Mandaue City: 1.5 Days in 6 Perspectives (Part Two-The People)

In Part One of my Mandaue City blog series, I concluded that Mandaue City feels much like home but certain differences such as minimal traffic congestion and safety makes it an irresistible place to go in the Philippines. In Part Two, we will tackle the people which are one of the charms of this city! Let’s start!

The “Nicer” Ones

They say that foreign tourists prefer to enter the Philippines via Cebu rather than through Manila. Besides some of the “outdated” airports in Manila, most foreigners will tell you that the people in Metro Cebu are “nicer”. After my short stay, I could say that Cebuanos in general are nice and accommodating. I never experienced so far any rude of unruly behaviour of any kind with the people we encountered during my stay. The utility company representative who even met and knew us simply by our calling cards gladly gave us a ride to their main office using his private vehicle (I guess) without thinking twice. If you are in Metro Manila, you would surely think twice to give a ride to people that you only knew for only about half-an-hour!

On top of that, they are law abiders as well. As our work requires travelling through the commercial and urban streets of Cebu and Mandaue City, I haven’t seen jaywalkers, irresponsible motorists (both private and public drivers) and obtrusive vendors along the sidewalk and roadway. Not to mention a low city crime rate that I could somehow attest true. Good thing that we resisted disobeying the traffic rules of the city. A simple jaywalking violation from our end would surely show a bad reflection to the Metro Manila people in the eyes of our fellow Cebuanos!

Tagalog or Bisaya?

“Tagalog o Bisaya?” is the common question that we hear from the people that we met? Tagalog pertains to people either from the Metro Manila or from the North (Luzon area perhaps). Even though our national language is Filipino which is based on the Tagalog dialect, almost all Filipinos (mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao area) speak the Bisaya dialect and its several versions from place-to-place. If you answer them that you are a Tagalog, they will humbly pardon themselves for their poor Tagalog language. Modesty aside and to be honestly fair, they could speak proper basic Tagalog, except for the Cebuanos in the downtown who speak only Bisaya. We experienced talking to a tricycle driver asking for directions: we asked in Tagalog while he replied in Bisaya (talk about “lost in translation”, Filipino style). It was stressful but also an interesting experience!

In Summary

Even though there are language barriers that make socializing a bit challenging, Cebuano’s kindness and modesty is a universal language that all of us can certainly understand and relate! Cebuano’s in general embodies what Filipinos are widely known outside of our country: people who are kind, hospitable and always wear a (wonderful) smile!

On Part Three, we will talk about FOOD (oh yeah)! Ikimashou!