My Trip to the Philippines
In September 1989, when I was 11 year old, I came to Philippines during my short
vacation. My father brought the whole family, also my cousin Jimmy. We spent 5
days in the Philippines. During these five days, I realized that there were many
differences between Taiwan and the Philippines. The most difference was culture.
People's language, behavior and also they are happy go lucky.
The first problem I faced was the language problem. Philippine was ruled by
Spanish long time ago. Most of Filipino could speak Spanish. I could not speak
their language and also English, so what ever they said I just acted like stupid.
I still remembered when I went to Cebu, in the hotel, the waiter came in to ask
me something about my room. First, I was shock, then I used Chinese to answer
her. The waiter was kind too. She started using Spanish, Japanese, French to
answer me, but he never used Chinese. If he used Chinese, then that will be the
time for me to reply. I run to my father's room, crying, and telling that
someone is in my room and I doesn't know why he was there. After my father
solved the problem for me. We were all laughing about it.
My father said, "In the Philippines, eating with hands are their culture, you
will never see this in Taiwan." In Taiwan, everybody use chopsticks to eat.
Nobody will use spoon and folk to eat, because that's a kind of hard. Just like
my first time used the spoon and folk. I doesn't know either to use my left hand
to hold spoon or use my right hand.
People have longer weekend than Taiwan. Both Sunday and Saturday are their
weekend. In Taiwan, we can only have Sunday and half Saturday. For adults, they
even only have Sunday to rest. That's unfair to adults. They should have longer
weekend then kids, because they worked so hard. So, adults most be exhausted
after hard work.
People are happy go lucky. They wouldn't care much money they earn each day.
They wanted to have better life than earning more money. Whenever they got a
serious problem, like no place to overnight, they were try to find a place to
messages by telephone and radio in their native language , a code that the Japanese never
Miller, Stuart C. “Letter from New York-Born Soldier.” Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1982. 88. Print.
but to use up valuable resource’s.What was so disturbing to them is that they were coming over
In December 1941, the Japanese attacked the United States (US) in Pearl Harbor and invaded the Philippines. Foreseeing this invasion, the US pulled Gen. MacArthur out of retirement and sent him to the Philippines. His mission was to prepare this strategically located archipelago against Japanese invasion.
e-c) What response to your clue(s) did you expect in this situation (assuming your listener had good HC skills and understood your cultural perspective)?
It feels so good to speak your native tongue when you are in a brand new country that you barely know anything about alone by yourself. We talked about everything, but mostly about our memory in China, how ugly our school uniform is, how bad the food in the school cafeteria tasted and how tedious our math class was. I never realized our little conversation can possibly hurt anybody’s feeling.
...I wasn’t able to teach them what I learn. I only speak English at home now because it became my parents main language. If they hadn’t learn English they couldn’t have the jobs they have right now because English is a common language used to interact and communicate with people from different countries.
Filipinos were considered as American nationals because of the US annexation of the Philippines in 1898, and were therefore not exposed to the complications other Asian ethnic groups had when trying to enter the United States. Daniel illustrates where most Filipinos migrated to and how their life in America developed.
The first inhabitants of the Philippines arrived from the land bridge from Asia over 150,000 years ago. Throughout the years, migrants from Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Asia made their way to the islands of this country. In the fourteenth century, the Arabs arrived and soon began a long tradition of Islam. Many Muslims are still living in the Philippines today.
...e inside, I begin to beam. Because of what had happened my parents are talking to each other. I then close my eyes and rest.
Philippines: Country Profile 2004 1 Dec. 2004 The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2004 15 Dec. 2004 www.eiu.com
Asia was awesome! Everything, from the food I ate to the people I met, gave me a new perspective on life. I still cannot get over the fact that I have traveled to the other side of the world. This school program gave me many memorable experiences, allowed me to learn a lot about the culture of Asia, and introduced me to friends that I'll treasure for a life time. I knew that there was a reason I got to go, and while I was there I tried to make the most of such an opportunity.
The Philippine Revolution was a military conflict between the Filipinos and Spanish colonial regime that started in the year 1896. The Filipinos were growing exhausted of the Spaniards’ rule over them. A charismatic leader, Andrès Bonifacio, formed a ghost propaganda movement, The Katipunan, to battle the Spaniards for independence. The Katipunan leaders and everyone associated with the revolution all knew the risks of getting captured: dying and risking the chance at freedom. War and bloodshed was the only decision for freedom; it was necessary to gain independence from Spain. The Filipino people joined as a whole to overthrow their Spanish dictators. It was a long fought war that seemed to last an eternity but on Dec. 15, 1897, the pact of Biak-na-Bato was declared. Though it wasn’t the perfect deal for each side, the pact brought a temporary end to the Philippine Revolution. The Philippine Revolution was a frightening, but necessary action by the Filipinos to pave way to their independence from Spain.
My most memorable family vacation took place two years ago. We went to Corsica, a French island situated in the south of France right next to Italy. I remembered waking up early excited to visit this new land. Used to take long flights, I was surprised to arrive to the destination after a one-hour flight. Even though the flight was short for me, it was stressful for my mom, she has never felt secured in a plane, probably due to the fact that she is afraid of height. When finally arrived at the destination, the dry and warm weather was there to welcome us. We all felt relief, and knew that this was the beginning of the summer. Excited, we had a lot of activities planned for the few weeks, me and my father could not wait to dive in the clear