What Do Foreigners Think of Filipinos?

I’ve always wondered why so many foreigners — mostly male Americans, Europeans, Australians, etc. — seem to have decided to spend the rest of their lives in the Philippines. I think I’ve even mentioned to a couple of persons how I kind of want to conduct a survey to find out the common reasons why foreigners are here in our country. Just out of sheer curiousity, I guess — but I’m not really serious about that. I wanna know whether most of them are here for business or personal reasons.. And if they actually find the Philippines a nice country to live in or were they just looking for a foreign place to stay, they didn’t care where, as long as it’s away from home. I wonder how it is to wake up one morning and just say to myself, “I think it would be nice to fly to [insert foreign country] and live there.” Imagine the amount of courage that would take.

In Makati City alone, there isn’t a day when you wouldn’t see a foreigner walking amongst the crowd as though he’s brown-skinned like everybody else, or seated inside a coffee shop, sipping coffee and reading the paper, seemingly unfamiliar with the feeling of homesickness. It’s as if life in the Philippines has always been the kind of life they have.

Just last Friday, whilst I was walking to Greenbelt after work, there were these two middle-aged men (who I assumed were Americans from their accent) walking just a couple of steps ahead of me. One of them, it seemed to me, was taking the other on a tour of Ayala Center. He was telling his friend about the shortcut he could take from Greenbelt to Glorietta (which is Landmark) and telling him that if he walked farther from Glorietta he would reach SM. He told him that SM stands for “Shoe Mart” and went on to explain how the owner of SM, after the success of selling various merchandise other than shoes, changed the name of his business and established more stores and malls all over the Philippines. — Yes, I admit I was deliberately keeping pace with them so I could eavesdrop on their conversation.

I just found it surprising that this American (who looks old enough to be my dad) knows these things about the establishments in Makati and even tells his friend marvelously about it as though he was describing Taj Mahal. I think any Filipino would feel flattered when a non-local shows great interest in his/her country, even if he/she doesn’t feel the same way about it. LOL.

However, that same night, I received an IM message from a friend with a link to a youtube video. It was the blooper video of Claudine Barreto where she slipped on stage whilst hosting an ASAP Mania show back in 2003. The video itself didn’t interest me much since I’ve seen it many times before. What caught my attention was the string of comments posted below for that particular video. Among the natural reactions of viewers (such as finding the video hilarious) were these mean, discriminating comments by a non-Filipino:

I don’t know about you but the comments made by this MrBadMoon totally pissed me off!

If you wanna know the link to this specific youtube page, leave a note.

Shari | February 11th, 2007 @ 4:19 am #

Know what? If those people who responded to him are Filipinos, I’m more mad at them. I’m sorry, but answering a demeaning insult with an equally demeaning insult? That’s stupid. Dapat nga ipakita pa kung gaano tayo kahinahon at kaedukado sa mga taong tulad ni MrBadMoon. A string of malicious comments will get everyone nowhere – that I’m sure of. Pero dyan sa nabasa ko? Lalo lang pinapatunayan sa lokong si MrBadMoon na TAMA SIYA.

jeff | February 11th, 2007 @ 10:22 am #

im surprised we’re still not numb to comments like these. we should be already, really.

on another note, im surprised you actually read through the whole of my last post! hahah. im so proud of you. sabi nga ni didi sa zsazsa zaturnnah, bibigyan kita ng gawad *insert award name here* award! gawad martir ata yun, i wasnt paying attention, basta alam ko nakakatawa yun

Mae | February 12th, 2007 @ 9:26 am #

[Comment ID #3978 Will Be Quoted Here]

Actually, shari, I doubt if someone would take their race being insulted by a foreigner, in an international forum of sorts, like that without insulting back. It’s a natural instinct, we are harmed, we fight back. It’s all natural that we would want to hurt that person’s pride as much as he has hurt ours. thugh I admit he should’ve just been ignored, but well, you can’t really tell people what he should or should not do… best thing we could do is ask the owner of the video is to just delete the comment or something..

Shari | February 12th, 2007 @ 5:54 pm #

[Comment ID #4037 Will Be Quoted Here]

I know a few instances when people held back and treated the situation with finesse. You can insult without being outrightly rude, you know. *winks* I cannot blame the foreigner for rubbing that fact over and over again; he keeps on reiterating that being a Filipino is an embarrassment. Why? It shows in the string of comments.

I’ve been in similar situations where foreigners thought us Filipino to be dirt, but my co-commenters and I handled the situations with class that in the end, they realized how wrong they were and apologized. There’s no sense in showing how “uneducated” you are when you’re being accused of being “uneducated”.

ApplesH | February 12th, 2007 @ 7:20 pm #

Joni
- I abhor racist remarks. But what I see here is merely this automatic tendency of people (not necessarily pinoys) to refute others especially in a forum-like venue. I (personally) doubt any of those who responded to MrBadMoon felt any deep emotions towards his race or nationality or of being a filipino. If they did, then their rebuttals would have been filled with praise towards pinoys, samples of greatness instead of just basically repeating the insults and directing them at the source.
MrBadMoon is definitely a bad character in my book and his statements do not carry an ounce of weight. I believe in pinoy greatness. And if I believe, do I really need to tell that guy? I really wouldnt care less about him. Nor should you.

AJ | February 13th, 2007 @ 5:52 pm #

that’s just one of those foreigners pissing 3rd world people. the best way to handle them is to prove otherwise.

Tuesday | February 15th, 2007 @ 12:50 am #

Hey Joni! I found your blog when I clicked on your name on a comment you left on the Godchicks blog. Anyway, your entry caught my eye and I just wanted to share something.

Given that some people look down on us for being Filipinos (sometimes fellow Filipinos who have lost hope in the Filipino people), I know for a fact that there are many people who see the beauty and the preciousness Filipinos. I’ve been a Gawad Kalinga Volunteer for some time and I’ve met foreigners and balikbayans alike, who spend a lot of money and travel thousands of miles (or kilometers :p) just to come here, meet us Filipinos and find out what it is that makes us such a happy people in the midst of our “Third-world-ness”. I even know of one Englishman who wears a pin of a Filipino flag on his shirt every single day because he is proud of being an adopted Filipino (just Google Dylan Wilk ). So my comment is not really a response to MrBadMoon’s comments but rather to your original question, What do foreigners think of Filipinos? My answer? Many of them think we are the happiest, most precious and beautiful people in the whole world. And it would be a shame if they loved our country and its people more than we do.

camz | February 16th, 2007 @ 2:09 pm #

naku joni. kaya rin ako nagresign sa peoplesupport dahil sa mga ganyang comments. hahaha siguro mababaw yung sa iba, but for me, it’s a big deal. i was beginning to see americans in a very very bad light (and with people like MrBadMoon out in the world, who could blame me?). lol. Prang everytime na nakakakita ko ng kano, the word “RACIST” blinks in bright red letters inside my head. hahahah. parang reverse racist na rin ako.

Hindi tamang pumatol sa mga ganyang attacks, but I know first hand how mutinous comments like those can make someone feel.

Pahingi nung link Joni.