Author: Reekay V.
Since 2012 I’ve been traveling through various islands of the Philippines as a full-time Expat and spent 1999 living in Vietnam.
Share with me my ongoing adventures of life in the Philippines. Hopefully you find my observations helpful in your own adventures.
— Reekay
The first time I heard my filipina love of 31 years say “bear” it melted my heart.
Talking is way overrated as to being effective at solving relationship problems. When a relationship is good it is surprising how little conversation is needed whereas in bad relationships whatever is said is liable to become weaponized and used for the next verbal assault.
As a person who lived and worked in Taiwan for years teaching and now still do language stuff with adults online, I think people put too much stock into perfection. Can you communicate clearly? Good enough.
I do get annoyed with the he/she stuff, though.
When my wife and I first got together she would state the obvious, I thought did I marry a nag? Fortunately I kept my mouth shut. In her mind she was being helpful
Am having these language issues often here in the Philippines. I am quickly concluding that some working knowledge of the local language is needed.
Always enjoy your views – well said.
They mix up hope and wish all of the time too!
I know exactly what you mean. My Filipina says “Can I call and bother you”, at first I told her bother wasn’t the right word, instead of bother I told her, say can I call you and talk with you. We got a laugh out of it, but she still says it as a private joke between us. Thanks for covering this topic, I also love her accent.
“Don’t forget to drink your medicine ” is another common expression of care when you are sick.
You know what was my mind even before you said that statement ( Don’t forget to eat . You mention that statement seems late last year . So funny . Also I remember watching a video about in the province they kill a cobra and the lady said make sure you cut out the snake eyes because the snake family will hunt you down.
Two words phrases that I hear used that confused me for a while: 1. If Ever ( I “think” they mean if you ever can), and 2. First. They may say, I’ll eat first or, I’ll do the dishes first. I believe they mean now. Somewhere in teaching English in the Philippines there seems to be something taught incorrectly or maybe they need to teach more about the words “now” and “first”. I have heard it in lots of videos and video chats. It’s a very small thing, but since we can’t change the learned English, Tourists/LDR guys/Expats should understand that if they say I’m going to do x first, they mean I’m going to do x now.
I agree that I really like the Filipina accent. I find it very attractive. I’m not sure why. I watched some Thailand videos, and I don’t like that accent as well.
I would propose instead of bridging the communication gap, reduce the gap size altogether by choosing a girl with a college degree. I have dated (age-gap) a high school grad, bachelors grad and masters grad (full-time in Philippines) and a huge load of “communication issues” vanish when you aim higher on the food chain!
I grew up with a Japanese speaking mother that didn’t take the time to learn English so she was always left out of conversations we had around the dinner table. So I made up my mind that wasn’t going to ever happen to me and if I decide to live here in the Philippines, I will take the time to learn the language, a little everyday. It’s amazing how much you can learn in a year.
No moneyyyyy …
One phrase I always get here in Canada is “dont work too hard”
3:47 “Don’t forget to eat.”
Actually that’s so cute. That kind of thing has to be a reason to move there.
I have been struggling for 2 years now with my girlfriend talking to me like I am 5 years old. It might be part of their culture but I can’t deal with it. I have had 2 Filipina wives and they never did that.
I’m in the UK and I’ve been talking to a Pinay for a couple of months, and although she is actually an English teacher, we have had issues over the use of words. The biggest one was the use of the word ‘expect’. She asked me what I expected of her. I said I didn’t expect anything of her. But to her, that meant I didn’t want anything from her. So now, I think very carefully about the words I use.
Thank you for this message. I am a quiet person who is succinct in my conversations. And with English not being my Filipinas first language she speaks less than she normally does in her native tongue. But with videos like this it give me an opportunity to use some of your thoughts to have a conversation with her so we can deepen our relationship.
My Filipina always referees to my dog whose name is Dude and says “Kiss me to Dude”. I think its cute so she has two kids and I say “Kiss me to the Kids”
G’day Reekay, another interesting video mate. I understand what your saying about there accents. I love it to. I’m just wondering if one was to live in Philippines long enough, you’d develop the same accent.