October 10, 2019
Magandang Umaga sa
inyo! (Good day, everyone)
Today I talked about
a common misconception that Filipinos have when it comes to understanding what
‘American’ means. In the Philippines, everyone’s race, nationality, and
language are the same. Their race is Filipino, their nationality is Filipino,
and in general all languages are ‘Filipino’. While in America, people’s
nationality can differ depending on their situation. There are Americans,
Canadians, and even Mexicans. Some, are duel citizens where they can be, say,
American-Filipino.
In America, people
categorize themselves by their race and the state they’re from rather than the
nationality or the language they speak. No one says that they’re ‘Spanish’
because they speak Spanish. Most say that they’re Mexican or Latino or Hispanic
but many don’t declare that they are Spanish. More commonly, people who speak
Spanish say that they can speak the language.\
How exactly does one
describe themselves then as an American? My personal description is that I’m a
Filipino who’s from West Texas. Unless a person goes out of state, there’s no
reason to mention that you’re from the state that you’re currently in. If
anything, people say ‘I’m from here’ which usually indicates that they hometown
is the location that the two people are currently having the conversation in. I
would say that I’m from West Texas because there are five sections of Texas
since it is big enough. The parts of Texas are: North, South, East, West, and
Central. Each of these sections are separated because they have different
biomes or different trees, plants, animals, and such.
An outside example
would be if someone was from New York and they moved to Texas. They would then
say, “I’m from New York.” Most of them won’t mention which city specifically
because they don’t expect people from another state to know which city they’re
from unless it’s one of the popular locations like New York City or Boston.
They’re say their race, we’re going to go with Black for this example. I wanted
to say Black because not everyone who is that race will describe themselves as
‘Black’. It all depends on the context. The safest way to describe someone who
is ‘black’ is to listen to who they describe themselves and go with that
description for that person. Some may say that they’re African-American which
is also not a wrong description. (I could probably do a whole article over this
but I’m going to leave those two examples for now. If anyone has any questions,
leave them in the comment section of either the vlog or the blog post.
Whereas, in the
Philippines people will describe themselves by province or go even father and
add a specific location to help indicate where they are from. I’ll use myself as an example again. I’m
Igorat/Ilocano. My family descends from the Kankanae tribe. My mother’s side is
from Paltoc, San Emilio, Ilocos Sur and
my father’s side is from Labayug, Sison, Pangasinan. Some people from
the city area (like say Vigan City or Candon City) don’t like the word ‘Igorat’
or use it as a vulgar term to describe people who are illiterate or snobby because
people who are indigenous tend to have more land.
The fact is, people
who are indigenous have lineage to land that was claimed before the Spanish arrived and because of that, the family was able
to keep the land over time. It only means that their ancestors protected what
was important to them, not that they’re snobby or rich. A misconception that
I’ve run into is that people who are Igorat or Indigenous are considered snobby
because of the amount of land they have (this converts to how much money they
would have to buy the land). But, if the land was bought or claimed for cheap
or nothing at all in the past and was well protected over the years then the
land would not have been bought for an expensive price to begin with. It could
be sold for a higher price if it lasted generations but most Filipinos are
protective of their birthright and would not sell off their land that they’ve
had in the family for generations.
As an example of
someone who isn’t Indigenous, let’s say that someone is from Candon City. Their
mother is from Candon and their father is from Bantay. Both families have
Spanish last names (Let’s go with Garcia). They wouldn’t say that they come
from a Spanish background. Instead, they would indicate which language they
speak the best. Whereas, my cousins would say Itneg (the language of the
municipality), someone from Candon or Bantay may say Tagalog/Filipino or
Ilocano.
More people in the
Philippines tend to describe themselves with their language (since it is
regional) rather than saying that they’re ‘Filipino’. If someone were from
Pangasinan they wouldn’t say they’re Pangasinan, they’d say that they’re
Pangalatot (or a language that is spoken over in that province) where as
someone from Ilocos Sur or Norte would say ‘I’m Ilocano’. There have been
fights over whether the term ‘Iloco or Ilocano’ is correct and I’m not going to
fight people over something they feel so strongly about. It doesn’t matter to
me whether someone is Iloco or Ilocano as long as they’re not a bad person. In my
personal description I’m not considered Ilocano, I’m considered ‘Itneg’ since
it’s the language of my family. However, is more than one type of Ilocano
language as well as more than one Itneg language so even if I were to say that
I’m ‘Itneg’ it wouldn’t meant that I can understand someone who speaks a
variation of the language.
I hope this helps
clear up some confusion in either of my audiences. Let me know what you think
and if you have any questions that you want me to cover! Thank you for tuning in
this week and I’ll see you all next week! Also, I made a chart to help compare
last week’s conversation. I hope it helps both my audiences understand each
other better.
See you next week!
DJ/Cho/Nar
Keep up with me at the following:
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I began to vlog on October 2nd 2019! Whether you prefer to listen to my vlog, read my blog, or enjoying looking into both, I appreciate it!
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I began to vlog on October 2nd 2019! Whether you prefer to listen to my vlog, read my blog, or enjoying looking into both, I appreciate it!
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This will send me an email with your questions you don’t have to leave a name. I will post the answer to the blog!
This is mainly for communication so go ahead, add me. Message me every once in a while so that I remember who you are. Otherwise, I'll delete you at the end of the year when I clear through my facebook lol.
I follow anyone who follows me! This is mainly pictures of where I go!
Wattpad
Writing has always been a passion of mine. Interested in reading what's on my mind? Read up on a more emotional perspective of my life here!
