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L-A-O-A
May 24, 2009 If you’re a child of the 90s in the Philippines, you probably know who LA Lopez is. You’d also know how people reacted on his “OA-ness” which I think clearly says that Filipinos do not like or tolerate overacting people and would label them for the rest of their lives with this “condition” and probably use their name as an adjective to describe people who are OA. I’m not happy to say that there are a lot of LA Lopezes just about everywhere in Australia. I think most of them are. I guess it’s an accepted way of communicating in any place or in any situation. It’s a bit of a culture shock when I first experienced this and it blew me out of my mind (LA attempt no.1). One example would be in the groceries. I paid via eftpos and the girl cashier said “Fantastic!” I thought to myself, key-ing in a PIN is not that hard really. Or maybe she’s just being racist and saying that I am Asian and it’s “fantastic” how I figured out how to use automatic payment. Another example is at work. I always get the “great job” or a “amazing work rex!” reply on an email where I just changed two words on a document! This is just very new to me, I never ever get this kind of email in my work in the Philippines…or maybe because I was not productive at all back then….hmmm…. People here just love superlatives, for example: “Everyone, (with wave of the hand across the room) EEEEVERYONE (repeated for emphasis) was watching the TV”. I wasn’t looking at the TV. People also like to emphasise with the word “ever”. Like “This is the fastest train EVER” or “That’s the greatest pancakes EVER”. It is perfectly acceptable to assume these things even though they do not have a stop watch at that time and have not been to Megamall to eat at Pancake House. When people see something interesting, they usually react complete with eyes wide open and LA Lopez mouthing of words technique: OH. (2 seconds gap) MY. (gap) GOD. I try to speak like them. But it’s not for me. I just can’t get this “L-A-O-A” chant out of my head. It’s hard for me to blend in and LA Lopez, it’s all your fault.
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naku, very true kahit sa nz! earlier, i called my bank to ask something, and for verification purposes, she asked my birthday, upon saying it correctly, she exclaimed, “Marvelous!”
O di ba? sometimes they say “lovely” instead. this is perfectly fine if the lady is nice. i just say, “thanks dear”. Lol
Posted by jeremy at August 25, 2009, 6:48 pm