Filipinos DON'T GET SARCASM - Avoid HUGE Misunderstandings! #philippines

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Here's something you foreigners just do not believe until you've seen it for yourselves, but it's true. Filipinos have absolutely no sense of sarcasm. We don't use it. We can't spot it. And if you tell us your arms are tired after flying into Manila, we figure you must have a weird medical condition. We assume that every word you say literally means exactly what you said. We don't understand your analogies. We don't comprehend hyperbole. And we don't get your idioms. So, if you want to avoid misunderstandings, choose your words carefully. One guy sat down with his Filipino wife to explain that he wanted to plan for her future. So, just in case, he was going to go ahead and get his affairs in order. And she started screaming at him and saying, "I knew it.

[00:00:47]I knew you were having an affair."

[00:00:49]Another guy made the mistake of trying to console his girlfriend by saying, "Oh, you poor baby." She instantly got offended because she thought he was blaming her for being poor and calling her a baby.

[00:01:03]Another guy had a Filipina housekeeper that kept cooking smelly fish and stinking up the house. So with a big smile on his face, he said, "I'm going to feed you to their pigs the next time you do that." And much to his surprise, she took him seriously and was gone by morning. Filipinos just don't have the same sense of humor that you do. Ours is more visual and slapstick, whereas you guys like witty humor. And you like to use sarcasm and exaggeration when teasing someone. You think it's got to be obvious that you're just joking, but we don't get it. So, it's very easy to hurt our feelings. In fact, what you call teasing is what we call bullying.

[00:01:44]So don't assume that your playful bantto will be received the way you intended.