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of the “outdated” airports in Manila, most foreigners will tell you that the people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!
majority of cebuanos are more fluent in english than in filipino/ tagalog
ReplyDeleteYup, I agree. That's good for foreigners but bad for Filipinos who are poor in their English vocabulary lol. :D
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