Filipino Time

So today we had another follow up discussion about my report on Filipinos. Maybe I touched on a sensitive topic I don't know. By the way despite what everyone was saying in class I think I mentioned more positives than negatives if you really want to take count but hey, whatever. Anyway whether or not people thought the comments were "negative" in the end I think they were quite understandable (meaning I think I can see the reason behind it). The one thing though that I have yet to figure out why it constantly happens and the one thing that actually pisses me off is the "Filipino time".

"Filipino time" is a specialized time zone with in the head of each Filipino. Typically the time frame doesn't correspond with what you would see on a clock and it may actually differ from one Filipino to the next. Usually, however, it will run an hour or two hours behind of what you see on a clock. For example if the clock hanging on the wall in front of you were to have the small hand on the 5 and the big hand on the 12 it would mean that the time is 5:00 o'clock. Now, a Filipino would read this as 5:00 o'clock as well but mentally it will be only around 3:00 o'clock in their heads. So if your Filipino friend has told you that he/she will be meeting up with you at 5:00 o'clock and you got there at 5:00 o'clock you would be two hours too early because what he/she actually meant was 7:00 o'clock "normal people time". Get it?

Now you say I'm must be joking but I'm not. This constantly happens. If my relatives here throw a party they subconsciously take this concept of "Filipino time" in to consideration. You don't know how many times I have shown up to their place at the given time only to come to see that I'm the only one there and that they haven't even finished with the preparations.

This is something I just don't get it. Does it have something to do with "yes means no and no mean yes" thing? Is there some body sign that I'm failing to read when they give me the meeting time? I don't think so. So then why do they have to constantly give me a time so far a head of the expect time to only have me sitting there waiting? I don't see the point. This constantly throws off my schedule. There are a lot of other things I can be doing other than waiting pointlessly for someone who's not going to show up. If I have to be some place at a certain time I will try my best to get there at that appointed time. If there is traffic I will put that in to consideration and leave early. Has this idea never occured to them? Now, I can understand being late once, twice or even every now and then but every single time? I have once heard that the psychological reason for one being constantly late is because that they don't feel your time is all that important to them in comparison to theirs. It certainly feels that way at times.

Today I have been waiting in my dorm since 5:00 o'clock. It's past 11:00 o'clock now. For some reason maybe because of the gravity of the situation I thought in this one instance "Filipino time" would not apply but I was wrong. "Filipino time" is all the time. It doesn't matter if it's a birthday party, a wedding ceremony, or your mamma's funeral.

Well, I guess as long as I'm here I either better get used to it or just learn to stop waiting around for people anymore.