Mano Po

Hey everyone, and welcome to episode 4, Manopo, put some respect on it. My name is Sherwin, and this is the Sherwin M Podcast, and I just want to share a few things before we get started. First of all, I just want to thank Charles once again for joining me on episode 3 about basketball pickup games. Had a lot of fun, it was longer than usual, but it was fun, and it was so much fun that I forgot to do the usual plugs that I mention at the end, so I’ll try not to forget on this episode. But yeah, I’m hoping to do more episodes with guests, but I know scheduling is a little difficult.

I mean, we’re all grown folks now, we’re all adults. So we get really busy with stuff, so hopefully I can get some other people to just hang out and chat on an episode. So hopefully you like that type of episodes, or do you prefer me by myself? I don’t know. I prefer to have guests because I’m less nervous.

And it’s the beginning of Lent. so if you’re catholic did you go to ash wednesday um i forgot to go actually i didn’t forget i was too busy and i know that’s not an excuse but um yeah it’s it’s hard it’s in the middle of the week and yeah you know well i’ll try next year um so i decided to give up soda um i know it’s my new year’s resolution to give up soda but i already screwed that up after like a month or six weeks i already screwed it up so um hopefully i could do better making it um the thing i give up for lent um but i guess it’s baby steps right 40 days isn’t as bad as a whole year um i actually gave up soda for a couple of years i don’t know why i went to ash wednesday and i don’t know why i went to ash wednesday and i don’t know why i went to ash wednesday and i don’t know why i went to ash wednesday and i don’t know why i went to ash wednesday and i don’t know why i went to ash wednesday and i don’t know why i went back to it um yeah i was able to do it so i don’t know one of those things i guess so that’s that um now let’s get into some feedback i wanted to shout out thomas he could see him at um instagram at thomas ami he was sharing with me that um episode three sounded a little different um from the other episodes i apologize for that um i was using a new software to record and um and since charles was in a remote location i had to look for something different um i reached out to producer mike who is from the tfal podcast uh this filipino american life and just asked him a few questions you could actually find them on instagram at wax styles and i asked them some questions to get some tips i’m like hey how do you how do you guys handle remotely and you know what what kind of equipment you guys use um just to get some ideas and you know and um i want to thank him for sharing some of uh his ideas and some tips there was some information that was a little way over my head because i’m no audio engineer but uh i looked into it and yeah so i ended up using uh software rather than hardware um so hopefully this works out but thank you again uh mike for helping me out uh and i will look into those in the future um once i understand more and um i will be contacting you again if i get stuck but yes uh so check them out um this filipino american life podcast um you could find them on the this filipino american life.com website i believe just check the show notes for all the um notes of this episode and i’ll see you in the next one bye and finally i just want to give a shout out to tita loida for the feedback um she called me up and uh was just giving me feedback and she said she enjoyed the shows and appreciate me sharing about the culture um she feels that uh many of us don’t um like share culture with our kids and we just stopped doing it so um i didn’t realize it but my whole idea for the podcast was to it’s for me like for me to keep in touch with my culture not to forget and um i guess i didn’t realize that others are feeling the same way so cool you know that’s awesome um but yeah so i’ll i’ll try my best and continue on i mean it’s it’s kind of like blogging in a audio format because i i’ve been blogging for like since 2006 and originally like it was to share information but it got to a point where um i i figured something out and rather than write notes about it i just blogged about it and um it was for me to like i don’t know refer back to it for for my sake uh if if ever i i run into a similar situation or similar problem um i would i would refer back to my own blog post um so but at the same time other people can can view it or read it so i’m looking at this podcast in a similar manner um where you know it’s it’s really for me but if it helps others out uh great you know so so yeah um i was thinking about that as she was sharing and thought that i would make um episode four um it’s it’s really a um uh very important um gesture we have in the filipino culture so um before we get started i wanted to share a few tagalog words and the first word is tita so tita means aunt and tito means uncle everyone pretty much is a tito or tita in the filipino culture so is this pretty much someone who is older than you or maybe even older than you is like in similar age as your parents they are usually tita and tito um so and then we have uh kuya which means like older brother or an older male and ate is older sister or older female not old enough to be a tita or tito but you know someone who is just slightly older than you that’s what you would call them um and you don’t have to be related to them to use it um we just use it so like an example would be um you go to the palenque which is the market right and you ask um the vendor like hey how much does this cost you know so you would say like ate ate you know how much does this cost or if you go to the butcher and like hey could i get one of those you say kuya kuya can i get you know blah blah blah so um so those are the you know types or times that you would use it but um yeah and then there’s also lolo which means grandpa and um lola means grandma so aside from calling our own relatives those we use it um pretty much throughout uh everywhere i mean you know we just use it um so what is mano po well you hear you heard that word again po right from the um first episode uh tau po so remember po is just that um that respect that you usually um put incorporate in a phrase so i looked it up though i looked up um mano the gesture mano on wikipedia so check the show notes for the link if you want to look more into it but um i copied and pasted a few notes and i wanted to share with them share them with you and it’s as follows a gesture used in filipino culture performed as a sign of respect to elders and as a way of accepting a blessing from the elder similar to hand kissing the person giving the greeting bows towards the offered hand of the elder and presses his or her forehead on the elder’s hands or hand but usually performed with the right hand the person showing respect may ask mano po to the elder in order to ask permission to initiate the gesture typically someone may mano to his or her older relatives upon entry to their home or upon seeing them all right so i guess um what many people have seen in the asian asian culture is the bowing right many people bow to one another to show some respect so it’s somewhat similar to that um you know from the asian culture um uh bowing in front of each other to show respect right um but in in filipino culture you only do it to someone older than you and so it’s like a reciprocal transaction i guess i don’t know um where the younger person would ask for the older person’s blessing um and then the older person would give the blessing but at the same time the younger person is also showing respect so it’s like um kind of like uh you give respect you get a blessing um that that kind of thing you know so happens is i’m gonna try to describe this if if the paragraph i read um you know doesn’t really show it visually but the um the older person uh would extend out his or her hand to the younger person and the younger person would um press the um hand of the older person to their forehead with their hand and it’s usually done with the right the right hand so um but yeah that’s that’s pretty much it um so i’ve also let’s see in my notes i’ve also um wrote or copied and pasted the following from wikipedia and it’s uh by offering your hand to mano you are allowing yourself to be subservient to the older to the elder to accept their blessing and wisdom it is considered impolite if one does not exercise the custom which is like the action of mano when entering the home of an elder or after seeing them at a gathering so one of the key things here is it is considered impolite if we don’t do it um so i’m guilty of this um i have been impolite for many years uh although i was born in the philippines i i know of it but i don’t practice it um you know and i i think i need to do a better job even here in america i should really be doing it more um but what i have started doing is um i i’ve taught my kids ever since they were born ever since they started you know being able to understand um how to do the mano gesture so um they they both know how to do it and every time um we go somewhere i always tell them to to go do it like even when i’m not doing it i always tell them to go do it and i always tell them to go do it when i see my friends um you know i i tell them to go over there that’s tito go over there that’s tita go mano them go go get blessed so especially their godparents whenever they see their godparents um they do it so but yeah i i don’t do it myself and i think i need to look into that and and try to be better at it but um some examples of when to do it aside from what was mentioned above would be um like let’s say you’re coming home from work or school um you do it so for instance like every every time i come home from work uh i see my bunso he does three things he he he comes to me and he get uh asked for mano then he hugs me and then he kisses me so um it’s pretty much like we do it every night when i come home and it’s uh it’s like a normal thing for him now and he’s only three so um hopefully we can continue to do that as he gets older um my older my older son uh we don’t practice it as much but he knows it um and i think i should also do that to him as well but he he knows how to do it um it’s just there’s times where i get home and he’s doing homework so i don’t want to bother him because it’s already hard enough to have him start doing homework so i’ll just leave him alone and get back to him when he’s done with his homework so another um example of when to do it is let’s say you go to a friend’s birthday party or a kid’s birthday party um that’s when you do it like whenever you see elders um do it do it you know um or maybe uh your friend’s kids i mean you can help too like hey bless i’m tito so-and-so or i’m tita so-and-so bless you know so um yeah so what’s weird with this for me anyway is um i have god kids in the philippines do i have one here i do have i do have some here but in the philippines i have a lot of god kids and um a lot of them are like eight eight or ten years younger than me so they’re pretty old as well um the reason for that is my my mom in her siblings is the youngest she’s the bunso a lot of my cousins are um older than me like a lot older uh sorry at the echo yes yes you are a lot older than me um but they they’ve had kids around the same time my uh my mom did when they had me and my my brother so um well not around the same time but um the oldest from their generation i believe is about eight eight years or ten years younger than i am so even closer with my younger siblings but um some of them are my god kids and whenever um i see them when i go on vacation there or some of them would come here and have a vacation they they would ask for mano and i i could never get used to it um even to this day i could never get used to it because here is this person who is you know like eight years younger than me asking um for blessing i do it i do it but back of my head i’m like wow man i’m getting i’m getting old so um but yeah um but you know i appreciate that that they look up to me that way and ask and um you know it’s a sign of respect again and they just ask for blessing and you know um i do it but yeah it’s just i could never um get used to that uh maybe maybe later on in life i don’t know when i really am older and i’m like oh my god i’m so old i’m so old i’m so old i’m so old but um but yeah so but that’s that’s pretty much it uh about the mano gesture or mano po um so i have some homework or challenge uh for those who are listening um let’s if you if you’re not doing it right now or you don’t understand how it works i mean please look into it um this is like a really important part of my life and i think it’s a really important thing a little important part of our culture and um you know we should we should continue it we should continue it um i’m not worried about the people in the philippines because it they do it um i mean i guess i have another example of when to do it i guess um when people go to church on sundays like because because normally people don’t drive um they either take a tricycle or a jeepney or they walk not many people need or have their own cars or you know their own private transportation because everything is so much accessible so on the way to church you would see a lot of people a lot of elders then you would ask for mano and then after church same thing like you see them right there when you when you finish church and you go outside they’re right there so they exercise it um often um so but here we don’t we don’t get that opportunity as much so maybe maybe that’s why um we don’t we don’t do it as much or we’re not used to it is because the opportunity isn’t there as much when i go to these events and there are elders and um i don’t do it i just give them a hug because here in america like you know you give hugs you give hugs you do handshake i mean that’s our gesture or the american gesture to i guess show respect and show love and all that um so i guess it’s been replaced by that but you know i come think about it it’s like well i i have two different cultures i have my filipino culture and i have my american culture and i should embrace both um so in appropriate times that i should be doing the mano the mano gestures to other people and i should be doing the mano gestures to other people and i should be doing the mano gestures to other filipino elders um and then for those who you know may not know about it then i just give them a hug you know i should do a better job at it and um yeah we’ll see how that goes i mean um i don’t know um yeah so i guess homework would be let’s yeah let’s let’s try to do this more or at least share with our kids you know this um part of our culture i think it’s a big part of our culture and um you know it’s really important to keep it going um regardless of where we’re at in the the world um it’s what sets us apart it’s what makes us unique and if we forget about it it’s like well you know but yeah we should appreciate it more and share with others and thank you for listening please check out the show notes at podcast.sherwinm.com slash four um you could find a facebook page about this podcast that i haven’t done much of but if you want you could follow along there it’s facebook.com slash sherwin m podcast and i’m pretty much everywhere at w1 and seven eight

like twitter instagram for my fellow beer drinkers untapped uh the untapped app um yeah so that’s about it thank you for listening and i’ll see you next time you