So I was thinking that I would write about some different aspects of my daily life and experiences here. I have met a lot of people here from different parts of the world and walks of life. When I meet rich students from the local universities I am stuck just how similar they are to Americans. They talk with American accents, drive big cars, have way nicer condos or houses than I have, and just in general remind me of Americans. People frequently tell me, sometimes as if they are embarrassed, that they come from “colonial” families. They seem to represent an elite here but this is one aspect of Filipino society that I am not interested in. I still find it hard to believe that American culture is so popular around the world and especially here. I was talking to a Spanish guy and I asked him if he saw any of Spain left here in the Philippines since the Spanish have been here for almost 400 years. He said the Philippines has become completely American and I agree with him in a sense but I don't see that as completely a bad thing. The Philippines has a long and complex history with more powerful countries interference and cultural influence and so the nation now seems to have an eclectic mix of cultures. There are supposedly towns where they still speak Spanish and I even heard that there is a city somewhere where the local people speak English with strong American accents. I heard there was a US military base there at some point and the locals were close to the Americans even though there aren't any Americans left, they retained their accent for some reason. The American influence in the Philippines is definitely obvious and I thought it was interesting to here some of the French and Germans complain that but honestly I have no sympathy for them. Maybe its because of my American background but I have little patience for Europeans that insult other cultures they consider to be inferior. I hate that kind of snobbish crap. One German girl even tried to tell me in front of a bunch of Filipinos that Filipinos are some of the most depressed people in the the world because of how poor and corrupt the country is and their lack of a strong cultural identity. I got upset and argued with her. I don't know where she found those statistics but regardless, I think it is just rude to say that kind of crap in front of Filipinos. It reminds of when I met this guy from Chicago at a bar here and the first thing he told me before any of the usual small talk that you have with people you just meet, that America is "finished". I discussed with him and I didn't necessarily disagree with all of his opinions I just think that insulting someone's country to someone you just met is poor form.
Sometimes people here describe America to me as an amazing place and don't get me wrong I love America but I try to explain the reality to them. American government also has corruption and there are plenty of problems in America nowadays. People also sometimes treat me with a lot of undeserved respect just because I am American. They are polite to me, call me sir, and share their desire with me that the Philippines become more like America. We can discuss that but what I make sure to convey is that I am no different than them. I'm just a sauce who happened to be born in Pittsburgh and spent my teenage years drinking and doing other irresponsible crap. I made through university somehow but fundamentally Filipinos have nothing to learn from me. I came here to learn from them.
Aside from the students and other volunteers I have met some other characters. I remember I was walking with my dad at the Chinese garden in Rizal park and this guy came out of nowhere and felt the need to reassure me of his love for America. He was super excited and I think a little bit crazy somewhere but he told us:
“Some of my countrymen, they don't like America. They say they are conquerors but I know the truth. America saved the people of Iraq and Iran. You save people and liberate the world!”
He said more but I don't really remember most of it. I just laughed while he was talking but I thanked him afterwords. I have never agreed with the war in Iraq but hearing a Filipino congratulate me on something that I thought was the one of the biggest mistakes of US foreign policy in my lifetime was interesting in and of itself. Throughout my education I have gotten a lot of different perspectives on world politics and Americas role and it's not always negative like I would have thought. While I was living in Hawaii I remember talking to a Hawaiian guy and he was telling that Honolulu is not Hawaii. Hawaii is a paradise. This city is just a part of America that forced its way over here. I asked him if he was upset about how the US government treated Hawaiians and just said it was better the US than the Japanese. That was their options.
I remember another conversation I had with a guy from Chile in a bar in Vancouver and I was asking him about Allende and Pinochet and if he was upset with how the CIA was involved in planting Pinochet in power. He told me it was one of the best things for Chile and he continued to say that when the US government acts in South America to undermine the local government it is usually in the best interest of the people. I was definitely surprised by this and I have met a lot of South Americans who told me similar but also the complete opposite. Personally I don't like the idea that the CIA works sometimes to undermine the democracies and governments of other countries and I think Pinochet was perhaps important for the growth of the economy of Chile but I don't see how anyone can be comfortable with his disregard for human rights and the welfare of the majority of his people.
Another interesting thing was when a Korean guy personally thanked me for the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. He was teaching a Korean class at a community center in Manila and I went for the first class since we are friends and I teach Japanese there also. He gave a presentation about Korean history and the atomic bomb and thus the end of the WW2 was part of it. I was sitting in a classroom of Filipinos and when he showed a picture of the atomic bomb and thanked me for America ending the war and Japanese colonization of Korea and all the Filipinos always murmured their thanks also. I have to say it was bizarre for me to hear that. I have very mixed views about the atomic bomb. Even if I can agree with some the arguments that the bomb was important to quickly end the war and perhaps did save lives, the tragedy of the atomic bomb is what strikes me. I went to Hiroshima and the peace museum there. That was very difficult for me and since I am not a poet it is hard for me to adequately express my feelings at that time. I also met a woman who told me that she saw the bomb when she was child and with my relatively weak Japanese skill at the time it was impossible to say anything meaningful. Even if she spoke fluent English I don't even know what I could say aside from recognizing the tragedy. I have always thought that Obama should go to Hiroshima while he is president not to “apologize” for America but to recognize the gravity of the decision and set the stage to move on from this nuclear legacy. Even with all of his rhetoric about a “nuclear-free world” he still has not gone there and it seems that his rhetoric is just that, rhetoric...
I could also write about an interesting experience I had last Sunday. Five lawyers from Japan came to Maligaya House to interview our clients about a lawsuit we are filing. The law in Japan is that if there is a child with a Japanese parent born outside of Japan, to acquire Japanese nationality they have to contact the Japanese embassy within three months. The average Filipino or Japanese doesn't know this and so when they try to acquire the nationality later on for their kid, the Japanese embassy rejects them. There was even a case where the Japanese man promised to file the birth certificate of his child in his family registry in Japan and took all of the documents to Japan where he supposedly destroyed them so their would be no record of his wife and children in the Philippines. So we are filing a class-action lawsuit against the Japanese government in an effort to ascertain Japanese citizenship for the kids. The lawyers came just to get the statements from the clients and next month a dozen of the Filipinos are going to represent the others in court with our lawyers (who are also volunteers). We are hoping to change the Japanese law because a three month time limit is too strict and these Japanese-Filipino children have the right to citizenship.
My role on Sunday was to interpret Japanese to English. Some of the lawyers spoke decent English so I helped translate for the lawyers who did not know much English. The first interview went smoothly. The client only had one child and she spoke decent English so we could finish in an hour or so. The second interview was a completely different story. That lady spoke almost no English but knew some broken Japanese. So I had to translate the question from the lawyer to English and then my co-worker translated that into Tagalog. Especially since she had four children with this Japanese guy, it took a long time. The problem was that we were talking about events that happened like 15 years ago and so her memory was a bit fuzzy. Not only was there a language barrier but her story occasionally changed and so me and the lawyer were getting frustrated by the end. It took 4 hours and I couldn't take my lunch until 3 o'clock but by the end it was all OK and it worked out. I don't like to brag but by the end of the day I was thinking that when I first started studying Japanese two and a half years ago I had no idea that I would be able to translate between a Japanese lawyer and a Filipino lady. That being said my Tagalog also is getting a bit better. I practice with my friends and my co-worker.
My teaching of Japanese is going smoothly and is getting easier each time I go there. My first lesson was sort of difficult for me because I did not know how much Japanese they understood and had learned. In a sense it is not a serious class. I don't get any money for it and the kids don't have to pay but they are surprisingly very serious students. I haven't really prepared any lesson plans. I like to just improvise. I always go there with something new that I can teach them in my mind but I try and find out what they want to learn and go from there. It's pretty relaxed and there are usually under ten students so I can really work with each one of them. I think I am a much better Japanese teacher than English teacher. I don't English grammar and I can't explain the rules to people that are trying to learn but I worked hard to understand Japanese and I know what the hard parts are. Overall it is pretty rewarding for me to teach, I like the kids, and it helps me remember some of the older grammar that I don't use that much.
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