is proof of the trashy kind of
qualities all filipinos tend to exhibit on a regular basis. You can see
this clearly by studying the attitudes and cultural Icons of most Filipino
Americans.
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