Subject:  Siak manen |
Author:
Aneya
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Date Posted: 07:00:25 09/26/04 Sun
Filipinos are weird. Okay, let's be kinder and say they are
different. A case in point is a Pinoy routine that has puzzled me crazy. Every closing time, Filipino shop owners chain a plastic chair on the door of their business establishment. You'll find the intriguing practice especially in the most sophisticated shops and malls.
You'll notice that the chairs they use are made of light plastic or of Monobloc variety. Do they honestly think that one little plastic chair chained to the door will prevent thieves from breaking in? Is this a secret code to signify that they are members of some special association and thus exempt from theft?
At first I was really perplexed. I went nuts because I couldn't find the logic behind the practice. Until I found out. I will share the reason behind this oddity at the end of this article. But be a little
patient and don't jump there just yet, okay?
The Uncertain Filipino "YES" & "NO"
Filipinos are usually uncertain and undecided. They have a penchant for staying in the gray, non-committed area. When they say yes or no, they actually mean maybe. They'd really rather answer you with a maybe (baka or yata) than with a definite yes or no.
The cause of this uncertainty might be linguistic in nature. I conducted a little study and unearthed something different about the oo (yes) and hindi (no) in the Filipino language.
In major world languages, the affirmative has either "e," "a" or "i" in the word. Examples are yes and yeah in English, si in Spanish and
Italian, oui in French, and hai in Japanese. Notice that when spoken, yes, yeah, si, oui or hai naturally go with a smile because of the vowels "e", "a" or "i". This makes sense because logic dictates that
the affirmative should come with a smile to signify agreement.
On the other hand, the negative word has "o" or vowels that don't produce a smile. This, too, makes sense because the negative word should be said without a smile to express dissent. Examples are no in
English, no in Spanish and Italian, non in French, and iie in Japanese. "O" when pronounced does not produce a smile; it creates a facial __expression of surprise or disbelief. In the Japanese iie, the
smile formed by the "i" is cut short by the rounded "e", pronounced by dropping the jaw.
Now here's the funny thing. In Pilipino or Tagalog, the non-smiling vowel "o" is in the affirmative oo while the smiling vowel "i" is in the negative hindi. So Filipinos actually smile when they disagree
with hindi, and kind of frown or show surprise when they agree with oo.
Could it be that Filipinos are actually confused by the non-logical facial expressions created by the words oo and hindi? This certainly is an oddity that merits deeper study by psycho-linguistic experts.
Sexually Ambiguous Pronouns
Another oddity in the Filipino language is that Tagalog has no pronoun that directly translates to he or she (in Spanish el or ella). The pronoun siya refers to both he and she. Furthermore, the Filipino language also has no one-word equivalent for son or daughter; the word anak (child) refers to both sexes.
For this reason, many Filipinos interchange the pronouns he and she when they speak English. Some even have difficulty in determining whether to say ma'am or sir. Strange but true! So next time a waiter calls you "ma'am" and you are male (or vice versa), just smile and
say, "It's a Filipino oddity!"
More Language Oddities
Filipinos usually ask, "Can I use the phone?" This is a direct translation of "pwede ba gamitin ang " To requests of this type, I always answer, "You can but you may not!" "May I use the phone?"
(maaari ko bang gamitin ang ) is the better and proper way to ask.
The term coņo is popularly used for young men from buena famillas
(good families) and exclusive schools. But be careful about using that word in front of prim-and-proper Spanish speaking people. In case you didn't know, it is the Spanish word for the female genitalia.
Two names that are quite common in! the Philippines are Maricon (short for Maria Concepcion) and Pido. In Spanish, Maricon means homosexual and pido means fart.
I actually met someone who told me, "Oh, you are Mr. Pedero! I love your songs! Fans kita!" I just smiled and thanked her. Most Filipinos
interchange the words "fan" and "idol."
More Pinoy Oddities
Hungry for more Pinoy oddities? Here's a serving:
Drinking soda in plastic bags! (I am told this is actually a third world oddity, not exclusively Pinoy.) Pointing with the lips. (Are we lazy to gesture with our hands that we use the mouth to point with
instead?) Putting coins in ears. (How's that for an environmentally friendly coin purse?)
Long nails on the pinky or little finger. (The better to pick the nose and ears with. Ugh!) Psssst! (Blowing or sucking in air to make noise to attract attention. But you know, I heard this sound in Rome,
too. And it wasn't from a Filipino!)
Rubbing a handkerchief on or kissing the feet of statues of saints. (This was prohibited during the outbreak of SARS!) Calling waiters "Boss." (Whoever started this should be banished.)
And of course, the definitive balikbayan box. You can tell if the traveler is a Pinoy from the telltale (or shall I say tell-all)
balikbayan box! As if the box wasn't weird enough. What's inside is even weirder - corned beef! Like we didn't have corned beef in the Philippines!
My friend, Mojo, originally from Detroit, laughs, "Whenever I go back to the States, I bring Filipino corned beef 'cause my mom prefers its
taste to the stateside ones!" When he found out I was writing about Filipino oddities, he said,"At some shopping centers like Greenhills, you hear many hawkers say, 'DVD, DVD, DVD!' Yet they never get caught. How odd!" He is referring to the dealers of pirated tapes and
DVDs. Now that's a true Filipino oddity.
That Intriguing Monobloc Chair
One morning, I was at the mall to buy a ! gift for a friend. It was rather early and the salespeople were just opening the shops, and I chanced upon the reason for those intriguing monobloc chairs. When the store manager or salespeople open the store, they have three
locks to pry open - the chain lock around the handles of the door, another one near the floor, and a third one near the ceiling. To reach the top one, they need the monobloc chair to step on. They keep one chair out of the shop for this purpose so they lock it onto the chain so it won't get lost! The intriguing monobloc chair
has nothing to do with security; it is placed there for necessity.
Hurrah for Pinoy ingenuity? Nope, hurrah for Filipino oddity!
Star
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