How Filipinos look at foreigners

[graham59]

They know my 'status' as soon as they see my old pushbike with DIY child seat.  

[expatuk2014]

 Ah the rich Foriegner thing !

Like Ausexpat when me and my filipino wife arrived here in 2011 to live permantly we bought an old Nissan Urvan ! Which filled our needs travel,shopping and taking my UK family around in April 2012. We got a few comments from relatives and neighbours as most new we had money ! But i had no intentions of buying a new car seeing how Filipinos drive ! In 2012 we began demolishing the wifes small home and building our 2 storey home ! First we had comments about building the home one woman actually told the wife we were showing off ! Funny thing the only part of the home that could be seen was the top floor and the roof as the lower part was built behind the family home. When the home was finished we concreted the front of the family home and built a carport with large folding doors and we added a CCTV camera later to let us see who was ringing the door bell as we were back in the compound, at first it was mostly kids ! Comments the wife got were, hope you have a building permit ,and is your husband registered , then once the house was built we got a new car ! Well the Nissan was becoming a bit of a pain, thats when the  " friends and neighbours " began asking to borrow money ! But the wife always refused one did get nasty but the wife said did you help us when we had problems ? NO! So why should we help you ?. But overall since 2011 i regard Filipinos in some respect better than my own countrymen !

Here family comes first ! And when you consider the number of young Filipinos working abroad and supporting their familes against the UK benefits system Filipinos are far better. Yes some Filipinos see Foriegners as walking ATMs , its the same in other countries as well, how do Filipinas regard me ? Im the lucky Englishman who married the best Filipina woman in the world !

 

 

 

[hk blues]

We live in a very average house in a middle-class subdivision.  We are one of the few families with no car - despite our humble lifestyle we are still considered as the rich family simply because I am a foreigner.  

[Arizona Kid]

4 hours ago, hk blues said:

We live in a very average house in a middle-class subdivision.  We are one of the few families with no car - despite our humble lifestyle we are still considered as the rich family simply because I am a foreigner.  

I have found that when they think you are rich, it just means that you have enough money to pay rent and buy food. They have a different definition than we have. And if you own a car..OMG..filthy rich.

[brianmurphy49]

My wife and I arrived here last July as foreign missionaries from the US. We connected with the English congregation in Dumaguete to cater only to foreigners. We have had many good discussions with locals too and we do public ministry on the boulevard and other public areas. I find the locals very easy to talk to, always having a smile and they are very pleasant to talk to. When they get to know you a bit better, then they almost always ask from where you come and what kind of family you have. They take a keen interest in your personal life. Yes, we get the odd one begging for money of course, not knowing because of our attire,  taking us for "rich". But this is part of the culture here and we accept it. I find the average Filipino has been down-trodden due to the political/religious climate actually suppressing their basic human freedoms such as being able to maintain an income sufficient enough to support a reasonably sized family. So they have huge entities fighting against them.

The foreigners, by contrast that we do talk to, for the most part are more prone to reject any efforts to engage in conversation unless it is a person of his home country. There is an attitude of self sufficiency. 

The forum here is how Filipinos look at foreigners. I can say having spoken with hundreds of locals that they do feel intimidated by us foreigners. They also feel inferior (which is definitely not the case) to us since we are from such a prosperous foreign country. We as foreigners could learn some great lessons from the humility of the Filipinos, their love of life and family attachments.