Observations on Filipinos abroad!

[FutureUSRN]

I've been to the US several times as a tourist and have observed some noticeable things about my fellow countrymen.

1. We now realized the difference between the red, amber, and green lights.

2. We also began to understand that the striped lines along the road is where the pedestrian crossing is.

3. We learned how to greet other people, look straight in their eyes, and say "how are you doing?".

4. We learned how to pay taxes properly.

5. We now understand that flashing our headlights means "I'm letting others pass first!" and not "hey, make me pass first"!

6.

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8.

You may add your observations too!

[lavalin]

Sometimes happiness is as simple as being able to buy a handful of baég (about 50 grams at Php10) to put in a pot of pakbet (pinakbet), or mix in a stew of balatóng (munggo, mung beans) sauteed with chopped, ripe tomatoes.

It becomes a joy, really, because the tree, or more appropriately the woody, high-growing shrub, bears only seasonally these light-green, textured, long spindly flowers that turn into a vegetable for us Northerners (Ilocanos and Pangasinenses).

[Rep]

My children were all borned in the Philippines and we talk to them in Filipino although my wife and I speak with our own regional dialect (Chavacano). Our purpose is that once they go back to the Philippines, they can easily converse with any Filipino and also that we value our roots. My two older children are going to school here and and day by day their English is improving. But once at home, its Chavacano and Filipino except during study time then we use English for them to better understand the lessons.

filipinos who grew up in the philippines have not forgotten to speak filipino. its passing the language on to their kids that they have forgotten. thats my pet peeve. in my family we have made it a point that the kids have to learn how to speak filipino. besides, knowing more languages develops ones mind.

[suzanne4, RN]

calamansi (philippine lemon) and "balut" are not available here in NY. not sure if it is available in the west coast......

to my surprise, "isaw" and "chicharon bulaklak" are available here.....my uncle cooks great tasting "sisig" by the way :biggringi

Everything is available in the west coast, particularly the Philippine Markets.

[kalayaan]

and can we get a decent filipino supermarket puh-leaase.

[kalayaan]

other observations:

-- to the catholics, we have to raise our held hands before the end of the Our Father. never fails to amuse me.

-- sisig cooked here without pig ears, liver, etc.

-- its ok to keep brown skin here. in pi, most want to have fair skin. there are a lot of brown pinoys here in west coast.

-- theres tilapia in fridays

-- tilapia fillet is available in markets, but theyre not from pi

-- ube ice cream is $4 a scoop

-- mango cake for a wedding cake means you spent a lot of money on cake

-- when you pay for something you get all your change down to the last penny. in pi, you lose anywhere from 5-15 cents bec we dont have pennies anymore.

[Rep]

Well, I just ate my lunch and our viand was sisig. My wife bought it at Island Pacific in Union City. Hey, it contains a lot of pig ears but no liver.

There are fish farms in Mexico where Filipino stores source their tilapia. A Mexican friend of mine told me this that they have a farm in Mexico where they raise tilapia.

I agree the pennies here have values unlike in the Philippines where our 1 centavo coints are worthless.

Most whites here want to get a tan and some Filipinos are trying to do the opposite. It is a colonial mentality when these Filipinos equate whiteness to superiority.

Selecta and Magnolia ice creams are expensive here compare to American brands.

I missed Philippine mangoes because the ones they sell here are not as sweet as Philippines mangoes..

other observations:

-- sisig cooked here without pig ears, liver, etc.

-- its ok to keep brown skin here. in pi, most want to have fair skin. there are a lot of brown pinoys here in west coast.

-- theres tilapia in fridays

-- tilapia fillet is available in markets, but theyre not from pi

-- ube ice cream is $4 a scoop

-- mango cake for a wedding cake means you spent a lot of money on cake

-- when you pay for something you get all your change down to the last penny. in pi, you lose anywhere from 5-15 cents bec we dont have pennies anymore.

[Rep]

and can we get a decent filipino supermarket puh-leaase.

By the way, are you in the west coast?

[kalayaan]

By the way, are you in the west coast?

yup. what i mean is the pinoy supermarkets ive been to, i wont name them here though, are not as clean and nice looking as the japanese ones or regular supermarkets.

[Rep]

yup. what i mean is the pinoy supermarkets ive been to, i wont name them here though, are not as clean and nice looking as the japanese ones or regular supermarkets.

I know what you mean. When my wife and I entered our first Filipino store, I said to her we are back in the Philippines. :rotfl:

But there are other Asian stores that I been to that are not as clean and nice looking.

[Aquarian]

I am used to cooking Adobo with calamansi (and using it as facial astringent as well ) . Substituting it with lemon (in adobo) , is ugh! Anyway, what I do whenever I go to US (East Coast) is bring the concentrated one you can buy from Greenhills Tiangge (the kind without the honey,of course!). In Australia I was once asked to throw my "baon" of calamansi in the green thrash can at the port of entry.

[FutureUSRN]

I am going to Ca. this coming week to accompany my husband as he will attend a training....

Is it alright to bring "dried" calamias and big Parol with lighting effects? I'm afraid there might be a problem at the customs in LAX.

[mmom51]

TOEFLE is only good for reading and writing. So many people whose first language is not English have difficulty with the idiom , or local colloquialism. or for those of you with word limitation Slang. It's a dodgy business when people cannot distinguish or understand metaphor. Puts patients at risk, Conversational English is possiblty better to aim at, at least you will be able to understand the locals. I asked an >>> Doctor (no country mentioned) if his last maid had died from exhaustion because he kept clicking his fingers at me and demanding that I attend to him yesterday

Know what his answer was

Yes you guessed correctly

" She's not dead" AAAAAAAH!:smackingf