Cultural Identity In The Philippines

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Since 2008, I lived in the United Arab Emirates and spent a majority of my teenage life in Dubai. This is because my father received a job for Emirates Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the Middle East. However, in 2014 I returned to the Philippines as I was accepted in the University of Asia and the Pacific to pursue my undergraduates. Although I am Filipino in terms of citizenship and ethnicity, there are many aspects of society that I have struggled to adapt to such as the language, geography and mannerisms that have made me turn into a foreigner in my own country. In some ways, it was interesting as I managed to re-learn my cultural identity as a Filipino. But in other ways, it has made me resent the society which is propelling me…show more content…
In fact, the sun is more aggressive in Arabia than in the Philippines. Temperatures can reach as high as 45 and rain is extremely rare. There is no snow in Dubai either, so it seems like I cannot enjoy a winter wonderland outdoors. In fact, comparing the two countries is like comparing a sauna to a microwave. The Philippines is a sauna in the sense that it is humid, sticky and sweaty. Dubai’s heat is fiery enough to fry an egg in the open. The heat is aggressive in the day as it is in the night. Therefore, in Dubai I also avoid going outdoors and playing in the sun. With that being said, the Middle East has not constituted an environment that can make me “used to” the heat but increased my irritability of the weather. However, unlike the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates has winter. In December to March, temperatures cool down to a more comfortable 15 to 25 degrees. Dubai is also home to an indoor ski resort called Ski Dubai, where I developed my interest for alpine skiing. In addition, the quality of air conditioning in Dubai’s malls creates a suitable enclave to escape from the heat. Regardless, I do not like the warm climates of both countries. Neither of them are better than the other one and I will complain about the hotness of a place regardless of the geography. With that being said, I prefer to move to Canada because of the frozen sub-zero temperatures instead of…show more content…
Filipinos have a sense of being ridiculously romantic and in general, effeminate. Dramas, love songs, slang and Hugot Lines dominate mainstream Pinoy culture to the point where I believe that everything in the media is controlled by teenage girls. However, I am not only uninterested, I have grown a dislike towards them. These localised versions of internet memes are sentences in Filipino about puns related to romance. They annoy me for the following reasons. My inability to speak Filipino means that whatever comes in Tagalog online has to be translated into English. This takes time as I have to send the message on Google Translate or ask a friend for a definition in English only to find out that a message is just a love pun about a girl’s crush who I do not care about! Secondly, Hugot culture irritates me because I am not a romantic person. I have never dated anyone and I am open to saying that every time I see anything related to love, I am reminded about the crushes who I had no chances with whatsoever because they are taken. Therefore, I do not need to be reminded about other people’s love stories and happy endings. In addition, my tastes and interests are not those of a typical teenage girl because I am not and I have no tastes similar to a teenage girl. As a man, my interests include cars, action movies, warfare, planes, meat and beer. Such tastes are generally masculine in nature. If

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