Encounters of a foreign exchange student

Sunday, February 19, 2012

EXPERIENCES are like shadows, we try to leave them behind but they keep on following us and they form part of what we become in future.

Just like any other person, I’ve had so many experiences but one of the greatest of them all is my education in the Philippines.

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I came to the Philippines on October 2008. But before I came here, I knew some few things about Filipinos because I used to watch some Filipino Telenovelas that were telecasted on one of the Ghanaian television channels of which one of them was “The Promise (Pangako Sa’Yo)”.

I started my college education in the University of Baguio in November 2008 and my first day in class was so fun. I had no difficulty in communicating with either my classmates or instructors due to the fact that the official language of the Filipinos is English. Who wouldn’t want to study in a country like that?

Throughout my stay here, there are remarkable traits I observed about the Pinoys. I realized Filipinos are jolly; they love to laugh no matter their situation.

For instance, during the Typhoon “Ondoy” season, I watched a news on TV from which I saw an old woman and a little boy standing on the roof of a building due to the severe flooding and to my surprise, they were smiling and giving the peace sign as if they were posing for a photo-shoot at a photo studio. This taught me in life, sometimes you have to laugh your problems away in order to be free.

Filipinos are friendly and hospitable. There were times I met strangers smiling at me in the jeepneys as if I’ve known them for a long time. And most of all, the love I got from my church members. Every time I am in church, I feel like I was with my own biological family.

Finally, another trait I observed about the Pinoys is how they can simply use ordinary materials to create beautiful designs and decorations. That really had a great impact on me by making a person who loved designing.

But upon all those experiences, one that will never leave my mind was when I was nominated by an instructor from the School of Information Technology, Michelle Montalbo, to compete in an extemporaneous speech competition only a month after my enrollment. That really shocked me, but I realized she did that because she saw me as one of her own people. This created more opportunities for me in other competitions. It really made me realize my hidden abilities.

If I’m asked to say anything to my fellow foreign students on how to be able to study in the Philippines successfully, I can say they should love and respect the Filipinos just as they will do for their own countrymen because what they can obtain from the Filipinos is beyond what they can imagine. I am who I am because of the Philippines.

To end my story, I would like to share an answer I gave to a panelist during one of my major competitions. I was asked to state a sentence in Filipino language and all I could say was, “Napili ko dito sa Pilipinas dahil edukasyon sa Pilipinas ay magaling” and I really meant that.