A Cultural Experience

[gapotwo]

For me ,returning to my homeland after 35 years is going to be my cultural experience.after all these years of cheeseburgers and apple pie,speaking only english and wearing socks in my shoes,not to mention the bulk of plastic in ones billfold. and the monthly routine of sorting and paying the bills. waking up to the alarm at 4am.to go to work. I think im having secound thoughts about retirement to another country. alltho i was born there and left at age 20, its like starting all over again. my tagalog is still good, ill have to relearn the ways and customs of local living, especially the bahala na attitude.and i thought that coming to hawaii would be a good start to go back to island life,WRONG its just like being in LA. with beaches for parking lots.bottom line is , if it wasnt for my inheritance from my parents i would not have thought about moving back to the phil.the plus side is that im SINGLE and dont have an extended family to deal with. i can see that its going to be a hard life already, from doing everything to doing nothing is going to be a big challenge in my philippine life , i think ill manage, tanks EJ.:AddEmoticons04230:

[Travis]

I did not go for the culture I went because it was suppose to be cheap to live & realized it was far from cheap to live. here is a house in Arkansas that rents for $400 a month & it is walking distance to shopping so try to get something like that in the Philippines in a city & for that price. I rented a box sized apartment in Cebu city for about the same. besides that the salaries are fair so I could work to build up my ss http://walmartstores.com/pressroom/statebystate/State.aspx?st=AR sorry there aint no place like home unless it is women you seek then the Philippines is probably the place but only if you have enough income to make it work

[gapotwo]

I did not go for the culture I went because it was suppose to be cheap to live & realized it was far from cheap to live. here is a house in Arkansas that rents for $400 a month & it is walking distance to shopping so try to get something like that in the Philippines in a city & for that price. I rented a box sized apartment in Cebu city for about the same. besides that the salaries are fair so I could work to build up my ss http://walmartstores...tate.aspx?st=AR sorry there aint no place like home unless it is women you seek then the Philippines is probably the place but only if you have enough income to make it work

Travis, i hear where your coming from. in my case, im single and already set up in the philippines, so why would i stay in the USA. thats my choice. sorry to those that dont have one. tanks ej.

[Travis]

I did not go for the culture I went because it was suppose to be cheap to live & realized it was far from cheap to live. here is a house in Arkansas that rents for $400 a month & it is walking distance to shopping so try to get something like that in the Philippines in a city & for that price. I rented a box sized apartment in Cebu city for about the same. besides that the salaries are fair so I could work to build up my ss http://walmartstores...tate.aspx?st=AR sorry there aint no place like home unless it is women you seek then the Philippines is probably the place but only if you have enough income to make it work

Travis, i hear where your coming from. in my case, im single and already set up in the philippines, so why would i stay in the USA. thats my choice. sorry to those that dont have one. tanks ej.

I do not blame you ej & I know 1 size will not fit all & only wanted to point out choices Americans could have. I wish you all the best sir

[Art2ro]

With my adequate pension of 30 yrs of working, we made it work in the Philippines after a few years! We now own our own home after 11 yrs and everything we need is within walking distance! It's just all about planning and following through at the right time and place! It wasn't easy, but it was worth it in the end with just a little patience in saving and perseverance with family ties! So now, our cultural experience is, maintaining a western life style in the Philippines! We didn't return to the Philippines to live like your average Filipinos, just a little better though and to as what we can afford within reason! Like Travis stated in one of his post, "existing just to survive, isn't living"! http://www.google.co...iw=1260&bih=664

Edited June 21, 2011 by Art2ro

[ekimswish]

If we wanted a cultural experience, we would have went to Thailand or Malaysia, or some other country that hadnt been colonized so frequently. Most go there for the women, the cost of living, and the climate, because they speak English, and again, the women.

Really? I can't argue with you that Thailand has a cooler culture than the Philippines, and that due to colonization. I wish I could experience a cultural Philippines pre-Spain / America, but that will never happen. At the same time, a few things pop up when i think of it. First, the Philippines never would have had a dominant, highly developed, singular culture like Thailand simply because it's made up of so many islands with different languages and local cultures. You could never have expected them to be like Thailand. They don't even speak the same languages in the Philippines from one side of the island to the other. The other thing I consider is that maybe because of the language barrier in Thailand, foreigners looking in from the outside are much more easily impressed. In Korea I never learned the language, and when I drank with Korean guys I had nothing but fun. It was all smiles and cheers and body language humor. I thought these guys were great! But when my English speaking Korean friends would tell me more about some of our friends, it turns out a few of them maybe been big time bigots and jerks. Still, ignorance is bliss, so when you can't understand someone, all you have to work with is a smile or friendly gesture, and you come away thinking, "What lovely people." Maybe in the Philippines, because there's so much English, there's no linguistic barrier to hide behind, and imagine everything's perfect, such as in Thailand? I wonder how our impressions of Thailand and its people would change if they spoke better English, and we had closer dealings with them, as we do with Filipinos? Maybe they'd still be great, but maybe not. Maybe they'd just be "normal" like everyone else.

OK, I see where you're coming from. Learning different cultures with language skills will certainly give you a more realistic down to earth exposure of the people. I would love to have the patience and the skills to quickly learn the lay of the land. For example, I invited a couple American missionaries of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) who spoke perfect Tagalog. Judy and I were very much impressed with their dedication. Same thing with the members of the Peace Corp or the special ops guys in Afghanistan. Some of us are too old, stubborn or perhaps arrogant to learn and speak another language. I shall include myself in that category. I'm too lazy to learn Visaya or other dialects. But I treat everyone with respect and don't worry too much about them talking behind my back. I would like to think that I'm more attuned to body language and will respond accordingly. Mostly walk away or remove my sun glasses and return their stare back at them. Respectfully -- Jake

Sorry, Jake. I wasn't suggesting that us foreigners should learn the local language. I was suggesting that people are more impressed with Thai people than Filipinos because there's a linguistic separation that preserves the impression of pure, kindness. When you start to understand people, you start to realize they're not as interesting as you assumed, or kind, or wise, and all the rest of it. So a foreigner speaking broken English to Filipinos all day will be a bit more jaded at the end of the day than a foreigner meeting smiling Thai faces, minus the conversation. The result: some people think Thais are fascinating, and Filipinos are dishonest, which I disagree with.