I've been anticipating ASEAN Hive Community Challenge every week and as much as I can, I'd do my best to join. The topics are really fun and relatable. The topic for this week is Local Proverbs/Folk Sayings. As someone who finds motivation even in anime quotes, I'm very excited to share some common quotes from my country, the Philippines.
I wrote down my top 5 Filipino proverbs and I'd be explaining or sharing something about them individually.
As you may already know, the Philippines has more than a hundred spoken languages. "Filipino" is the standardized form of Tagalog. It's our national language and is officially used as a medium of instruction at schools together with English. The English language is considered an official language in the Philippines, too.
You may be wondering why I'm talking about languages. Well, it's because I used two different languages in the quotes or proverbs I'm sharing today. Two of them are in Filipino and the other three are in Bisaya (particularly Cebuano), the spoken language we have here in Cebu.
Let's start with the first two proverbs in Filipino!
"A person who doesn't remember where he came from will never reach his destination."
I personally like this proverb because it talks about humility. No matter how great you become in life, it's very important to keep your feet on the ground and remember your roots.
We have to be grateful to our past experiences -- may they be good or bad -- because they molded us to what we are today and what we will become in the future.
On a lighter note, there's a silly joke related to this proverb which says "Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan, may stiff neck" which means the person who doesn't look back where he came from has a stiff neck. Well, it literally does make sense, doesn't it? haha
If someone throws rock at you, throw him bread.
This is also a very popular proverb in the Philippines and it tells people not to take revenge. I guess it has a religious background, but I'm not very sure.
Personally, I think it's telling us that when someone did bad things to you, don't stoop down their level and kill them with kindness instead.
I don't like feeling stressed about what others may say about me, so I'll just continue to be kind and let fate handle them... and this brings us to the next proverb.
Bad karma comes without making any noise.
As mentioned I mentioned earlier, in order to avoid stress from people doing bad things to you, just kill them with kindness and let bad karma come to them... someday. We don't know when, but it'll happen all of a sudden. ;)
There's no smoke that can be held.
It's another way of saying that there are no secrets that can't be revealed. I believe so. Even your darkest secret will be revealed eventually.
If you have done some wrongdoings to somebody, it'll eventually be revealed. You're not free from your guilt and your conscience. So, it's better to do good than to secretly do bad things which will definitely be revealed in the future... remember "Walay aso nga makumkom!"
Let the work say the words and not the words do the work.
It's basically a variation of the proverb "Action speaks louder than words."
Don't just say it, show it! The efforts you do is much appreciated than the promises you say. I personally like this quote in so many levels.
Some people would tell you promises they can't keep... others do things that are contrary to what they said. It's just annoying and makes you lose your trust towards them.
Although I like this proverb, I'd still go for the combination of words and actions. This way, there wouldn't be any misunderstandings. ;)
Those are my top 5 favorite Filipino proverbs. I hope you got something from them, too! I'll see you around! (^^,)/
