Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Culture Shock- Philippines



For those who don't know. I'm a Filipina, married to a Malaysian. Even if we're an Asian couple but there are still a lot of cultural differences between me and my dear husband. So, when my DH stayed in the Philippines for 4 months for a training, he together with our Norwegian classmate experienced some culture shocks. Here are bits and pieces of those 'shocks' they had. Not major culture shocks though, but some are quite amusing. All these are based on their observation, it may be true to all or not. So, no objections from fellow Pinoys please..hhehehe!

1) Filipinos point things or directions using the lips. Ask a Filipino, ( especially those whose hands are full) where the toilet is, and instead of pointing with their point finger, they point with their (puckered) lips matched with a head movement, " The CR ( our term for toilet , a short cut for Comfort Room) is there!" The first time our Norwegian friend saw this, he couldn't believe what he saw and thought the girl, wanted a kiss..hahahah!!

2) Filipinos say YES with our eyebrows. Try this! Move both your eyebrows , up and down, two times. Yes, that it..that's how we say Yes at times. When you ask someone, 'Have you eaten your breakfast yet?'..and then you won't hear a "yes" reply but when you look at the person asked, for sure his/her eyebrows have moved up and down with a little nod on the head. For some non-Filipinos, they would think that we are being flirty with them..

3) Inside the lift, bus or jeepney, Filipinos talk openly, laugh and share jokes in the presence of everyone. There are even times that when a joke is shared between friends inside the jeepney, the other passengers also laugh when the punchline has been said :) In other countries, once they're in the lift or public transport people seldom talk and when they do they whisper and not talk openly as do. So, the lifts/elevators are mostly dead silent even with a lot of people inside.

4) Filipinos cook and eat their fish with its head and tail intact. This was one major shock for our Norwegian friend and the more he got shock when everyone was fighting over who gets to eat the fish head. He said, only cats eat the fish head/tail in their country. But at the end, he also liked eating the fish head.

5) Psssstttttt.........Psssssssssssttttttt... That's how we call each other , our friends and family. In my Hubby's country it's impolite to call anyone like this. So it was a shock for him to hear everyone calling each other with a Psssst!!

That's all that I could think of now..I'll ask more from my Hubby and be updating this later..:)

What about you? Do you have any "culture shock' items that you want to add? Feel free to comment and I'll it up here too. Thanks!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

DOs and DON'Ts in Thailand


If you're planning to come and visit Thailand, it's good to come with the knowledge of what's culturally acceptable or not. Generally, the Thais are very polite. If you offend them in any way, they won't tell you and but instead say, "Mai pen rai' or it's okay even if they're already offended. Here's a compilation (just based in my personal experience) of the things you can do and must not do during your stay or visit.

1) Show your respect towards the Royal Family. The Royal Family is very well respected in this country, therefore as much as possible, don't comment anything may it be good or bad about them. Don't ask controversial issues about them from the local people. It'll greatly offend them and neither talk to you about it.

2) Treat the Thai Baht money ( bill and coins) with 'respect' too. This means, you can't step on the Thai coins with your foot, in case it falls down.The reason? The King's portrait is on the coins as well as the bill, that's why it must be treated with respect. For Filipinos like me, we're used to hand the money, using our right or left hand..but here you'd notice they only give the money using their right hand as they believe that the left hand is for using somewhere else. Their bills here are very clean and no creases, while back home it's not that clean with "wanted penpal/ phone pal' messages all over it and folded 100 times over. :)

3) It's polite to 'wai' back when people 'wai' at you. Wyeing is a sign of respect. It's the folding of arms together like in a prayer gesture and bowing the head slightly.

4) Don't touch anyone's head, specially people older than you. The head is believed to be the most sacred part of the body so, it offends them when you touch their head.

5) Don't point your foot on people. Like when your sitting with your legs crossed, your foot must not point to a person. Just as they consider the head to be the most sacred part of the body, the feet are considered to be the lowest.

6) Don't go out with your hair wet, this is also considered impolite ( I've just learned this recently from a friend).