As you know (I’m assuming, since it’s on my about page and all), I am a Filipino – someone who came from the Philippines. Since the Philippines is such a small country, a lot of people have probably never heard of it or if they had, they know little about it and its people, so I thought I’d share some trivia about us because one fun fact about me: I totes love trivia! (Nerd alert!) So here we go!
(1) We eat rice with all our meals.
Well not all all, but whenever we serve Filipino cuisine. When you don’t eat rice, people will ask you why, are you on a diet? And say things like, “How can you handle it?? I would die if I had to give up rice.”
I even have a guy friend who, after eating pizza for dinner, would still eat rice when he gets home because he doesn’t feel full without it.
(2) We are warm, friendly folks.
When I still lived in the Philippines, foreigners would always gush about how warm and friendly we were. I always thought that was a weird comment to make until I moved here and realized what they were talking about.
On an acquaintance level, people here are friendly enough, but you just don’t see it on the street level. Am I making any sense? I mean if you wander in the malls and restaurants, don’t expect the customer service people to smile at you.
Whenever I go home to the Philippines, I always experience a reverse culture shock when random security guards and sales ladies greet me “good morning ma’am!” with a happy smile. That rarely, or even never, happens here.
(3) Our middle names are not chosen.
I know most western folk have middle names chosen by their parents, but Filipinos’ middle names are their mothers’ surnames. We usually write it as an initial in school and official documents.
So if your parents are named Juan Cruz and Anna Santos, you would be Ann S. Cruz. You could have more than one first name, though, like Mary Ann S. Cruz.
(4) We have strange nicknames.
The most common nicknames are Boy and Baby. My dad’s nickname is Boy, actually. And I have an aunt and a godmother nicknamed Baby. It’s kinda weird when they grow up and they’ll be called Daddy Boy and Grandma Baby, no?
Other common nicknames are repeat syllables of some version of our names. Like Lalang, Bobong, Tata, Letlet.
And a lot of people go by nicknames which are completely different from their official names. Like me, I’m “Ga” at home.
(5) Most of us can understand and speak English.
When I was in school, 6 out of the 8 subjects I had to take every year were taught in English. This is why I find it easier to read in English and I reading lengthy articles and books in Filipino gives me a headache.
Speaking is a different matter, though, we still speak in our local language, so when we speak in straight English to each other, we feel awkward (yes, even here in Singapore).
We are also heavily influenced by the American culture thanks to their books and TV shows and movies, so even children can speak English well.
(6) Most of us are bilingual.
As I said, we have to learn English and Tagalog, the national language, in school, so most of us know at least two languages. But the Philippines has around 175 languages (according to the graph below) so some of us know more.
Like me; I know a total of 4. My parents both speak Bisaya, so that was the first language I learned because that’s what we use at home. But they were both from elsewhere and moved to my hometown, which has a different language, Chavacano, which I had to learn too. It’s actually the Spanish-based creole one mentioned below, so it’s made up of a lot of Spanish words in a different grammar, so I guess I know a bit of Spanish too.
Source: Wikipedia |
(7) We are very family-centered
Parents pay for kids’ tuitions even until college. And kids don’t move out of their parents’ homes even when they’re all grown up and working, unless they moved elsewhere or got married. And even then, some still no.
We take care of our parents when we’re the ones who are already working. A lot of Filipinos sacrifice by working abroad, just so they can provide for their families back home.
Did you already know these about Filipinos? What are some of the fun facts about your nationality?