Filipino News sa Abroad (need your opinion)

[d_palapuz]

FILIPINO TABLE ETIQUETTE PUNISHED AT LOCAL SCHOOL
Lunch Monitor tells student his eating habits are ‘disgusting'


The Chronicle


  A Roxboro woman has filed a formal complaint with a local school board after her son was disciplined by a lunch program monitor at Ecole Lalande for eating in what she says is a customary Filipino manner.


  Luc Cagadoc,s table behaviour istraditionally Filipino; he fills his spoon by pushing the food on his plate with a fork, his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, says.


  But after being punished by his school,s lunch program monitor more than 10 times this year for his mealtime conduct – including his techniqe – the seven-year-old told Gallardo said last week that he was too embarassed to eat his dinner.

  “Mommy, I don,t want to eat anymore,” Gallardo says Luc told her at the kitchen table April 11. “My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting.”


  When he eats with both a spoon and fork, instead of only one utensil, the Grade 2 student said the lunch monitor moves him to a table to sit by himself.


  Upset overLuc,s story, Gallardo confronted the lunchtime caregiver the next day and on April 13, she telephoned the school,s principal, Normand Bergeron. His reaction brought her to tears, she says, “His response was shocking to me,” Gallardo, who moved to Montreal from Philippines in 1999, told the Chronicle. He said, “Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way canadians eat.”


  “I find it very prejudiced and it,s racist. He,s supposed to be acting like a professional. This is supposed to be a free country with fre expressions of culture and religion. This is how we eat; we eat with a fork and spoon.”

  Luc,s father, Aldrin Cagadoc, was also surprised by the comment. “I can,t believe even the principal would say that,” he said. “A person that calibre, I wouldn,t expect him to say that.”


  Gallardo, who operates a day care out of her Roxboro home and is close to completing her studies in early childhod education, wrote a letter last week and lodged a formal complaint to the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB) yesterday.


  She disagrees with the lunch monitor ‘s approach to teaching children how to eat and says it is emotionally abusive to Luc. When she questioned Bergeron about punishing students for their table habits, she says he replied that, “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we,re going to do it every time.”


  But Bergeron says it was Luc,s eating technique combined with his behaviour at the table that was inappropriate that day, which is why he was moved. “Luc can be turbulent,” he said yesterday. “Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It,s normal, he,s a child. He is in a period of learning.”


  The principal of the 387-student Roxboro school said he explained his position on using two utensils to Gallardo during their telephone conversation. “I said, ‘Here, this is not the manner in which we eat.,


  “I don,t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,” he said. “I want them to eat correctly with respect for others who are eating with tem. That,s all I ask. Personally, I don,t have any problems with it, but it is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time.”


  CSMB spokesman Brigitte Gauvreau says the board will not comment – due to confidentially procedures – until Galardo,s complaint is filed and she makes a public statement.

[d_palapuz]

matagal-tagal na tong news na toh..
pero naisipan ko lng kc na ilagay d2...
para dun sa mga nakatira sa abroad...
ano sa tingin niyo..?

i'll post mine later..

[pocahonta]

(01-25-2007 01:27 AM)~* DarryL *~ Wrote:  FILIPINO TABLE ETIQUETTE PUNISHED AT LOCAL SCHOOL
Lunch Monitor tells student his eating habits are ‘disgusting'

“Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way canadians eat.”


   “I find it very prejudiced and itÂ,s racist. HeÂ,s supposed to be acting like a professional. This is supposed to be a free country with fre expressions of culture and religion. This is how we eat; we eat with a fork and spoon.”

discrimination is very strong in canadian countries....in usa no one will bother or say anything to you if they see you are doing something different like eating with spoon and fork at the same time.

Americans eat with forks only like the canadians.....they  only use the spoon for soup...

if i am around americans in the office or gatherings, i do the way they eat, i only use the fork for eating food on my plate, american way......
AT HOME....i use spoon and fork the way we pinoys do when we eat.....

we have to adopt the custom of the country where we are living, in order to belong and not be different from them. Para walang problema, makisama ka sa ugali nila, that is the main point here that the canadian teacher is emphazing.

it is the way canadians teach their kids in school, so the pinoy kid should do what he is being told....it is a learning process....he is learning the way of life of a regular canadian ...

they have no say....nasa ibang country ka....otherwise if they dont like the canadian way of life, they should move to another country or go home.

hindi ko pinipintasan yong pinoy family dito....pero...they should not be over sensitive with the issue........all immigrants have period of adjustments in living in another country..

i find it little hard in the beginning to use the fork only, but now i have no problem with it....it is just getting used to it that's all.

[equinox10]

aku i eat with fork lng. i used spoon for soup. nasanay na din kasi ako. usually sa fastfoods they only have fork kasi.

[pocahonta]

(01-25-2007 06:28 AM)equinox10 Wrote:  aku i eat with fork lng. i used spoon for soup. nasanay na din kasi ako. usually sa fastfoods they only have fork kasi.

yes.....totoo yan equinox....sanayan lang yang..at talagang mapipilitan kang gamitin ang tinidor lang.....kasi lahat ng restaurant ng kano....they will only give you  fork & knife to use..

teaspoon is for stirring tea or coffe only, spoon for soup only.

[mysteriouza]

hhmmnnn...d2 kc wlang pkialaman.. though of corz we shud show sum manners infront of d table...

n i agree, sumtyms u gotta live on how sum things go... to be able to fit in...

dis remyns me abt a lady hu came to my work....i was serving them their food,n she ordered macaroni pasta cooked in bolognese sauce.... i was surprised she asked me to give her a spoon, so she can use it wid d fork.. she as well said she finds it comfortable eating with spoon...


it just depends on wer u r....


it sounded as an insult though.. disgusting...???

with just being wrong in using cutlery...

[d_palapuz]

well of course, getting used to what country u are is one thing..
but since its the first time, why don't they give the kid a chance..? right?
as we all say, he's in the learning process...
and dapat sana kahit mag-note sila na parents nung bata na turuan kung pano makihalubilo like eating the way people around them eat...
hindi yung basta-basta na lng sila na magdya-judge agad..

[pocahonta]

(01-25-2007 11:25 PM)~* DarryL *~ Wrote:  as we all say, he's in the learning process...
and dapat sana kahit mag-note sila na parents nung bata na turuan kung pano makihalubilo like eating the way people around them eat...
hindi yung basta-basta na lng sila na magdya-judge agad..

you are right.....the school should have talked to the parents privately and explain to them the canadian culture to them.

on the other hand, the pinoy parents should stop insisting that it is our pinoy custom & the kid should be allowed to continue doing it.

the pinoy parents should be open-minded & they should know that they are now living in  another country & it is there new home...in order for the boy to have friends, to fit in, live happy, he should be re-trained with his eating habits..

but if the pinoy parents will not submit to change, then their son will be the loneliest boy in canada, he will have no friends in school & will be an outcast...and that is very hard specially for a foreign born pinoy living in another country.

[pocahonta]

Here are some common mistakes us pilipino immigrants around the world has done:

1. Most of us immigrating to another country never do research about the country we will about to live and call our second home.
2. Example -- living in california, usa
We dont do research on how most americans live, their culture, way of life, their traditions, their religion.
3. Most of the time....the only thing we research is if there is  plenty of job available in a particular city and how much money they pay....this is the most common thing that all immigrants know first hand....

our knowledge of the new country we are about to live is limited....so when we arrived , every thing is new to us, a culture shock if you will....and you discover shocking truth about things that most americans do that you never know until you get here..

so...i may say....for those who are planning to live abroad in the future, do your research....not only if jobs are available & how much you will earn....but do a complete research about the culture, the peopel, customs of the country....if you know all this, then there will be no problem in assimilating & living with them.

just like the pinoy family  in canada whose son was taunted because of his pinoy custom of eating with spoon and fork, they are poorly prepared for what will come their way, because they don't know the culture of the canadians.

knowledge is power, educating yourself will get you farther...i say to all....be prepared and be knowledgeable coming to a new world.

thanks for hearing me out.......god bless all the pinoys around the world.....more power to all....

 

[d_palapuz]

(01-26-2007 04:57 AM)pocahonta Wrote:  you are right.....the school should have talked to the parents privately and explain to them the canadian culture to them.

on the other hand, the pinoy parents should stop insisting that it is our pinoy custom & the kid should be allowed to continue doing it.

the pinoy parents should be open-minded & they should know that they are now living in  another country & it is there new home...in order for the boy to have friends, to fit in, live happy, he should be re-trained with his eating habits..

but if the pinoy parents will not submit to change, then their son will be the loneliest boy in canada, he will have no friends in school & will be an outcast...and that is very hard specially for a foreign born pinoy living in another country.

yepp...
they should act professionally since thats what their job is... a teacher..