Things Other Foreigners Do That Made You Cringe or Shake Your Head

Not sure what the deal is tbh - P3700 for a 1.5 - 2 hour journey without NLEX/ Skyway if it was a few years ago from Angeles to Paranaque seems a fair fare.

Taxi needs to pay for gas also.

So 65 USD to travel 105 km in a cab seems fair.

I think you'd be hard pushed to find a cheaper ride.

Unless you were in Angeles

I tried to keep it light.

When you buy a bunch of stuff at Citi Hardware you need a lot of patience. Everything is checked 3 times against the sales receipt, the last check is by a manager. The boxes are also opened to check for missing or damaged parts and anything electrical is plugged in to demonstrate it is in working order at the time of purchase.

Last time I was in the Naval branch there was a big guy loudly complaining about how much time it was taking, why the receipt was gone over multiple times and was arguing about charges which turned out to be his misunderstanding of how the items were tallied. He sounded like an American, no surprise there.

The employees were busy doing their job as quickly as possible and averting their gaze as if they weren't hearing this loud mouth. They are paid P325 a day, not enough to put up with that crap. After the loud mouth left the store I told the cashier that we aren't all like that and she smiled, but did not comment.

My wife and I are well liked in that store. The guys and girls who work there are very helpful, even pushing our cart for us. I don't think they are allowed to accept tips so I always park beyond the last camera so she can give the guys who carry our purchases to the car P100 each on the blind side of the SUV.

@Bezph

I think what stands out is that you can hire a private car for less.  2,500 at the most is doable.

one time a foreigner was walking at the edge of a reef wile every one was warning him this was dangerous and even local ppl dont do this as there are cracks in the reef that are hidden by algees , even i warned him as i knew the place very well and i free dived there manny times and i was aware of some strong currents in some spots ,but he cept ignoring all warnings from those who knew and cept beeing an AH up to a point my wife sayd he was risking he's life so i answered her than may be he diserves wath ever happens to him and i wood not lift a finger and risk my own life for him .

in my country there's a saying ;who dont lissen must feel it .

in the end he got thursty so he came back to the beach to fil his stupid guts with beer and we went a bit futher so we were no longer bothered by his presence.

I really need to add to this as an American.  I live in Mindanao. And yes! I have seen Americans, Europeans, and Canadians, which makes me cringe. They are not just visitors. They live in the province and act poorly with a condensing demeanor. So the locals take the examples of these poorly behaved foreigners, never visiting a foreign land to make an assessment, as an example to judge an entire culture. I live in Mindanao, and it was not by choice. But because I wanted to make my wife happy, whom I've been married to for thirty years.  So, in summary:

• I walk out of a tricycle when you want to charge me 100 pesos for a 20 peso ride.
• I got used to being stared at as though I am from another planet.
• I do not shop unless you list your price on a product or service beforehand.
• I've learned to speak basic Tagalog and negotiate (It puts them on the defensive)
• I couldn't care less if you stared at me with the "I don't like you, foreigner!" I'm from New York. I'm used to that.
• And if I am going to live like an American in a 3rd World country by spending money like I am still in an American economy, I will be more than happy to return to the US.

Special Note: Not all Filipinos are this way. You need to know how to handle the ones that are.

Lonely Wolf

@LoneWolfNY "I've learned to speak basic Tagalog and negotiate (It puts them on the defensive)".

And you live in Mindanao. However, Mindanao is in the Visayas where Cebuano dialects are spoken and many have not even learned Tagalog. Maybe that's why they're on the defensive.😂

Just that we don't get lost in the Philippines:

The country can be divided into three main areas: Luzon (the largest, northernmost island, which includes Manila); a group of islands called the Visayas (including the major islands Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, and Masbate); and Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines, found at the southern end of the archipelago.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trav … 20southern

@Jackson4 Everybody I have ever met from Mindanao spoke Visayan (Cebuano). Duterte from Davao spoke Visayan. Southern Mindanao regions in Zamboanga speak a dialect of Spanish but that is only a small group of people. Tagalog is the language of the North, mainly Luzon. Of course there are other languages like Ilocano spiken in the Ilocos region. So, I will correct myself to the extent that Mindanao is not considered part if the Visayas even though Visayan is the major dialect spoken in most of that region. I am somewhat familiar with Visayan but will probably never become fluent because so many people know basic English. I do know enough to communicate with household helpers who never really learned any English (including helpers fron Mindanao). 

@dirk.c.

Nice to have you back Dirk. Are you Flemish or Walloon?

My wife was born and raised in Leyte where Cebuano and Waray Waray are the main dialects and she is fluent in both languages, but she is also fluent in Tagalog as is her siblings and parents. Her nieces and nephews are also able to communicate in Tagalog thanks to the "Filipino" subject in school. If a person from the southern provinces never attended school they probably can not speak Tagalog very well unless they spent time up north.

It is amazing how well the young students speak English, which is also a subject in school. My 5 year old niece who was born and raised in Tacloban prefers English as her first language. My 20 year old nephew, who I'm putting through college at this time, says he learned most of his English from watching cartoons as a child. My 15 year old niece speaks English without an accent but her first language is Waray while her siblings prefer Cebuano.

We do have a dilemma on our hands that I'm not sure how to deal with. We are adopting a child who is now 27 months old. He was 8 months old when he came to live with us full time. The little guy is sharp as a tack and he is putting together sentences now, but only in English. He doesn't know a word of his native language. I can even detect a little of my West Virginia accent in his pronunciation. This is likely to be a problem when he begins school since classes will be taught in Cebuano.

If you put him in a private school it will be English. I put my girlfriend's son into a Catholic school and he thrived in that environment, after I taught him to read, lol. But that was in Cebu City, where you wouldn't put any kid into a public school if you wanted them to learn. They also taught Filipino in school and she reinforces that at home, but I always felt English would serve him better in the long run, and in fact it seems to be.

Edit: I see we are off topic, might be a good thread topic, Moondog.

@kristopherryanwatson pffft, Hell in 1985 I was a merchant Marine and got off a ship in Subic. Took an extra month off to carouse (other more descriptive words come to mind) .  Took a girl to Bagio for a few days. We took the bus up. But the ride back? Hell no, lets take a taxi!.

@Moon Dog Trust me, it won't be a problem when your kid goes to school. Speaking from experience.

My ex-wife and I adopted a boy from Leyte. When we came to Philippines to pick him up, he was about 5 and spoke maybe 3 words of English. Mother in law to the rescue. My ex understood Tagalog, and some Visayan, but didn't really speak it. We thought we would home school him to teach English. So she took him down to the regular school to talk to them and get papers. While doing so, she let him go off and play with the kiddies. They watched as he got along happily and great. Instantly we decided he'd learn there at the school. And he did. Very well I might add.

@danfinn I know enough Visayan to get through. Not as much as I want to. 80% of the people in Mindanao understand me. 50% speak Tagalog. I'll tell you this much; they understand money and the difference between yes and no. I got it where I can come out of the mall to get a tricycle, and they don't crowd me anymore. " barato nga Amerikano" in Visayan means "Cheap American." And I like it.

@LoneWolfNY Well the price of a tricyle ride should be fixed. There is one fare for other people sharing the ride and a higher fare if you don't share. So that is fixed and no reason to call anybody barato unless they expect a tip. I agree with you. A tip is not required and totally voluntary but they would never get a tip from me if they typically call foreigners barato..

Getting back to the original subject of the post, I don't like Manila, as far as I'm concerned Manila is only good for one thing, transferring from an international flight to a domestic flight, Whenever I pass through Manila I stay at Nichols Airport Hotel because it's inexpensive and very near to all of the terminals of NAIA. I have had so many bad experiences with Manila taxi drivers that I no longer want to visit Mall of Asia and the other fantastic malls they have there. But on the one occasion that I had to stay in Manila, (because just before I flew in a typhoon arrived) and it was then I witnessed some really bad behavior from a foreigner in that hotel

During my enforced stay on this particular occasion, there was an American guest staying there who had a hired a taxi driver 24/7 at his beck and call who would take him from one bar to another and after every bar visit he would bring a bar girl back to the hotel.

Then on the third day of my stay, he returned to the hotel from Mall of Asia (with a bar girl in tow) and he was very angry because when he was in Mall of Asia, he tried to withdraw some cash from an ATM and his card was refused. When he returned to the hotel (drunk as usual) he demanded that the hotel reception staff call his bank in the USA and sort it out. Well the hotel staff tried to be helpful, they even sent someone out to buy some sort of international phone card so he could call his bank and sort it out, but even though they told him "it's your bank, they will only speak to you" he was insistent that he was guest at the hotel and they should sort it out for him, it was their responsibility. I am totally amazed by (under such extreme pressure and abuse) how well and how patiently the hotel staff dealt with him.

@danfinn I'm ok with it. I do tip, but it's totally at my discretion. For example, I saw a woman tricycle driver, and she just sat there. The only woman in a line of men trying to get clients. So I walked by all the men trying to invite me into their tricycles and told her where I wanted to go. I asked her, "Magkano" (How much?). She said, "20 pesos, sir!" which was the correct price. So I sat in her tricycle, and we went to my destination. She was rough around the edges, sweaty, and exhausted.  She cut through the traffic and weaved through the lanes like any aggressive male tricycle driver I've ridden with. Man, I was impressed and told her in my New York City slang, "You Go, Girl!". So in my mind, I'm thinking single mom hustling to feed her kid. When we arrived at my destination, I gave her the 20 pesos and told her to hold on. In my bag, I have a little pouch full of one pesos coins I keep after purchases. (Nice to have if you want to give someone an extra tip.) I gave her the pouch, which contained about 100 peso coins.  She smiled at me, and I told her, "Ikaw ay lady boss." (You are Lady Boss.) Referring to men pushing her to the back of the line when looking for clients.

So my only issue here is being looked at as a walking dollar sign. But I am very familiar and respect hard grinding work like I had to go through. For this, I am no longer "Murang Amerikano!" (Cheap Amerikan!)

Loney Wolf NYC

@Lotus Eater flamish but i speak french to had to was belgian navy 20 yrs so on the ship french as wel as dutch and english was needed to comunicate he

@Larry Fisher

Oh i like that type of story!

May i ask - whatever happened to your then fair maiden ?

@FindlayMacD

Just wow!   that is a crazy story.

I cannot believe i  did not think of this sooner, but your story just now  reminds me of something i saw in walking street just a few months ago. A loud, belligerent older Aussie guy was throwing a tantrum because the bar girl (i am presuming) that was with him, was talking to another guy. I distinctly remember something about He proposing to Her and discussions of a ring if she would stop talking to any other guy but him...my gosh!

haha.  I suspect that this kind of thing does happen with older men who just seem so utterly (and hopelessly) in love with a girl that he just had an escapade with just the night before.

(Okay, perhaps they were a new couple, but that sort of irrational, infatuated  behavior from Older men in circumstances like that, DO happen)

Anyway, it was quite an awkward spectacle.  I remember leaving shortly after the security of the establishment (it was a Cafe - i can't remember which one) was required to come break up the drama.

@Larry Fisher
Oh i like that type of story!
May i ask - whatever happened to your then fair maiden ?
-@kristopherryanwatson

Divorce.

@Moon Dog OMG. Poor little fella ending up with a West Virginia accent. I visited Charleston and the person who met me off the plane greeted me with "L'ow y'all". I thought "Hello, Deliverance here we come" And he was one of the educated WVs

@Gezzar Charleston has an airport?

Gezzar said . . . . Poor little fella ending up with a West Virginia accent. I visited Charleston and the person who met me off the plane greeted me with "L'ow y'all". I thought "Hello, Deliverance here we come" And he was one of the educated WVs

************************************************

Unfortunately Gezzar the film Deliverance takes place on the Chattooga River which borders Georgia & S. Carolina.

Now if you hadn't chewed on a Marsh Wheeling Stogie Cigar you're missing a treat. They are the oldest cigar company going back to 1840.

Meanwhile . . . . .I lived in Pittsburgh PA in 1978 to 2005 and WVA was just a short drive away. I had visited Mountaineer Racino several times. Their slots/pokies were so tight you could hear them squeak. During that time Mountaineer was fined $20,000 per month because their slots/pokies did not pay the minimum per law. The casino gladly paid the fine as the tight machines easily covered the fines.

I also visited the Wheeling Dog track many times for the Saturday matinee and dined in the club house. The dog track would give away Used Cars in drawings.

Now for a word about the people of WVA, they are the friendliest people you would ever meet. As a sales manager I was training a salesperson in Fairmont WVA home of Mary Lou Renton, winner of many medals in the 1984 Olympics. The city had to remove the signage of "Home of Mary Lou Retton" because people were stealing them.

Making cold calls during training we wore suits or sport jackets. It was so hot we removed our jackets and were in shirts & ties. Our attire was not common for these small businesses. I remember one sales call we were greeted look, shirts & ties, what do you want to sell us. Almost in 100% of the sales calls the business owners allowed us to do a product demonstration. In the Pittsburgh area maybe 35% on a good day.

We had the highest closing rate in Fairmont WVA than in my entire career in sales. As manager I wrote the orders in the new salespersons name in order for him to received the full commissions. Afterwords I had to explain to him don't expect the closing rate to be this good in the future.

WVA gets bad press not deserved, the people are the friendliest people I ever met.

@Larry Fisher

Ouch!   sorry to hear of that.

wath upset me at times is the atitide some expats have towards rhere wife - girlfrend ,at one time i seen a foreigner , who knew very wel before the maridge the wife had a son , leening with both fist on the table pushing his face in a very intimatating way in her face yeling "i feed your son " she was not alowed to coock for them ,they lived on street food and she had to beg for a bit of money all the time .

my opinion is that he did not diserved her and sood be cicked out of the ph

My wife was born and raised in Leyte where Cebuano and Waray Waray are the main dialects and she is fluent in both languages, but she is also fluent in Tagalog as is her siblings and parents. Her nieces and nephews are also able to communicate in Tagalog thanks to the "Filipino" subject in school. If a person from the southern provinces never attended school they probably can not speak Tagalog very well unless they spent time up north.
It is amazing how well the young students speak English, which is also a subject in school. My 5 year old niece who was born and raised in Tacloban prefers English as her first language. My 20 year old nephew, who I'm putting through college at this time, says he learned most of his English from watching cartoons as a child. My 15 year old niece speaks English without an accent but her first language is Waray while her siblings prefer Cebuano.

We do have a dilemma on our hands that I'm not sure how to deal with. We are adopting a child who is now 27 months old. He was 8 months old when he came to live with us full time. The little guy is sharp as a tack and he is putting together sentences now, but only in English. He doesn't know a word of his native language. I can even detect a little of my West Virginia accent in his pronunciation. This is likely to be a problem when he begins school since classes will be taught in Cebuano.
-@Moon Dog

This will be my last post before I leave the forum. I hope you heed this advice:

Not teaching my children to be fluent in Tagalog / Filipino is something I've always regretted. If I could turn back time, I would have spoken in Tagalog to them more often. And instead of just suggesting to their yayas / nannies and other people who helped take care of them that they talk to the kids in Tagalog, I should have enforced it.

In the Philippines, private and public schools are required to follow the curriculum set forth by the Department of Education or DepEd. At least 2 subjects are taught in Tagalog: Filipino and Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies). But "progressive schools" such as Montessori schools are given certain liberties with their curriculum.

Before the pandemic, my kids were enrolled at a Montessori. Students were told to talk only in English while in the campus. All subjects were taught in English, except for Filipino. The school replaced Araling Panlipunan with History and Geography. When a student got a low grade in Filipino, the school was indifferent as long as the student did well in other subjects. However, I wasn't happy with the Montessori school's curriculum. So, I decided to transfer the kids to a traditional school in 2020 which was online due to the pandemic.

The curriculum at their new school is actually a lot better than the previous school, especially the Science and Social Studies (Araling Panlipunan) curriculum. Tuition is cheaper too. They have computer classes - website building, web programming, Visual Basic, etc. There are better facilities and better teachers and more challenging activities. My kids have excellent grades in all of their subjects, except for Filipino and Araling Panlipunan, in which they are struggling to keep up, because they are not fluent in Tagalog and have a hard time understanding the lesson as it is taught in class. I have hired tutors. But it can be frustrating because the kids are not motivated. They are shying away from talking because Tagalog is not their first language, they feel embarrassed when they make mistakes. and they prefer to just chat with their former classmates in English.

My kids are now asking me if they can go back to their previous school when face-to-face classes start due to their difficulty in using and understanding Tagalog. I prefer that they stay in their current school, but I might have to transfer them back to Montessori school. Nevertheless, I will still try to have them become fluent in Tagalog, because they do need it outside of school.

It can be "cute" when you see and hear a Filipino kid talking in English like it was his / her first language. But he / she will be at a disadvantage if he / she cannot understand and speak fluently the local language.

I would suggest that you teach your 27-month old how to be fluent in Tagalog or whatever local language is spoken around him or will be used in school. How you want to achieve that is up to you.

For a young child, it is easy to learn a new language than an older child, and he / she can easily pick up just by talking with him / her. Perhaps encourage those who can speak the local language to speak to your toddler in that language, and leave the English-talking to you and your wife. And reward your toddler if he can speak in English and the local language / languages. His being multi-lingual will also give you flexibility in choosing a school for him.

FilAmericanMom, that is great advise as always from you and I will be sorry if you do leave the forum. I think I can speak for everyone on here, saying that your advise has always been excellent. If you do leave, I wish you and your family all the best for the future.

you will be sorely missed.

Yes indeed. You have been a breath of fresh air FilAm Mom and have brought to this Forum a well needed feminine counter balanced perspective on the male dominated discussions. I for one do hope that you will reconsider.

@FilAmericanMom Hi. I am in the Philippines now. Even though I am fluent in English and Spanish, I need help with Tagalog. You are 100% correct about motivating your children to speak the language. Even though English is spoken here, I live in Mindanao, where most people need help with English. And even though the main language is Visayan, I still understand them, and they understand my broken Tagalog. Speaking the native language is much appreciated here.  However, there are many dialects in the Philippines. And now that I know how to greet people in my new country, order food, and count money,  I feel less and less of a foreigner.

I believe you stated you are leaving this post. I hoped you would stay. I've learned a lot here.

@FilAmericanMom Point well taken and thanks for the advice. I'm sure the little guy will learn the local languages well enough but my wife's plans are for him to live in the US and maybe even attend college there. It looks to me like the Philippines is evolving into more of an English speaking nation anyway and I want English to be his first language.

When my wife first came to the US she wanted to continue her education. She had attended college in the Philippines and some of the credits transferred so that was a good thing. We tried to enroll her in the Houston Community College but since English was not her first language she had to take tests to see how well she spoke and understood English and she did not do well. She would have had to take ESL (English as a Second Language) courses for 2 years. We tried Sam Houston Community College, they required 4 years of ESL.

So we ended up enrolling her in a CNA (certified nursing assistant) course. She was top in her class in hands on but could not pass the written tests. She was trying to interpret the test questions into what she thought it was asking and missing the point. I helped her all I could and that is how I know the way she was misreading the questions. She was a star student until it came to the test. She went through the course a second time and same thing. It broke her heart that she knew everything she needed to know, but failed. That is not going to happen to our adopted son. English is a priority, but he is a very intelligent little guy and I'm sure he will learn the local languages as well.

Mostly the older guys. They live in the past, were prior military and they'll get together and gawk and make comments on women that pass them. They're usually in the food courts or coffee shops here in Cebu.

I remember one incident where are young girl was selling baked goods for school (maybe a scam) and a fellow expat asked how much for a blow job? The girl must have been 15 or so. He just laughed it off.

@marioph Agreed. Old white guys and young Filipina. Creeps me out

Filamretire said. . . .  Old white guys and young Filipina. Creeps me out

***********************************************************

Holy Shit Batman, responded  Jiminy Creeper.

@marioph I remember sitting in a bar one day here in the Philippines and I couldn't help but overhear a conversation that was going on between two American veterans, and it was just like a game of ping pong ,  an older guy, (obviously a veteran from so many many years gone by,)  and the younger guy (another veteran from not quite so many years gone by. The older guy said "well when I was in Vietnam..... bla bla bla etc" and started to relay his stories about his time in Vietnam. Then the younger guy after listening to the older guys story said  "well when I was in Afghanistan...... bla bla bla etc" and so it went on for more than an hour and it really made me cringe, why do these guys want live in the dark days of their pasts. My Father was a medic in WW2  and he was traumatized by ,day after day, having to pick up body parts and then trying to  figure out which of the parts belonged to which body and then trying  to find the dog tags for each body. This was in North Africa and Italy. Before the war he was a devout Christian and a regular church goer, but by the time the war ended he was an Atheist. I really can't understand these people that want to re-live their war experiences, it wasn't until his late 70's that my father started to slowly and reluctantly, reveal what he went through during those dark days.

@Filamretire Don't be so quick to judge. The old white dude is getting what he wants and the young attractive Filipina has probably found a way out of her grinding poverty. My wife's younger sister grew up in her grandparents home which is in the barangay where I am now. Her bedroom was on the 2nd floor but there was a tree outsider her window that she would climb down to be with her lover.  She became pregnant, they were married, and he soon tired of married life and went away. She later met an American online, went through the 3 year annulment process and is now living happily in the US with her current husband. She told me that she would always love the father of her child but would continue to be true to and respect the man she is married to now.

Many Filipinas I've spoken to are looking for an older man who is finished sowing his wild oats and ready to settle down. My wife and I met online and were married in 2007. She was 26 and I was 55 so I was the old white dude with young Filipina. There was no love when we were engaged and married, it was a marriage of convenience, and there is nothing wrong with that.

@Moon Dog

Could you remind us all of the name of the online dating site again?

@FindlayMacD may be diferent ppl handle there traumas diferent ways. or may be they were just braging , who knows .i know this wen i meet up with other vetrans it is usualy the hapy days we talk about ,but ,at times wen secluded one on one some times bad things are remembered to .

only those who have been there done that understand it ,or just dont understand but are looking to give it a place were it can come to rest. the surch can take years and may be this surch never ends and the nightmares stay for life.

war is hell ,but it can make one apreciate life more.

Dirk

@kristopherryanwatson acting like everyone is their servant. smh