Living In The Philippines

The thing about yelling at a Filipino is that it really is counterproductive on a number of levels. First and foremost in their culture the person who yells and screams is the rude one, regardless of why they are yelling and screaming. They lose hiya, or face and so does everyone around them. Everybody feels uncomfortable and not just the target of your anger.

Very often to our way of thinking we are justified in raising our voice and yet in the Filipino culture you don’t. At least not unless you are very much higher up on the social pecking order than whoever you are scolding. Most mistakes and errors are not to result of a determined act to upset the foreigner or to harm you. So many upsets can be put down to ignorance and lack of exposure to other ways to do things.

Filipinos do things the way they do for what to them are good reasons. It is irrelevant if there is a better way to achieve the objective if, as a result, you incur utang, or an obligation or debt. It is just as pointless to do it in a way that causes someone else to look incompetent or stupid, even if they are!

What is more important than getting the job done is that everybody has a good time doing it. Even if the job is not finished, is slipshod or rubbish, so long as the pakkisama or group harmony is intact then all is well!

You have to remember they come from a culture where the group is more important than the individual. unless the individual is the rich owner of all the land on which they earn their meagre living. This is still very much a feudal society in many ways and the influence and power of the catholic church and the ruling oligarchy is still very much in place, especially in the province.

You’re not going to change anything and it will be easier to just accept the way things are and that while you could do it better, cheaper, quicker and safer some other way, it just ain’t gonna happen!

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