guess what?

I seriously need to get out of my shell and hopefully you guys don’t get bored reading this because it’s so long (lol). This week's blog will be a little personal, but I would like to share this to all of you.

When I was young, I loved performing and I was very talkative. But what happened to the confident me?

What you see outside of me, as in the way I show myself is not who I really am. I am constantly labeled as the girl who doesn’t like talk, the shy one, the boring one, the girl who doesn't like to do anything, etc. It hurts to hear that because I know deep inside that is not who I am. However, that is how I portray myself. Some sociologist says that stereotype continues to exist because we make it as our strength. We make the negative part of it into something positive. Not all of you may agree on that theory or may not even understand what I was trying to say, but I think that's the reason why the constant labeling towards me molded me to “who I am.” Because I am constantly being called as a shy person, I became a shy person. Because I am constantly being called a quiet person, I became a quiet person. I was labeled before they knew who I really was. And the sad part is, I just let people mold me into something I'm really not.

Since I am shy, I prevent myself from being humiliated. Therefore, I don’t speak. Because I “ignore” people they think that I am a snob or unfriendly. However, when I know you and choose not to talk to you, it usually means I don’t like talking to you (lol). I will still be friendly, but if you’re someone who forces your opinion even if 5 people with proof of evidence gank up on you saying that you are wrong, then I just find that annoying. And if you’re someone who constantly talks about yourself, calling yourself the best, think you’re better than everybody else, and simply a know-it-all, then yeah I would not want to have a long conversation with you. Wow, sorry if I sounded like a b!tch (LOL). Reason why I avoid people like that is because I don’t want to start and fuss. So it’s better to not say anything at all.

Here’s a funny one. My friends would ask me why I did not say hi to them. The reason is that I don’t like the feeling of embarrassment and stupidity when I try to say hi to someone because they did not hear me or see me at all. 

I would like to show a few facial expressions and what they really mean when I portray them. Hopefully after clarifying these, people would stop misinterpreting my expressions when they see me.

This is so not my angry face. I hate wearing contacts and glasses so I have to constantly squint. And no, I am not staring you down. I'm just trying to see if I know you are, so sorry if it looks like I’m mad at you. I seriously need to get contacts (lol).

I am not sad. This expression usually means exhaustion or I could be thinking about something.

And sorry if I look irritated. I’m just hungry (lol).

Look how much I opened up. I even showed you guys how I look like when going to bed (lol)! But don’t you just <3 my bun? ^-^v

Oops!

Okay, there was this one time when I was studying on my kitchen table, and then all of a sudden, this random guy that I don't even know walked straight to the fridge and started grabbing and eating food. I was just staring at him, and in my head I was like, “What the f***? So rude! Who is this guy raiding my kitchen?” He was one of my sister's friends who came over to visit her. But even though my sister knew him, I still thought that it is completely rude of him to raid my kitchen without even asking politely.

For being Asian, I was raised to be “super polite.” When I visit my friends' house, I had the habit of taking off my shoes, respecting their stuff by not touching anything, and staying in one spot waiting until I am welcomed to do whatever. When I was little I was told to stay and sit still because it isn't our home, and so that I don't invade their space. My friends are nothing like that. They make themselves feel at home immediately. And I wasn’t  use to that. I was always called the “shy” one because of my behavior. But it’s not because I’m shy. It’s because of the customs that i was taught.  It took me awhile to adjust to my friends' customs and understand their behavior. I eventually got use to keeping my shoes on, but I still had the “shyness” behavior.

Because of cultural differences, people's gestures and body movements differ from each other. We tend to label another person rude  because of cultural differences. It took me awhile to finally realize that it is fine to welcome yourself since the owner of the property would want you to feel at home; not some bizarre uncomfortable place. But of course, everyone still have to respect each other’s space.  

Speaking of gestures, here are some interesting hand gestures that means differently in different countries.

• Thumbs Up

We consider this gesture as something positive. But did you know that in  Latin America this gesture means the same as pointing our “middle finger?”

• Waving

How is waving harmful? Isn’t it just a gesture used to say hi or say goodbye? Well, to Westerners it is. But to countries such as Greece, it’s insulting. In Greece, this gesture is called “moutza” which means “eat sh!t.” Yeah, you wouldn’t want to wave at someone if you visit Greece.

• Ok

This hand gesture is another positive gesture to call something “great” or if something is “okay.” However, in Germany, this gesture represents an anus. So if you attempt using this gesture, you would be calling someone an “asshole.”

• Peace sign

The peace sign is in every Asian picture you will see. For some odd reason, we just love making peace signs when taking pictures. Most of us even do double peace sings v^-^v. So to all Asian tourists, please be careful and try to avoid making peace signs when taking pictures when you visit United Kingdom; you might offend someone and start an ugly fight.

• Come here

This gesture is usually a form of telling someone to come to you. But I just recently found out that in the Philippines, this gesture is for dog calling. And if you get caught attempting this gesture, the authorities will arrest you and break your finger! I find it surprising because, my grandfather used to do this gesture to me. He usually does it when he calls me, so i thought that it's just a "calling" gesture in the Philippines too. But when he does that, I knew that he was mad at me and I was in BIG trouble. 

Isn’t that weird? We really have to be careful with our gestures when visiting other countries. You might offend someone. Just like the “rude” guy that raided my kitchen, it’s better to understand the different cultural customs and gestures to avoid any offenses and fights because of the misunderstandings.

english please ^-^

Mabuhay! Kamusta mga kaibigan?

That phrases above literally means, “long live” and “how are you friends?” And that language is in Tagalog, my native language; a language from the Philippines. However, instead of Tagalog, we usually call our language “Taglish.” That is because our language is mixed with English. Get it? “Tag” from Tagalog and “ish” from English. Weird huh?

Get this. If an American visits my home country, he/she will not have a hard time communicating with the natives there. Why? That is because everyone there know how to speak English fairly well (their accent is thick but their grammar is very well, well enough that a lot sounds like a college professor). If not, then some Filipinos will be able to at least understand English just fine. Now, you might be asking why on earth are they speaking “Taglish?”

Here's my thought. In the Philippines, English is a priority. Their national language Tagalog and English are taught there in schools, public and private. You will hear English in Filipino television shows, news, radio, songs, etc. Since English is globally used for education, media, politics and business, it somewhat symbolizes success. Since language is an important means of communication to share ideas, feelings, thoughts, etc., we must be able to communicate with different country for economic and political purposes. As we all know, English is the language that is used for global trade or global economy.

Philippines is a third world country, very poor with economical crisis. Imagine if the people of Philippines did not consider learning English, how will they be part of the global trade. The country would be in even worst condition, a country who would not have any ally for aid and support. After all, every country runs under globalization, each country depends on another country.

There are more English speakers in the world than Tagalog, and on top of that most English countries are doing well economy wise. So why not learn English and learn and communicate with countries who are doing well. Philippines is not the only country that considers learning the English language and western custom for the global trade. Countries such as Korean, China, and Japan are as well. You can see how big China has grown from the trade, but if China did not know how to speak English which gave them the ability to communicate with the west for trades, would they be as successful as they are today?

It may seem like that English is dominating, but it's okay. It is actually nice that each country in our world is able to communicate somehow. Imagine how difficult and frustrating it would be if no country consider learning each others' language. A country has specific resources that some country cannot get so this is when trade comes in. Without the ability to communicate with other countries we may not even be able to acquire important resources that we can't gather in our own country.  

short can be better

This week's assignment, we were assigned to read a chapter about writing improvement. There were a lot of good articles in this chapter that provided good information on how to improve your writing. I've learned a lot from each essay but I will share my favorite.

I want to confess something to all of you. And I bet I'm not the only one who does this “thing” that I am about to share. I will illustrate that; I guess I'm a 

Just kidding. We're not cheaters. We just want to look for a better word to use. The word cheater is too strong so I wanted to tone it down a bit. The problem is, the synonym my program provides are no good either. If I choose one of those, I will sound like I'm trying to hard to sound "academic." And if I decide to say, "I guess I'm a wrongdoer," it just sounds so weird and unnatural.

This is what I want to share with all of you. According to writer Richard Lederer, "short words are as good as long ones" (122). When we are assigned to write reports, we try to sound "intelligent" as much as we can. And the best way to do that is either look up a thesaurus or do what I illustrated above. Because we stress this so much, we do not realize that "small words . . . can meet your needs with a strength, grace and charm that large words do not have" (122).

Every report I wrote I try to sound smart as I can. I type down a word we use everyday, then look up a synonym that sounds more “intelligent.” I thought the use of simple words were weak. And all I want is to impress the teachers. There are times when I constantly switch small words to bigger ones, and as a result I can't even understand my own paper. On top of that, it won't sound like me. It's not my real voice.

After reading Richard Lederer's essay The Case for Short Words, he made me understand how simple short words can actually be more powerful than using big words. He supported his argument by introducing William Shakespeare's work; “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.” A lot of his work contains small words with only one syllable.

It's just now that I realized that by using one syllable words, you can actually create something that sounds creative and easy to read. You won't have to worry about twisted tongues trying to pronounce big words.

I would like to attempt to write a short paragraph by using only one syllable words. Hope it turns out okay (lol).

Tests are soon to come. So he works night and day. “Boy I sure do see stress in him,” I say. He scratched his head, he stretched his neck, he reads all texts and writes all day. I give make him food, I rub his back, I give him hugs and cheer all day. “I hope you feel great now,” I say. I wished him luck and prayed for the best that he will pass those tests. One week from now, he has the grades. All I can say is, “I am proud for the hard work you have done through all those days.”

I tired my best (lol). It's interesting how it came out like a poem. I like how it made me sound so sincere and caring. Just like Lederer's point, I don't think that by using long big words can achieve the sincerity I portrayed in that paragraph. It was actually kind of fun writing that paragraph. You should try it too. c[;