THE FILIPINO TRAITS (ARE YOU PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE?)

We don’t have a blonde hair, blue eyes, and a perfect shape of nose. A typical Filipino doesn’t have a tall height unlike other nationalities. Most of us were born poor, don’t own a car and other properties. Riding a jeepney is the popular means of our public transportation and white rice is our staple food. I love everything about us and the following characteristics describe who we are.

A Filipino has...

Hospitality

We have this kind of attitude of keeping the new utensils, curtains, bed sheets, pillow covers, and blankets in the storage or cabinet because we are reserving it for sudden visitors that will come in our home. There are also instances when the family members will sleep in the living room just to give the bedrooms to the guests. It is in our mindset to offer the best service that we can give to them. We want to make sure that they are comfortable and can feel our warm welcome.

Courtesy

We were taught to show our respect to the elders by doing the “Mano Po”. It is an act of getting one of the hands of an elderly and put it on our forehead. It is done whenever we are saying our greetings and goodbyes to them. We also used “Po and Opo” in our sentences. These are the words that indicate our humbleness to accept the superiority of a person over us. It has no exact translation in English so we don’t include it when we are using a foreign language, but expect it in Tagalog conversations.

Family-oriented

Instead of sending our parents in the nursing homes for the aged when they are getting older, we choose to take care of them personally. We want to stay on their side specially when they need assistance such as feeding, giving medications, and helping them to take a bath. In terms of our siblings, we are always willing to sacrifice. Usually, when a family couldn’t afford to give all the children’s proper education in school, it’s the eldest who give way to the younger ones.

Positivity

We can still smile and laugh regardless of how hard the life is. The suicidal cases in our country are not as high compared to other rich countries. Maybe one of the reasons is that hindrance is like a normal phase in our everyday activities. We are not picky when it comes to finding jobs and the food that we are eating. We are contented to have three meals per day and it doesn’t matter if we have sardines for the whole week. To be optimistic about everything is our motto.

Unity

We are easy to approach and love to give a helping hand to each other. We have in our blood the system called “Bayanihan”. The perfect example of it is the People Power that happened in Edsa on 1986, it is well-known for being a bloodless revolution. Thousands of Filipinos gathered together in the most peaceful way as possible for the sake of our Motherland and its citizens. Misunderstandings may arise anytime but at the end of the day, we are still one nation with one heart.

"I am a proud Filipino and Philippines is where my soul belongs."