Do the Filipinos walk slow or is it that the rest of the world just walks pretty fast?! I guess I am talking nonsense. But yes, the Filipinos walk slowly. Weather it’s on the business streets of Makati or weather it’s the malls, the slow Filipino pace can be easily observed. It is another of those so stereotypical observations of Filipinos that one day I saw a girl in an office attire walking briskly on a street of Makati. Her back was towards me and she was fast enough to make me curious. I decided to play a little game with me and had a bet with myself that she cannot be a Filipino and I was damn right. When I overtook her, she indeed was a white girl. It is so very stereotypically. Who says you can’t stereotype any country or culture. Some traits I guess can be.
Note – I am not criticizing the slow walk! It also speaks of the easy going and relaxed nature of the Filipinos in an otherwise stressed out world.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
China vs Philippines
I have observed in whatever little china I have seen as compared to the extensive exposure to Philippines, Chinese are pretty good with Math. At least in comparison to the Filipinos. The reason I do not compare this skill to India (the only other country I have been exposed to extensively) is cuz I don't see anything stereotypical on this in India.
Filipinos seem to be either really bad with Math or just plain dumbly process oriented. OK to cut my verbosity short with a straight forward example...
If you go to a shop/mall in Philippines and buy something that is lets say for PHP 50 and you give a PHP 100 bill to the cashier, the person on the cash counter will do a 100 - 50 on a calculator and return you PHP 50. Every single cash transaction anywhere in Philippines will produce such an observation with a 6 sigma like precision. This is almost the opposite in countries like Hong Kong and Macau (I have not been anywhere else in China!). Even if the transactions are kind of complicated (eg you give a HKD 100 bill for a purchase of HKD 36.5) as compared to the above one, you'll get your change back without a calculator coming into the picture.
Filipinos seem to be either really bad with Math or just plain dumbly process oriented. OK to cut my verbosity short with a straight forward example...
If you go to a shop/mall in Philippines and buy something that is lets say for PHP 50 and you give a PHP 100 bill to the cashier, the person on the cash counter will do a 100 - 50 on a calculator and return you PHP 50. Every single cash transaction anywhere in Philippines will produce such an observation with a 6 sigma like precision. This is almost the opposite in countries like Hong Kong and Macau (I have not been anywhere else in China!). Even if the transactions are kind of complicated (eg you give a HKD 100 bill for a purchase of HKD 36.5) as compared to the above one, you'll get your change back without a calculator coming into the picture.
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