FrenchED

My 6 years existence in this country is starting to take its toll on me. Somebody told me that I could be considered integrated in this country when I start to think French and I start to dream French. My gowd, didn't I encounter Richard Gomez in my dreams last night? What was he saying? Mais, il parlait français? .. Oh my, he was speaking French and I was answering back.. in French!

...

I was whiling away my time at the café this afternoon with my colleagues, after lunch, and the conversation was directed to the gift check being received by parents from our Comité d'Entreprise (CE) for the school opening (that adds up to what they receive from the government). I timidly asked the amount and my colleague told me that I'll receive 15€ gift check next year, when I decide to enroll Louna to pre-school (the amount increases progressively depending on the child's age). My unguarded reaction was C'est tout? (that's all?).

People, when I first knew about this amount received from the CE and the government every school opening - and the Frenchies were still complaining, I had a totally different reaction. It was some kind of revolte for me that this population couldn't appreciate the beauty of their system anymore because they're so spoiled with all the financial aid they receive from their government. I even reiterated to them that in the Philippines, there's no such thing as gift checks so grade schoolers could buy a new bag, notebooks and pens. Let alone parents solve their own problems.

6 years after, a baby, loads of tax money paid and minimum incentives received, I finally start to realize that like all the French restaurants, the more you pay, the less you get on your plate. Can you blame me if I get carried away sometimes and be FrenchED?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Common question? Not here.

The first time I asked that question here (to Frenchguy's niece, she was 8 years old then), the parents (and the grandparents) looked at me like as if I'm from another planet. But hey, isn't it the first question asked in the Little Miss Philippines pageant on the primetime show Eat Bulaga?

With the look I got from everybody, I quickly understood that it's not their ordinary topic. French kids don't dream of becoming a doctor to help poor kids nor an astronaut to go to the moon at an early age (or at least to those I frequent). My niece had a massage kit when she was 3 years old because she wanted to be a physical therapist like her Mom and Dad. I asked the same question to kids of her age here and the parents had a good laugh out of my question telling me what do these kids know about professions at that age?

I met two parents with grown up daughters and they have a common problem. Their daughters still don't know what to pursue at 16 years old.

Frenchguy's niece told us she wanted to be a cashier in a department store when she grows up (she was 10 years old then). That is just to end the conversation. And I'm sure no Filipino kid will dream of that job even from the poorest of family. She's 12 years old now and still doesn't have any idea of what her dream job is.

My niece, 7 years old now, still dreams to be a Physical Therapist. She's studying in Japan (in an American school) and the first in her class.

Moi wanted to be a teacher before (like my parents) then changed my mind at 10 years old. My love for Math was probably encouraged by the dream of becoming an engineer, I don't really know. But this dream surely led me to where I am now.

How about you? Do you encourage your kids to dream big at an early age? How is it in other countries?

Posted at Pinoy Moms Network.

Color Coding

A friend of mine just had her former ex-pinay-now-Amgirl mother-in-law here in France and this morning, she was so eager to finally tell me her inis and relief that her mother-in-law finally left. She was so fed up as her mother-in-law went overboard by being so mayabang, and most especially, as she was told to be tsimay look-alike for having that baluga color.

After doing everything to be as hospitable as possible, that was what she gained. Honestly, when she told me about her adventure with her mother-in-law, I just couldn't help myself from laughing. I was just knocked by the idea that after long years of being in America, this poor mother-in-law still have the same standard of color / social discrimination - branding morenas as lower class citizens and fair-skinned as socialites. Oh well!

Here in Europe, we could trace back this kind of social classification in the Medieval Ages where tanned population were mostly the farmers while the noble families stay as pale white as they could. They even apply talc powders all over their body to get even whiter.

Now, the trend has completely inversed. If you've got a tanned skin, that would mean that you could pay yourself a vacation. If you've got a perfectly uniform tan all over your body, that would mean that you could even pay yourself a vacation in one of the European Nude Beaches. Sosyal ka day! And finally, if you've got a tanned skin all year round, that would mean that you've got a lot of bucks to pay yourself an artificial tan (tanning cream, tanning bed, sun lamps). O di ba.

In my present entourage, everybody envies my natural tan. Hehe, i don't have to pay expensive vacations to have that.

Well, is stereotyping normal? Ewan. The last time I was in Pinas, I was really nognog as I just came back from a long vacation, and most of my colleagues had the same remark: Ay, nakakaitim pala sa France. Buti na lang, I'm not really affected with such remark, proof, I never used whitening creams.

There's one remark which affected me though: Ano ba yan, hanggang ngayon, di ka pa rin tumataba. Well, it's past tense now, no more vitamins, appetizers, food supplements, etc. I just learned to love and accept who I am, and who wouldn't, lahat sila dito, inggit sa kin. I could eat anything I want without worrying about my weight :).

where did my accent go?

My colleague's phone rang just as I entered my office this morning, opps, I should say OUR office as I'm sharing it with him. Once again, he forgot to divert his phone calls to his voicemail and he's on a meeting the whole day, darn! So before I could even start my daily morning habit - removing my winter gadgets (coat and scarf), hanging them at the corner, opening my PC, pushing the start button, and lastly opening my window - I frantically grabbed the phone and answered:

Me: Analyse, Bonjour.
Early Morning Caller: Good morning. Can I please talk to Colleague?
Me: Oh, Colleague won't be in his office the whole day, do you want to leave a message? May I know who's on the line please?
EMC: It's Khun EMC. (Khun = Mr, Ms or Mrs in Thai language)
Me: Oh hi Khun EMC, it's Khun Analyse.
EMC: Oh, sorry, I didn't recognize you, I thought you were French!

And this wasn't my first encounter with this troubling bizarroide remark!

Encounter # 1:

I was on vacation in my beloved Philippines and was chit-chatting with my sister (in our dialect of course) with our usual 7-11 midnight snack when she looked at me seriously and said You know what, you sound Bisaya! No kidding!

Encounter # 2:

I was on vacation (again?) in the énormes US and was chit-chatting (again?) with my friend and suddenly, she told me Funny, you sound like frenchguy! Darn it!

Encounter # 3:

Pause-café. A colleague told me Sérieusement, je trouve que tu n'as pas beaucoup d'accent. (Seriously, I think that you don't have a lot of accent). Waaaaaaaaaaaah!

I don't believe this happening. Naman, it's just 2.5 years that I could consider myself francophone and voila the result? Oh my..

Where did my accent go?

when french complains..

WHY DO THEY TREAT THEMSELVES LIKE A DOG? THEY ALWAYS BARK!

French people have always something to complain and brag about, and mind you, that adds up to their overly elevated stress intake during the day that normally ends up with stress overdose. More often than not, their stress is psychological, nothing but a magnified micro-stress that naturally transforms into a mega-stress.

It normally starts with il ne fait pas beau aujourd'hui (the weather is not good today) - this is one of the major and favourite discussions to start the day. This brief sentence will of course grow into a paragraph, then into a book, until it becomes the best-seller with millions of copies translated into different languages sold all over the world. Yes, I call them la population Big Deal! Did you know that they even claim that they're less productive when il ne fait pas beau et quand il n'y a pas de soleil (when it's not sunny), and take note, this phenomenon is depressing for many! The funny thing is that, when it's sunny, they would say c'est dommage de travailler quand il fait beau comme ça (too sad that we have to work when it's sunny like that)! Or c'est dommage de rester à l'intérieur avec un soleil comme ça (too sad to stay inside in a sunny day like that). Haha, they will never be happy!

Here's the hit list of the causes of their stress gathered from my private observatory:

1. La ligne - if I were to give a sole adjective to the frenchies, I would choose vain. Read: V A I N ! They're always preoccupied about their body's sculpture. They love to eat and it's a fact, it's part of their culture, right? They would talk about food on the table...and yes, about their balanced diet. So anything that could hinder that objective is part of their stress. They would blame the excess fats, salt, sugar or whatever...but take note, they would never compromise the quantity and quality of what they eat! Did you know that there's a pese-personne (weighing scale) in every french bathroom??? Well, for those single and looking especially.

2. Le travail - let's start with their boss. Do I have to elaborate?

3. Les dépenses - everything that touches their hard-earned money requires detailed weighing before passing to the act of spending. They always fined everything trop cher (too expensive). If they could pass without paying, they would certainly do..so if you see two french people in Paris trying to squeeze themselves together infront of the Metro entry...it's not only because they're oh-so-romantic, it's also because they want to get away by saving one Metro (underground train) ticket too.

4. Le travail - it's either they've got a lot of work...

5. Les nounous - the nannies! They're marked as endangered species here...there are even some cities where soon-to-be-moms start their nounou hunt at their first month of pregnancy! And yes, what have you - they're either angels or bitches.

6. Le travail - or they've got nothing to do...

7. Les tâches ménagères - the problem is, if both are working, who will do the chore? And if they do, of course everybody should know! They talk a lot here, just about everything infront of a cup of tea or coffee. I guess I have to pass a decree here: minimize la pause café (coffee break)!

8. Le travail - sometimes they love it..

9. Le conjoint or simply l'ami/e- if they don't have a partner, of course it's a problem. They would interest in every uninteresting stuffs just to find one. And if they have one, OMG, you would ask yourself why they still stay together. Yep, they lack discretion here!

10. Le travail - but most of the time, they don't!

Another remarkable observation about them is that it's too easy for them to say NO. This is of course in consequence with their 'complain first before you do' attitude. Imagine the negotiations you could have with a French counterpart? Well, on the other hand, if we consider the positive side, we could consider this attitude as a preventive action as they will lay down all the constraints in trying to evade from the possible difficulty. So as a negotiator, you will automatically add their 'presentiments' to your risk analysis. Isn't that great?

Well, not really...