Thinking about past...
Lately, I've been thinking of my past life. By past life, I mean my life 1, 5 or 10 years ago.
It's surprisingly easy to forget something that you used to be a big part of your life, if you just don't do it anymore.
For example, I always used to dress up in my bed. I'd take all my clothes with me to bed, and then I'd dress up sitting there. ( Read more... )
It's surprisingly easy to forget something that you used to be a big part of your life, if you just don't do it anymore.
For example, I always used to dress up in my bed. I'd take all my clothes with me to bed, and then I'd dress up sitting there. ( Read more... )
Based on what you were saying, about your courses and stuff, your school-system is very, very different from ours... hehe. Are you required to get a major and a minor degree or something? Economics and Accounting? You must be great at math!! hehe
In our school system, we choose only one major course, in our case, Pharmacy. And it's a four year course, two semesters each year, we have different minor subjects leading up to pharmacy (like math, communications, chemistry) and major subjects (pharmaceutical chemistry, etc) but only one degree course (BS-pharmacy). Maybe it's just the Filipino school-system that's different, because your system reminds us sort of of something we read about Prince William or something... hehe.
The thing is, in our university, there're no final exams. In university we have an exam after every course, and we graduate once we've enough ECTS credits. There're five semesters (if you count summer), but they aren't at all important - I've no clue when the semester changes.
Five semesters... we have ten (including summer, hehe). So far we're on our seventh, yay! So you have an exam after every course- yeah, that's what we have, we call them the final exams, hehe. But there's no one major exam encompassing all subjects at the end of every year, or before we graduate. There is the Pharmacy Board Exam, to become a registered pharmacist, but we graduate before taking it.
It's really difficult to explain the Finnish school system in English, because there just aren't words for that, because it's so different from English system... For example, I can't call my previous school "high school", because IMO it's nothing like American high school and would give a totally wrong picture of that (at least if American high school is anything like in the movies...)
Our school system is based on the American school system, because they colonized us for some years... but it's also different, we only go up to grade 6 or 7. We graduate highschool much earlier than they do, we graduated at 15. We remember in England it was termed first school and middle school, and they had years instead of grades.
Yeah, about american highschool- is it really like that? It seems so brutal, sometimes! Our highschool life was much tamer than in the movies...
Hah, you should hear me talking... Third grade means that I was 9 at the time, so I've studied English for 10 years now, I'm supposed to be good at it after all this time :D
Yeah, well we've been in the Philippines for about 11 years... we do talk Filipino, but we're shy to speak often. You're probably better at English than we are at Filipino, and we're Filipinos! hehe
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Oh yes, I love math :) But I hated chemistry :P
Are you required to get a major and a minor degree or something?
We have to have a certain number of studies in our major subject and in minor subject, I'm not entirely sure what "a degree" means, so I can't say :)
I think that the European systems are quite similar (not entirely of course), and universities even more. It's really easy to go to any European country as a transfer student, that's why I think so.
So, do many people speak English in Philippines? If you're able to stick to it I imagine that everyone must speak it at least a little?
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Oh yes, I love math :) But I hated chemistry :P
Hehe. :) We're okay with both, we don't fail them or anything... But we suppose we're kind of required to like chemistry, since Pharmacy has a lot of chem, hehehe.
We have to have a certain number of studies in our major subject and in minor subject, I'm not entirely sure what "a degree" means, so I can't say :)
School systems are so hard to explain, hehe. We have no idea how to explain a degree. It's like a status, we suppose. Like... Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Science. We're taking pharmacy, so our degree when we graduate will be Bachelor of Science, Pharmacy.
Never mind, hehe. :D
So, do many people speak English in Philippines? If you're able to stick to it I imagine that everyone must speak it at least a little?
Well, there was a period in our history when the Philippines was colonized by America. They taught the Filipinos English, and for a very long time a lot of people spoke English really well. English used to be the medium of instruction in schools and stuff, but a while back it got changed to Filipino. It depends on your social class, we suppose. Most middle and first class Filipinos speak English pretty well, but the people from the lower class don't, and there are a lot of economically-challenged people in our country. We've kind of gotten left behind by some other Asian countries.We speak Filipino when we have to, when the person we're talking to cant understand us. But yeah, most people can understand a little English. :D
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Ah, okay... I think I'll get a Master's degree, but I'm not sure.
"English used to be the medium of instruction in schools and stuff, but a while back it got changed to Filipino. It depends on your social class, we suppose. Most middle and first class Filipinos speak English pretty well, but the people from the lower class don't, and there are a lot of economically-challenged people in our country. We've kind of gotten left behind by some other Asian countries.We speak Filipino when we have to, when the person we're talking to cant understand us. But yeah, most people can understand a little English. :D"
What about at the university? Are the lectures in English or in Filipino?
Here in Finland, practically everyone studies English, and only the older generation (like, my grandparents) can't speak/understand it, but still I couldn't imagine someone sticking to it... It's strange, though, that people can speak English better than our other official language, Swedish :P
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There are some subjects that are in English, others are in Filipino. For example, we have history I, and it's counterpart in Filipino is Kasaysayan I. It's kind of hard to teach scientific stuff in Filipino, though, so in our course it's all english.
It's strange, though, that people can speak English better than our other official language, Swedish :P
So you guys speak both Finnish and Swedish? You learn both at school? Wow... Do you guys have different languages or dialects per area in Finland? Like... maybe the northern parts are more Finnish while the southern are more swedish, or something. Here, we're divided into provinces, and so even though almost everyone speaks Filipino (Tagalog), people also speak a language native to their province or region. It was a bit difficult when we first had to really learn Filipino, because we weren't sure which words we heard were Filipino or Pangalatok (we live in the province of Pangasinan). :D
*sigh* our ships are rather slow, aren't they? hehe
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So you guys speak both Finnish and Swedish? You learn both at school? Wow... Do you guys have different languages or dialects per area in Finland?
Yeah, everyone has to study Swedish for 6 years at least at school. But those who live in non-Swedish areas might never really use it, or then use English when speaking to native-Swedish-speakers :) Swedish it mostly talked in West coast and biggest cities in South coast. The third language that Finns can speak is Lappish but it's really rare and only spoken in the North.
Finnish has also some dialects, but the differences between them aren't as big as in English (which is kind of natural, I guess...). Mostly the differences have to do with intonation, but there're some small vocabulary differences... Here in Central Finland we speak the most "normal" Finnish, the closest to written Finnish, but when I talk with people from other regions they say all my vowels are too long (for example, I say määä while those from the capital say mä (which means "I").
our ships are rather slow, aren't they?
*sighs* Indeed. *tries desperately to blow some wind to sails*
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We love learning about Finland, hehe. :D We enjoy interacting with other people, discussing their cultures and stuff... it's interesting, isn't it? Sometimes we get culture-shocked, though, hehe.
Mostly the differences have to do with intonation, but there're some small vocabulary differences...
Hehe, this reminds us of Thailand. When we were there, our tourguide said that Thai is a language that's really... well, intonation is important. For example, their 'ma' can mean five different things- water, horse, mother... not sure what the other two are, hehe, depending on how you pronounce it.
So 'ma' in Finland means I? how do you put those two dots on top, do you have a shortcut key or something? We don't know how to do it, sorry...
Your ship has gone faster... maybe because you blew into it, hehe. Since it's Christmas break, maybe we can move our ship too...
How cold does it get there during winter? :)
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When, for example? *is curious*
In "correct" Finnish, I is minä, but literally everyone says it "mä" (except some people who say mie ;))
Ä is a totally different letter than a in Finnish, so we have a special key for it. We also have ö and å :D Ä is said kind of like... a in cat.
Your ship has gone faster... maybe because you blew into it, hehe. Since it's Christmas break, maybe we can move our ship too...
GnH is moving fast now, since we're having a reunion thread :D It's lots of fun, except now it's back to Q&A format instead of discussing, which was nice...
How cold does it get there during winter?
Well, it CAN be -35 C, but usually it's around -15 C. Do you get any winter there, or is it just summer all the time?
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So we get kind of culture shocked at the way our other internet friends take relationships so lightly, you know? Like, they get together with a boy and then break up with them after a short while... on the CS D/G thread, some OCers said Harry and Ginny were together for a long time, three months, but we consider that a short time- that's the time it could take someone to court a girl. We asked our classmates,and they also think three months is a short time- basically, we think the couple made a mistake if they were together for only three months.
We had friends who became a couple and they only courted for like,a month or something, they broke up about three months later... everyone sort of disapproved of it, because, as we said, it's like they made a mistake.
Another thing that kind of culture shocked us is... well... homosexuality. No offense to you or your ship, but us (and our circle of friends here) we're not too keen on it. Filipinos usually use it as a source of comedy, guys dress up as girls and act all feminine and the like, in a funny way, not in the draco/harry kind of way, you know? There are people who are more liberal than we are, but personally, the two of us,and our friends, we're pretty conservative.
:D
Ä is a totally different letter than a in Finnish, so we have a special key for it. We also have ö and å :D Ä is said kind of like... a in cat.
Oh... so you have different keyboards, then? hehe, that would explain it. :D The o with two dots... that's in Kimi's Raikkonen, right? How is that pronounced? :D hehehe
GnH is moving fast now, since we're having a reunion thread :D It's lots of fun, except now it's back to Q&A format instead of discussing, which was nice...
Ah... we were going to have something similar... well, not really, its not a reunion thread. It's just that L&L is celebrating it's 4 year anniversary on December 22, which, incidentally, is Dramione Pride Day, so we hope to have lots of activities and we were going to invite some oldbies to come back... the oldbies are pretty missable, the newbies are fun but it's kind of different, hehe.
Well, it CAN be -35 C, but usually it's around -15 C. Do you get any winter there, or is it just summer all the time?
Geez, that's so cold!!! How do you survive? -15 C? Do you guys get summer? Is that your summer? hehe
Well... in summer, or what we call 'tag-init' which means the hot season, temperatures are always above the 30's (celcius). Usually it reaches 36 or 37 degrees celcius. So we get pretty cold in the 'winter', which is usually around late december to february... temperatures drop to 21 degrees and we're all shivering with goosebumps, hehehe. That's in the low-lands. In the mountains it reaches 15 degrees, sometimes 9 degrees.
We only have two real seasons here, 'tag-ulan' and 'tag-init'. Tag-ulan means the rainy season, and aswe said, tag-init means the hot season. On average, during the rainy season,we get more than 20 typhoons, although a lot of them are in the ocean. :D
So do you do winter sports, like skiing or snowboarding? :D
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Oh... so you have different keyboards, then? hehe, that would explain it. :D The o with two dots... that's in Kimi's Raikkonen, right? How is that pronounced? :D hehehe
Yeah, it's different :D When Italian!Chiara was here, she was shocked when she couldn't find é in our keyboard :D
Yeah, in Räikkönen you have two of our special letters... Ö is like in girl, for example. Or a in "a boy" :D (depends how you say a in that situation, of course, I heard upper class says it differently :D)
How do you survive? -15 C? Do you guys get summer? Is that your summer? hehe
We wear a lot of clothes :D Sometimes I'm wearing three trousers, four shirts, a hat, two cloves, woolen socks as well as normal ones, warm jacket etc... In summer, it's usually +20 C, but it can be even +30 C :) I like the big difference in seasons, it never gets boring! Although it's quite amusing that our summer is as hot as your winter ;)
So do you do winter sports, like skiing or snowboarding?
Yes, of course! I do cross-country skiing, as well as downhill skiing. I tried snowboarding once, but it was really difficult. Sometimes I go skating as well, but I don't like that as much... I like going down a hill with a shed as well :)
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True... although perhaps we didnt see it that way because here, parents don't usually allow their children to have boyfriends or girlfriends at that age. Well, maybe at 16... but it's rather frowned upon. Although, people are getting more and more liberal as there's more influence from the US...
A relationship doesn't have to be that serious always, although I also understand your POV.
Yeah, it doesn't... it's just that we'd like it to be, you know? We mean, us, our circle of friends, our family, we're the types who would like it to be serious. Like, the fewer boyfriends/girlfriends you go through, the better. We mean... If you know that person isn't the one for you, why bother Why bother if it's not serious?
We know the upper class is more liberal now... as we said, influence from the US. And we're not sure about the lower class (we're middle class) because some of them marry for money, or they don't take they marry just for the sake of marrying, or because their parents want it. But as for us, we don't want to make mistakes.
Do you get shocked at fics, as well, if Draco and Hermione just suddenly start dating?
Um... no, we can't honestly say that we do. Maybe we used to.... Can't remember now. But when we write, we usually insinuate a period of courtship... but we know that's not how it's done in other countries. And also, it's just fiction. It's when we hear about it in real life that we get shocked. :D
Yeah, it's different :D When Italian!Chiara was here, she was shocked when she couldn't find é in our keyboard :D
Hehe. We didn't really think it was different... because there aren't really special letters in Filipino. Well, there is ñ, which is more Spanish.
Yeah, in Räikkönen you have two of our special letters... Ö is like in girl, for example. Or a in "a boy" :D (depends how you say a in that situation, of course, I heard upper class says it differently :D)
Oooh... so it's pronounced Raikkanen or something? Cool! hehehe. :D Yay, we know! hehe. :D
We wear a lot of clothes :D
Hehe We'd probably do the same if we were there. So your houses are all heated and everything? It must be difficult getting up in the morning when it's freezing, hehe.
Here, we get lazy when it's really hot.. which is why our summer vacation is from April to June... well, class starts in the second week of June. We were required to take summer class (it's part of our curriculum) and we really hated walking to school in the heat, when all we wanted to do was stay home away from the heat.
So it reaches 30 C there too? We thought it was almost always cold there, hehe.
Yes, of course! I do cross-country skiing, as well as downhill skiing. I tried snowboarding once, but it was really difficult. Sometimes I go skating as well, but I don't like that as much... I like going down a hill with a shed as well :)
Wow... Pippa wants to try the winter sports, Chiara doesn't, hehehe. So you can see one's braver than the other, hehehe. :D
We've tried ice-skating once or twice but never skiing or snowboarding.
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So your houses are all heated and everything? It must be difficult getting up in the morning when it's freezing, hehe.
Yeah, for sure our houses are heated... Our room temperature is 20 C or something all the time. Sometimes I go to places where there's no electricity (in scout camps etc.) and there it's difficult to get up in the morning when the room is cold! At home, I'm not bothered by the cold but by the dark... Then it's difficult to get up, for me.
I'm actually happy that we don't get 40 C or something here, because when I was in Italy and it was that hot it was exhausting :P I'm not made for that kind of climate...
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Do you read much about him? Because it describes him as being even more Finn than Mika Hakkinen, because he doesn't let the pressure get to him, etc. And... are all Finns like that? Is that really how your people are stereotyped? :)
Gosh, we have trouble getting up in the morning when it's 20 degrees, hehe. We're all shivering in our blankets... So during winter, how long is your day? We mean, what time does the sun come up, and what time does it set?
We don't know what time it comes up here... probably around six am, and it sets before six pm... Usually, during 'summer' it sets past six, but at winter it starts getting dark at five something.
The temperature during the summer rises every year... our parents said before it didn't used to reache 36, but now it does. Soon, we'll be hitting 40 too. We haven't experienced 40 C. 37 has been the highest... yeah, it's horrible, the heat kind of drains your energy away...
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During the winter, where I live, the sun goes up at 9, maybe, and sets at 3... When I still had schooldays from 8 to 16, I never saw the sun because I was inside the whole day :D But in the northern parts of Finland, the sun doesn't go up at all during the darkest time. It's really depressing...
And during the summer, it doesn't set at all :D There's so much light it's difficult to sleep ;)
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By the way, Filipinos (or so we were told) are characterised as being hospitable and friendly... We're not sure how true that is now, though. People aren't like they used to be... even in other countries, there are a lot more crimes, etc.
It's depressing when you look in a dictionary and see Filipina means a domestic helper. Although a lot of filipinas are domestic helpers, it's not a nice thing to be put in a dictionary, since there are also alot filipinas who aren't domestic helpers.
Wow, you're right, getting up in the dark seems pretty hard. When we still lived in England (we were young then) we remember it getting dark early, but we don't remember waking up in the dark...
It doesn't set at all in the summer? Wow... can't imagine that either, hehe. It must be like in PoA,there was a time Harry was talking to Lupin and it was bright, even though it was night time. Some people were probably wondering about that, since Filipinos always have dark nights and bright days, hehe.
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For me, the stereotype that Filipinos are hospitable and friendly sounds credible. That's what I'd think, although of course here we have much stronger stereotypes about European people than you :)
Here is a bad-quality picture I took last summer at about 21 o'clock, you can see how much light there still is... During the middle of summer, it doesn't get much darker than that.
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