“Pango” means “flat nosed.”
I was at a famjam yesterday at the Fiesta ng Pateros picnic in Newmarket (Pateros is the part of Manila where my immediate family lived). I decided to test out a project about how young Filipinos and Filipinas viewed their people.
I visited other tables and asked youth to write one positive and one negative about Fils. The horizontal images show what they liked, the vertical pics what they didn’t like.
I told them they could write anything on the white board they wanted, as long as they meant it. I didn’t tell what language to use, nor did I correct spelling.
The word on the left means “loves to gossip.”
Though they all wrote positives and negatives, it’s the negatives that interested me more…
“Balut” is a Pateros speciality food involving a duck egg with a recognisable chick inside. “Cheese Miss” is supposed to read “tsismis” meaning “gossip.”
“FOB” means “Fresh Off the Boat,” a term referring to new migrants (it can be derrogatory depending on who uses it, and how it’s used).
To be fair the girl above was trying to find the word for how new arrivals talk, the girls with her told her to write “fob” for that.
And one last one. I also asked some non-Filipinos, here’s one in the positive category:
For the curious, the other positives listed include: family (this was by far the most popular answer coming up five times), friendly, out-going, caring, religious, smart, and sinegang.
The most common negative was “gossip” (four votes).
I’d love to hear what you think of their answers, what you think it says about the Filipino identity, and how you would answer the question of what you like/dislike about your fellow Fils…
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I found this pretty interesting and after making some adjustments to this project, it will be continued…
Look for the results at the Kultura Festival!!! Kultura is on Saturday 23 August from 12 to 9pm at Bellevue Square Park (in Kensington Market) and at the KPC (167 Augusta).
04/08/2008 at 6:17 am
Nice blog entry. The whole positives and negatives of being Filipino into a photo project is very appealing and cute. My mom always talks about how her co-workers (mostly Filipinas) are chismosas. And my friends always talk about “Filipino time,” a.k.a. always being late. Gotta love being Filipino though! =]
07/08/2008 at 1:46 pm
I love being Filipino and I am very proud of it. I am also very proud of being from Pateros and I have raised my children to be proud of their origin as well. It is nice to accept our faults and learn from it. I love our being so close with our families, relatives and friends that we do not need complicated rules and statutes for social security and health care. Our family is always there for us wherever we may be. In our thriumphs but more so in our defeat. Even when we are broke, somebody would be there to help and feed us because we know how to share (pakikisama), how to return favors (utang na loob), respect our elders (paggalang sa magulang), and our God-fearing humanity (pakikipagkapwa tao).
I have not met lovelier people than Filipinos.
Mabuhay ang bayang Pilipinas!
29/08/2008 at 4:09 am
[...] youth, pride, shame, kultura, kapisanan philippine centre, kpc, photography, identity | A few weeks back I asked Filipino youth to tell me what they liked and hated about their people. During [...]
06/09/2008 at 8:10 pm
Wow, interesting stuff! I definitely would agree about the gossip being the biggest negative I would have listed.
Tsismis really upset me growing up. I just didn’t understand why everyone had so much negative to say. They especially loved the “juicy” mean gossip, and would repeat it as if it was nothing at all.
I thought maybe I had just been around the wrong kind of Filipino’s…. but maybe its more common than I thought.
I’d agree that family would be the positive. And as a 20-something, I truly appreciate the morals and values I was raised with. I’m a mistiza, and I thank God for being so lucky to have my little filipina Mom
Lovely work, please keep it up!
20/06/2009 at 7:04 pm
I’m proud to be a Filipino.
However, nothing irks me more than the crab mentality.
Oh, and don’t get me started on the white worshipping.