1-minute videos | The End Justifies the Journey

The Philippines is actually also known (if not more known) for its beautiful natural resources, particularly the 7,100-plus islands. It’s not all about Philippine politics, calamities, and tragedies. Oh, but many do know that already.

I’m not going to talk about islands for now, however. I just thought that would get your attention, ha ha. Rather, I’d like to share stuff regarding the country’s other best-known assets–the people. In fact, I’ve talked about it in The Great Philippine Experience:

“…many tourists seem to come back again and again…When it comes to the Philippines, it is not merely the sceneries and the wonders that attract tourists. More than these, it is the people and their rich culture that makes the Philippines a much-loved travel destination.”

Even Nuseir Yassin, a.k.a. Nas gave big credit to the Filipino people in 8 Days in the Philippines. (See The PH)

But why just take our word for it? The better idea is to take these foreign missionaries’ words for it! They have stayed in the country for a long enough time to appreciate its people. Some have even enjoyed a certain level of fame, having somewhat become celebrities, for instance, the boys of the Hey Joe Show, “a multi-platform social media group dedicated to celebrating and exposing Filipino culture to a global audience”. They can tell you what to expect when you’re in the Philippines.

FILIPINO CULTURE

It’s various interview clips, so it’s long, but you can always skip some of them. Personally, listening to them made me realize more things and made me proud to be Filipino, despite all the negatives. I was smiling almost from start to end, even laughing sometimes. First guy here is Connor Peck from the show I mentioned.

FUNNY THINGS FILIPINOS DO (by Sumner Mahaffey of the Hey Joe Show, and he also joined I Love OPM, singing competition for 100% non-Filipinos singing local songs)

Some of the things Sumner says here are not mentioned in the previous video.

There are more things to explain how the Filipino is. Will share more in future posts.

Meanwhile, just like in any other country, one of the most important things when you visit is to learn the language. It is very important, though often neglected. But if you’re staying for a long while, it is advised that you learn the language. Speak, as the Pinoys do.

This is what Fil-American Wil Dasovich did when he came to stay in his mother’s native country. Wil is a popular vlogger (or YouTuber, if you may) known for talking a lot in the Filipino dialect called Tagalog.

But what sticks to most Pinoys’ minds is not only his American accent, but his weird Tagalog combos–he just simultaneously speaks in deep Tagalog, Taglish (Tagalog-English), sometimes hippie lingo, often beki (gay) speak without batting an eyelash. He explains why in the video below (I contributed the translation of the Filipino words, so from 0:09, those words were from me, simply enable captions). Nevertheless, I still encourage any foreigner or half-foreigner who wants to stay here for years to do what Wil did.

When I started my whole blogging journey from years ago, to promote the country–my country–had been one of my goals. Well, promote in my own way. I wanted people of other nationalities to see Filipinos in a positive light, not just always in the negative:

Yes, we are third-world, but we do have well-educated “Pinoys” (Filipinos).
No, we’re not terrorists just because we’re Pinoys, and what a few of us do, they do not necessarily define the Filipino.
Yes, we are Asians, but we’re not all Chinese, although there are “Chinoys” (Filipino-Chinese).
Yes, traffic does suck big time in the metro. (Sure, that’s not positive, but you can either choose to be positive or suffer a heart attack getting mad at traffic, right?)

Etcetera…

But it was a more personal blog, too, and I ended up pouring my heart out sometimes and showing too much of my opinionated side. Both were not really bad, plus such fell under my rights as a blogger and an individual, except I was not able to do more.

Now that I’m in WordPress, it has rekindled this urge to let others know what Pinoys are about. I have been slowly trying to do that, except my efforts are still lacking, IMO. So I am to amp the effort some more. And while I aim to promote the Philippines, I will not be so pretentious as to deny anything negative that is going to be brought up. I’d rather explain it clearly than lie or avoid any negative questions that may arise. I’d rather you hear the truth from me.

So in connection with this, I am going to post more Pinoy-related stuff here and all links can be found on my soon-to-be-added page called PH Box. I have already posted a few Pinoy-related stuff before (such as my recent explanation on why Pinoys are said to be good singers, in connection to David DiMuzio‘s vlog post) so the links to them will be there, too. There’ll be articles and blogs. I will be sharing videos, too, that I can find.

Vlogs from popular vloggers like Mikey Bustos (Pinoy) of PinoyBoy Channel and his #MabuhaySquad, Wil Dasovich (half-Pinoy) and the rest of the #VlogSquad, and Kyle “Kulas” Jennermann (Honorary Pinoy) of Becoming Filipino channel, and some others will be shared from time to time. Feel free to check out their vlogs now, if you want.

So for “opening salvo”, I am sharing this viral video called 8 Days in the Philippines. This is by Nuseir Yassin, a.k.a. Nas, known for the videos he creates for Nas Daily, particularly his travel vlogs. Eight minutes seem long, but I promise you, you won’t regret watching it. It shows some of the good in this country, as well as some of the bad.

Now, just to let you know more of my people, here’s a kind of intro from comedian-vlogger (not to mention, Canadian Idol alumnus) Mikey Bustos, known for his parodies and wonderful efforts to show the Filipinos to the world. He does a Moana parody, so check it out! 😉