August 13, 2005

2 Pinays, a foreigner and Pansit...

A few days back, a friend of mine volunteered to introduce me to her Filipina friend who has been living in Istanbul for quite sometime. I thought it would be a good idea since I basically do not know any Filipinos personally over here and that would be a good start.

So off I went to my friend's house at the Asian Side and semi excited to speak Pinoy to someone again.

My friend is a foreign language teacher over here in Istanbul and her Filipina friend whom we shall call G is an English teacher at the same school. She said G just recently got married to a Turkish guy and had her vacation/honeymoon in the Philippines. We were waiting by the pool and chatting when the Pinay, G, arrived.

Here's how our conversation went...

My foreign friend B - "duke this is G."

Duke - "hi G.. nice to meet you...kamusta?"

G - "ay bata ka pa pala.. hello...foreigner asawa mo?anong nationality?matagal ka na dito? kelan pa? saan ka nakatira? "

Duke - "mabuti naman ako... kakadating ko lang dito last June. sa kabila ako nakatira ( meaning across the bosphorus) .. .ay oo French po ang asawa ko.. kamusta bakasyon mo sa Pinas?"

G- "anong bakasyon? nagpa-opera ako ng cyst...ayun we went to Boracay after." Then turning to our friend B... " I can't stay long. I have my period and I want to rest at home. " and again to me. " ilang taon ang gap nyo mag asawa?so, mabait naman asawa mo?"

B - ( smiling) "you're the one who chose the date for the meeting and made us wait and now you say you can't stay long...I met Duke's husband and he's a good guy"

Duke - " bakit mo naman nasabi yon? oo naman mabait asawa ko. We have a nine year difference.. So matagal ka na sa Istanbul?"

G- "kasi bata ka pa para mag asawa. I'm 41 and just got married last year. 11 Years na ako sa Istanbul but I always choose my friends over here. I don't mingle with the Filipinos and Filipinas here since most of them are Domestic Helpers... you know how these connotations on Filipinos in other countries...So I keep my distance"

Jeez!! I did not expect that answer at all... here I am meeting a Filipino who thinks high of herself over other Pinoys and Pinays who are also working overseas just like her. I am beginning not to like this girl but I kept my manners and carried on with another topic of conversation.

Next topic...

G - "saan ka sa manila nakatira?anong probinsya mo?"

Duke- " Sa Q.C. ako nakatira dati. Pinanganak ako sa Manila so wala talaga akong probinsya pero kabalu ko mag sulti ug bisaya.. konti nga lang .. mas nakakaintidi ako...kasi mommy ko ay taga Misamis pero father ko taga Bulacan"

G- " ahh hindi tayo pareho kasi ako Ilonggo and hindi tayo magkakaintindihan. " then she turns to our friend B and says with a Miriam Santiago accent... "She only knows to speak the national languge which is Ta-gaa-looog and I speak Hiligaaaaynon but I can also speak Tagalog. She's a city girl that's why she can only speak one dialect. I can speak Tagalog but she cannot speak my dialect"

I was thinking.. WTF is wrong with this girl? She really has a bad case of superiority complex and now she is taking it against me that I am a city girl and she is from the province. She was even implying that I don't know much compared to her. But hey, I was stilll trying to keep my cool and just give her the benefit of the doubt.. Maybe she was just plain tactless and didn't mean for it to sound it that way.

We then went off to our friend, B's house and to B's request cooked pansit. G was the cook since she was the one who introduced the dish to them. I just went with the flow. Pansit is an easy dish anyway, I was there to help. So chop the vegetables we did. Since our friend B is Belgian, she really don't have much idea how to cook Asian cuisine but she likes the food. I was holding the chopped carrots and helping her while she sautéed the rest of the vegetables. As I was about to pour the carrots in she said.. " Ay wag mo lagay.. separate natin lutuin ang bawat gulay para mas masarap"

so I said.. " anong pinagkaiba non? eh lahat ng gulay sa pansit ginigisa lang naman?"

G said... " akala ko ba cook ka? dapat alam mo! ganyan kami magluto sa Iloilo ng pansit.. baka sa manila ganon kayo magluto"

my answer to her... " hindi ako cook kung nakikinig ka sa sinabi ko kanina.. ang asawa ko ay pastry chef. sa pagkakaalam ko , ang generic na pansit pare-pareho ang luto... you can do whatever you want..."

Then our good friend B and her husband butted in..." Ah you must be a rich girl since you do not know how to cook pansit. "

I said to them , " Of course not. I am a normal person in the Philippines and I know how to cook pansit but not the way she(G) insists on doing it..."

At this point, I just wanted to go home and end this weird encounter with this Pinay.Luckily I had to catch the five o-clock shuttle and left earlier. I was grateful to my friend B for giving me that opportunity to encounter this girl but I think that would be the first and last. I never expected to meet a fellow countryman who regard herself so high above everyone else but if you really look at it, she is also one of the overseas filipino workers that she detest so much. What right does she have to look down upon the domestic helpers and other Pinoys who are trying to make a decent living abroad for their family. How dare she say that she chooses her friends here because most of them are DH and she does not want to be associated with them...

My oh my.. that Pinay has a lot of issues to resolve within her especially her superiority complex. No wonder she married when she was already 40 years old!

Posted by duke at 8/13/2005 10:06:00 PM

35 Comments:

Teacher Sol said...: HELLO DUKE!

We're one month old now! Thank you for helping us disseminate the information about our global pinoy teachers' network. We are professional Filipino Educators. We are going to inspire, be proactive, give hope, and go the extra mile.

MARAMING SALAMAT SA IYO!; 8/14/2005 05:39:00 AM
silentmode_v2 said...: maybe she's on menopausal stages..hehehe.

seriously, i don't want to meet or even see this woman the way she treated our fellow kababayans. it's a good thing you kept your cool, you know you're better than her.

cheers!; 8/14/2005 07:51:00 AM
asphaire 許泰莎 said...: ahhh Duke, so many of those kinds of pinoys living abroad..

it's funny.. because me, i keep my distance from pinoys precisely because most of them are like her. i prefer talking to domestic helpers who have real minds in their heads rather than one full of air

mga pinoys abroad... you can really tell who has breeding and who doesnt.. and you can also tell who are those who have always been 'aspiring' to be elite in the Phils (a senseless aspiration, btw) but can never be accepted as a natural 'sosyal' so they try to create their own bubble abroad.

grrrr, she makes my blood boil.

im so happy i ran into Val and met u in hk.

pero u know what, ive been meeting younger pinoys (mga taga UP, lasalle, ateneo, im sure may mga taga uap din, etc) who are professionals here and suffer from the same superiority complex kasi they have a complete misunderstanding of their own nomadic people. hay naku.... mga pinoy talaga.

anyway, on the bright side, those who are genuine people will stand out amidst biatches like the one u met..... ingat girl!!!; 8/14/2005 11:02:00 AM
Anonymous said...: That BITCH! Sarap kutusan. Sana tinulak mo sa hagdan at inapak apakan at masarap kingkihin mga buhok ng ganung tao.

That same scene are so common place here in HK - DH to DH, Expat to DH, Fil-resident to Dh, Chinese to DH, you name it - but the ones I hated most are the staff at Pinoy Remittance in WWH, these are the people who thinks working in a "bank" wearing a piece of suit & ties makes them look friggin cool.

It's always fun to minggle with DH - I even hate brand-naming them a DH so you know it's way too polite when you call them "Ate" or "Manang".

And tsk, the TNT's are now residing in so many bar here, sumbong ko kaya sila sa Pulis? hahahaha.; 8/14/2005 11:47:00 AM
nikki said...: congrats for keeping your cool! just shows kung sino ang may breeding di ba?; 8/14/2005 07:20:00 PM
Analyse said...: that's precisely why i don't really search for pinoy friends here (parang ang dami namin dito sa dijon hehe), takot ako sa superiority complex ng mga pinoy, baka kasi mabara ko, natural na mayabang pa naman ako hahaha..

mga ganun nga questions nila, very typical, once me nagtanong din sa kin kung me papel na daw ba ako hehe..hay naku, pinoy talaga..

pero grabe ha, ano naman feeling nya? naku, pag ako yun, natiris na sya matagal na...you have reasons not to meet her again deary, aba, pati ba naman pagluluto ng pansit, ginawang issue...e ginigisa naman talaga sabay sabay yun, hahaluin mo rin naman lahat after, anovayan! gusto siguro nyang ipakita sa B friends nyo na superieur sya sayo..kakakulo nga ng dugo!; 8/14/2005 07:40:00 PM
Tobie said...: I admire your patience.

But yeah, that woman really has a superiority complex. A major one. Perhaps issues from her past of being mistreated.; 8/14/2005 11:33:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Stories like these that scare me about settling elsewhere lol

hope your paths don't cross too often!; 8/15/2005 12:06:00 AM
Teacher Sol said...: Girl, hats off to you. I know a lot of Pioys like that here in the US, nakakapanindig balahibo! Worse, marami na akong na-encounter at na-witness na may nakatanim na crab mentality. I don't know why they can be so mean to people of their own culture and race. Hay, sad but true, madami silang ganyan...iwas nalang tayo...; 8/15/2005 04:06:00 AM
Airwind said...: hahaha .. habang binabasa ko ang entry mo. nakikita ko yung expression nang mukha mo.. yung bang nakabusingot. wehehehe .. dapat pinahagingan mo ng fectus .. wehehe; 8/15/2005 05:29:00 AM
asphaire 許泰莎 said...: haha so funny to see that many pinoys abroad share the same sentiments... goes to show that there is hope because if there are people who notice this annoying tendency of developing a senseless superiority complex, then there can be change..

same here, I grew up in HK and I can't stand the newly expatriated filipino families who think they're above everyone else for fear of being mistaken for something else..

as I always say, ignorance is always a reflection of the other person's stupidity so there's no need to react or be affected

DUKESSA!!!! I WANNA GO BACK TO FRANCE!!!; 8/15/2005 08:52:00 AM
Anonymous said...: if you were as tactless as she is, maybe the good response to her irritating statement is "oh is that so. you choose not to deal with domestic helpers. i do choose the people i relate with, too. that's why i chose not to converse with you." if she's smart enough, she should be able to read between the lines. what you did shows how more educated you are compared to her. i would just leave as well. there's no reason to waste time for her.; 8/15/2005 09:21:00 AM
Anonymous said...: This just goes to show who has breeding and who doesn't. Go girl!; 8/15/2005 04:09:00 PM
duke said...: jeff- i was hoping she was on menopausal stage kaso ang bruha nag parining a na she has her period daw kaya she did not want to swim in the pool! natawa na lang ako!

Tesa- you could not have said it any better...I just hope more and more Pinoys would realize that it will not do us any good to step on each other to prove we are higher than the rest..
balik ka na lang sa Dijon! si Ana lang ata Pinay dun :) I'm sure your meeting will not be like this story ;) hihihi

Knoizki- I had this weird experience in HK sa Philippine Enbassy. There was a super duuper loong line and it was my first time to go there.I just wanted to ask a question and they made me go wait in the line only to find out that the man in charge ( the one in the counter) was busy smiling and TEXTING! grrrrrr! Pinoy pa man din! feeling superior..

I left the embassy not even bothering to know the answer to my question.

I was thinking kawawa naman yung mga nakapila duon pero no choice sila...

Nao- way to go sister!pang Vulca Seal ang pambara mo ah!

Nikki- there really was no point in arguing with someone who thikns that way. Maybe she has her reasons which I will never understand and will not bother to find out :); 8/15/2005 08:41:00 PM
duke said...: analyse- well pareho kami ni B na natatawa at na amuse sa actions nya! I think nagulat din si B sa reaction ni G...
May papel ka nga ba? hahahaha! ang mga pinoy talaga! LoL

Tobie- thanks for the comment. Maybe she has her reasons and issues but I wouldn't want to know them :) one meeting is enough ...

Mik - I hope so too!

Teacher Sol - sabi nga nila.. it's a dog eat dog out there :)

Evi - I was so tempted to say something to that effect but I decided to go against it and just leave.

marni - I think she was very well educated , she's just a bi@tch...ooopppssss... did I just type that?; 8/15/2005 08:48:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Phil Embassy? Those fookers gets into my bones. I don't understand how they brand themselves professionals where infact pare-pareho namang professionals ang mga pinoy na mga nasa abroad. Simply because they don't know how to use it.; 8/15/2005 09:01:00 PM
duke said...: grrrr..kainis! naiinis tuloy ako. hahahaha. syet, sarap nyang barahin. kung ako andun binara ko na nang todo yan. pero gleng mo din ha, napagpasensyahan mo. di ko kaya yun. grrrrr talga!

katukayo pa kita sa blog.; 8/15/2005 10:01:00 PM
Anonymous said...: hey duke, katawa na kainis nga si G! sabihin mo sa kanya - chuuuuraaaahhh moh! hahaha

i've had several incidents na ganyan - when i was living in HK and now here in Oz. meron naman recently - sabi nong pinay na nameet ko nagtapos daw sya sa isang exclusive school for girls sa manila - "sa UP ka pala graduate, eh di ba dapat eh baduy ka?" bwahahahahah... di ko alam kung pano ako magre-react! susko. tapos kwento-kwento sya sa buhay nya dati sa pinas na rich daw sila - asusko... kaya nga ba minsan ayoko na ma-meet ang mga ibang pinoy.; 8/16/2005 03:35:00 AM
Anonymous said...: type na type ko ang post mong ito, ah. para akong nanood ng hindi magandang sitcom hehehe
Naku ,darling ganyan ang mga gustong-gusto kong makatagpo. Mapra-practice ang pagka-salbahe ko sa kanya. Magandang libangan hahaha! Ika nga, I eat beeyatches for breakfast and merienda, masaya siya!hehehe; 8/16/2005 07:30:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Maldita yan ha! Nakakalungkot. Wala pa naman ako so far experience na ganyan ka bastos na Pinay pero halos ganyan din ang tema ng mga tanong sa akin. Often I just stay away from Pinays in general. If they want to be friends with me, fine. If not, fine too!; 8/16/2005 02:52:00 PM
Analyse said...: hehe, duke, madami...ano gusto mong color?; 8/16/2005 04:16:00 PM
celia kusinera said...: Hahaha! Hindi lang feeling high and mighty siya, super rude pa. Tama ka - anong masama sa pagiging DH?? Iwas na lang tayo sa bitchy species.
At hindi lang yung 'papel' or foreigner na asawa ang tinatanong ng mga ganyan, ilang beses na rin akong natanong na - "magkanong sweldo mo?" LOL!; 8/16/2005 06:51:00 PM
Teacher Sol said...: Hope you don't mind, Duke, I tagged you in my latest entry :D I know we're both busy but I wish you'll find time to post it in your blog too. Salamat na marami.; 8/17/2005 05:18:00 AM
Ladynred said...: Wow! what a girl...sobrang yabang. Akala mo kung sino...

Anyway, first time ko dito...; 8/17/2005 08:38:00 PM
undiscussablerealms said...: duke,
na high blood ako sa kwento mong yan. i can't believe what i was reading. mayabang talaga iyon sobra, thinking she's better than other pinoys.

you're better off not knowing someone like her.

hay naku, even that kwento about cooking pancit. grabeee!!!! as if naman masyadong espesyal ang version niya na hindi kayang iluto ng kapwa. grrrrr!!!; 8/18/2005 09:13:00 AM
undiscussablerealms said...: there is nothing wrong working overseas as a helper. it's a decent job. it helps our economy.

what is wrong is looking down on people. she might not know she'll get karma. it's not unusual to hear about reversal of fortune. she should thank her lucky stars she's been blessed, and must be more compassionate.; 8/18/2005 09:19:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Duke, I got to your site through Major Tom's... This entry was more or less hilarious to me! First time I have heard of sahug ng pansit, isa-isa ang pag luto (ano daw? para mas masarap?!) SHE definitely did not know her pansit!; 8/18/2005 12:01:00 PM
Anonymous said...: ang kapal ng bruhang yan!!! kahit dito maraming ganyan kababayan natin. akala mo kung umasta, sila lang meron kaparatan. naku di pupuwede yan sa'kin. sinasagot ko talaga sila. akala naman nila aatrasan ko sila. yabang ng pinay na yan. sarap sabugan ng 100% hcl *hehehe* here we go again, so evil of me *lol*
ingatz sis.; 8/18/2005 02:33:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Kamukha ata sya nung PANCIT na niluluto nya? Madami sigurong lai-na mocca nun, o kaya kinky at puro balakubak ang buhok nya?

on Schatz: nag paramdam ka ha? LOL.; 8/18/2005 04:14:00 PM
Anonymous said...: i'm sorry you had to encounter a fellow filipino as nasty as she was. it's true that's it is so hard to find people you really get along with in other countries...

she would have had a heart attack if i were in your place cooking pancit, because... well, all my pancit dishes are failures.

-kala; 8/21/2005 09:43:00 PM
RAV Jr said...: hello po, huli man to pero di ko makayanan na di magcomment...

i feel sad na totoo ngang meron ganitong mga pinoy sa ibang bansa... kya nga nakakainis minsan na malaman na hiwa-hiwalay pa din mga pinoy kahit saan. dito na lng, me faction din, merong mga 'elite' meron ding 'masa' and sometimes, ang hirap kung nasa gitna, di ko malaman kung sino ang susundin...

sana, magkaisa na lang...

ni-link p kita, tyyy; 8/23/2005 08:47:00 AM
chuching said...: Hi Duke! Gracita here! I found your blog through Pia, who's also a w@wie. Kainis yung Filipina na yun ha! Ano akala niya sa sarili niya? When I was still in Pinas, to be honest, I didn't think high of domestic helpers as well. But when I came here, I realized how these people work so hard to earn a decent living for their family. Indeed, they should be called Bayani ng Bayan. Tapos this girl you met looks down upon her own kabayan? Tsk, tsk. Kainis, grabe!; 8/26/2005 10:01:00 PM
Elaine said...: Ei Duch! I just read this entry, and like what most of the respondents' reaction, I, too, was super pissed at that "Old Lady" G. The nerve ha! If I ever encounter anyone like that, ay nako! The first time she utters a downright insult, whether intentional or not, *Whapaaaakkk* agad sya! Life has taught me how to stand up for what I believe in, and I don't believe in putting people down without knowing anything about that person. Masyado syang presumptive about you. Just because you're Pinay doesn't mean you're like this or that. Ikaw pa? Gusto ko tuloy gerahin yung tao na yun. Pakita mo sa akin, Duke, ako ang susupalpal sa kanya for you. No one messes with a Cebubabe! ;); 9/06/2005 09:29:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Napadaan lang, ang yabang naman yang pinay na yan buti hindi mo binatukan maski mas matanda sa iyo nakakainis diba?; 9/08/2005 01:44:00 AM
jen said...: hay naku duke! ang bait mo masyado. kung ako ang nakaencounter ng ganyan, iiwan ko na sya. sayang lang ang oras namin pareho.; 9/19/2005 02:46:00 AM

Confessions of an Expat's Wife

August 13, 2005

2 Pinays, a foreigner and Pansit...

35 Comments:

About Me

My Indulgence

Recent Thoughts

My Daily Reads

Links and Infos