Filipino Pride and More

It's a Saturday. I woke up late. Offices are closed. Thus, no courtesy calls, no field visits and no transactions. I am free today. Monday will be a very busy day for me so I want to live this day to the fullest.

I don't really know what to write for now. I have a lot of stories to tell--new discoveries, new realizations, funny experiences. I don't know where and how to start. Perhaps, a narration of what transpired days before will do.

I was very glad to know that Ella and I are not the only international students here in our university. In fact, there are hundreds of us here from all over the globe. I met some of them at the Language Institute where we took an English as a Second language (ESL) Placement Exam. Aside from the other UGRAD scholars from other countries who are also here (Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia and Ms. Venezuela), there are also Arabs, Turkish, Chinese,Latinos and Latinas, Koreans, Japanese and a lot more. Some are here to study English and English alone, like that guy from Kazakhstan who was sent by the company where he works to study English here. Two ladies from Turkey are here to review for the TOEFL Exam (Test of English as a Foregin Language). I was astounded to know that in Turkey, you can't proceed to a university without beating a 525 TOEFL PBT score out of the total 700 or a 71 out of the 120 for TOEFL iBT. The other international students were so amazed when they learned that in the Philippines, English is already used as a medium of instruction as early as Kindergarten . In their countries, they use their own language in classroom discussions even inthe fields of Maths and Sciences except for English of course. Hehe. This indeed gives us an edge over them.

Ella and I have already taken the TOEFL iBT exam back in the Philippines. She got 90 and I got 115. Nevertheless, we humbled ourselves by still taking the exam and we both ended up falling asleep during the exam. Haha. Nakakahiya.The exam was composed of four parts--interview, listening, writing and reading. Grammar and proper language use are also incorporated in the exam. It was a pretty easy exam and Ella and I finished it 30 minutes before the time while the rest of the group struggled with their papers. I was really feeling superior that time. We Filipinos really have an edge when it comes to the practice of English as a medium of instruction. In fact, the test proctors (who happens to be the teachers of the ESL classes) made a funny joke which boosts my pride as a Filipino. She said, "Rashid, you might as well teach in the ESL classes. You performed really really well! " Yes, they checked and evaluated our performance in the exam and that's how we'll know whether we should take ESL classes or not along with other classes that we will take in the university. If you achieve Level 6 and 7, you'll no longer take up ESL classes (or you'll only have some refreshment classes). Schedules of classes will be released on Monday.

After the placement exam, we all hurried to Walmart (that's the equivalent of SM in our country) to do our grocery. More than any other, I bought a new camera since my old digicam was damaged. It was a pretty good bargain, $130 for an 8MP Olympus camera. I also bought noodles since I hardly eat the kind of food that they serve at the dining hall. Eww...I really need a lot of adjusting to do. CAN YOU EVER IMAGINE EATING LAY's (that potato snack similar to V-CUT) during lunch? We ate that. Does that even qualify for a lunch? Tsktsk. Good thing they also serve unlimited fruits (apples, grapes etc.) and unilimited drinks, chocolates, ice cream, donuts and a lot more at the dining halls.. Someday, I'll get to be used to these kinds of foods, I hope.

I don't want to write very long blog postings. I don't want to bore you with these writings. Short write-ups will do. I'll just cut this story short for now and I promise to continue the story next time.