I wonder what would happen if a white guy, say 25-45, decent looking, went to a medium sized city, learned tagalog to a reasonably fluent level and spoke it with everyone, learned a bit about the history and current events, adapted his mannerisms slightly in order to fit in a bit, and mostly dressed like the locals, and lived according to the average local income level (regardless of his real income), and overall integrated himself while not selling out and trying too hard.
I think anyone who makes an effort to achieve most of those things will probably have the most realistic insights, and have the best time long term.
It's a shame that foreigners have a bad reputation due to all the sexpats and old guys with 19 year olds. But there's no one to blame for that except the foreigners who create that bad impression. However, whose fault is it that filipinas go along with that? You can only be responsible for the impression that you help to create. I think the Philippines is a real mess when it comes to how foreigners are viewed. The colonial mentality doesn't help.
The only way you can really be taken seriously there is to integrate yourself as much as possible and remove yourself from anything that reminds people of the typical sexpat or dirty old man. Whether the image is accurate or fair is irrelevant to the fact that it exists, unfortunately.
In this video they're showing the guy a video showing what filipinas had said when asked if they prefer a fat, old but rich foreigner V a young, handsome but poor filipino, as well as a young, handsome foreigner V the same but filipino (which I posted on the last page). Almost all of them preferred the foreigner.
Watch from 1:17. Listen carefully to what he says. He resents the filipinas for preferring foreigners (fair enough), and he resents the foreigners too. But then when asked whether foreigners are welcome, he says yeah bro, we want your money. Just like a pimp. It's like "Hey maaaaan, don't come here and take our women...but if you insist then at least give us some cash bro cos I got like so much self respect and dignity maaaaan". You can really see the butthurt in his face. I feel for him in a way but the attitude is not good. Most of the others in the video responded in a similar way. It's like they have some basic ability to think, but a lot of their thoughts are half baked.
I think anyone who makes an effort to achieve most of those things will probably have the most realistic insights, and have the best time long term.
It's a shame that foreigners have a bad reputation due to all the sexpats and old guys with 19 year olds. But there's no one to blame for that except the foreigners who create that bad impression. However, whose fault is it that filipinas go along with that? You can only be responsible for the impression that you help to create. I think the Philippines is a real mess when it comes to how foreigners are viewed. The colonial mentality doesn't help.
The only way you can really be taken seriously there is to integrate yourself as much as possible and remove yourself from anything that reminds people of the typical sexpat or dirty old man. Whether the image is accurate or fair is irrelevant to the fact that it exists, unfortunately.
In this video they're showing the guy a video showing what filipinas had said when asked if they prefer a fat, old but rich foreigner V a young, handsome but poor filipino, as well as a young, handsome foreigner V the same but filipino (which I posted on the last page). Almost all of them preferred the foreigner.
Watch from 1:17. Listen carefully to what he says. He resents the filipinas for preferring foreigners (fair enough), and he resents the foreigners too. But then when asked whether foreigners are welcome, he says yeah bro, we want your money. Just like a pimp. It's like "Hey maaaaan, don't come here and take our women...but if you insist then at least give us some cash bro cos I got like so much self respect and dignity maaaaan". You can really see the butthurt in his face. I feel for him in a way but the attitude is not good. Most of the others in the video responded in a similar way. It's like they have some basic ability to think, but a lot of their thoughts are half baked.