The Filipino Smile
>> Sunday, July 16, 2006
Last Wednesday, an article came out on the Philippine Daily Inquirer website saying that the Philippines ranks 17th in a survey of the happiest nations on Earth made by New Economics Foundation.
This bit of news comes in the wake of the ravaging done by typhoons Ester and Florita this past week, which leave behind them loss of life and destruction of property. Let's not forget the other instances that are reasons enough to make the Filipino's life miserable, such as poverty, poor quality of education, lack of proper health care services, and a government that is beset by corruption and completely unable to address these issues adequately.
So, why do Filipinos remain happy despite all these problems that would have torn someone from another nation apart? What makes the Filipino smile in spite of all his adversities? Is it the support that the tight family and kinship system provides him? Is it his spirituality and his deep faith in a Supreme Being, never mind that the Roman Catholic Church here can get so misguided and sometimes leads its blind followers astray?
I am not a psychologist nor a sociologist, so I would not even pretend to have the answers to these questions that I have posed. All I can say is that nothing in the world truly beats the Filipino smile.
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1 comments:
Hi Anna!
Thanks for your thoughts on the "Filipino smile". I think part of a possible answer is the fact that smiling is a deeply anchored part of our social behavior, which is taken for granted most of the time.
I'm not sure, but when I compare international TV-show formats as they appear in the Philippines vs. such that are produced in Europe, you can really see how much more frequently people smile as a form of communication in the Philippine versions. While Europeans tend to smile "only" if there is something pleasing about the situation, Filipino candidates seem to use smiling as a strategy to indicate both good as well as bad, i.e. threatening, situations.
In addition, I was taken aback one day when my (European) boss accused me of constatly "laughing" at him. I had to defend myself by explaining to him that "where I come from", we smile at people, even if there is nothing funny, just to acknowledge that the other person is in the room. It's like saying hi but with no words. Oh, di ba? ;-)
But that's just my 2 cents.
Ingat, take care... and keep smiling :-)
LK
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