Madonna could be banned from Philippines

Oh sit down and give your mouth a chance.

There was no point in saying monogamy as he doesn't understand it!

You have misused ellipsis, John. It's three or five, but never ever one. I'm not pointing that out. You're just imagining petty points scoring.

Too much of this recently. I can understand why Markham chose not to participate further. Enjoy.

of course once they open their mouths, then they give the game away. Even if a Thai's English is excellent, then their accent will identify them. As will a Filipino's accent. They have distinctive accents, and turns-of-phrase, which if you know them, will identify them.

Arabs are the same way. There's only 300 million of those - less than there is south east Asians but they are of many nationalities. I met one in Subic in January. In English he said he was from Dubai, and indeed he did live in Dubai. But I recognised his Morroccan accent and said, guessing, hey you are from Morrocco, aren't you. He was. I MIGHT have called him as a Morroccan over an Egyptian from just looking at him - but not likely.

as soon as they speak, that narrows it down massively.

when they are just sitting there, silently, in a crowd, nobody has much of a clue what south east Asian country they are from - even Filipinos. They could be from anywhere.

without any clues, it is not really possible to easily tell south east Asia's half-billion people apart from each other. A Filipino can easily pass for a Malaysian, a Thai for a Vietnamese, and so on.

may I ask how good you think you are, at telling a French person apart from an Italian, or a Swiss from an Austrian, or a Pole from a Lithuanian, on the London Tube?

of course, if they are wearing something like a national costume - i.e. like a basketball shirt, or a care-home uniform in the case of a Filipino - then that narrows it down too.

but if they are wearing normal casual clothing like jeans and t-shirt etc you really don't have much of a clue at all.

you can't tell a French person apart from an Italian in a crowd at St Pancras station. Even if you happen to share a bed with a French or Italian person. You still won't be able to tell.

why should a Filipino be any different?

so many Filipinos, who travel a great deal as OFW's and frequently want to tell apart a Filipino from say an Indonesian in somewhere like Dubai where there is not just Filipinos but tons of other south east Asians - especially Indonesians - have told me they can't tell.

in Sabah, Malaysia where there is close to a million Filipinos also not straightforward. But depends on the context. If you're in a prison, saying that they are Filipinos, would be a good guess. 50% of the inmates are Filipinos.

of course in the case of the Indonesian, or Malaysians, if they are wearing something that identifies them as a Muslim, then that narrows it down a lot.

but guess what. They can STILL be a Filipino.

Although you may not always be 100% correct, I do think you can be on a tube and think someone LOOKS French, or LOOKS German, or LOOKS Polish. Just from their manner, or their facial features.

But it's not an exact science. You can never be really sure.

The same with Filipinos and Thais, perhaps, but Filipinos do look different to Thais I think.

There was a programme on TV the other day about a British guy who had gone to live in Laos and my wife said the villagers in Laos seemed just luck Filipinos.

It seems that Filipinos don't want to be thought of as Thai, the same as English people hate being called Americans and Indians hate being mistaken for Pakistanis.

Are you accusing my husband of not understanding that word? Are YOU? Who are you to say such bad words?

when you are in a foreigner bar in the Philippines, you can't really easily tell the kano nationalities apart. You MIGHT be able to identify somebody as an Australian, or British but you might just as easily get it wrong.

of course it is a lot easier to identify them as Australian if they are wearing a VB sweatshirt or you discover, when they write their name up on the chalkboard for a game of pool, that their name is Shane.

but just by looking at two foreigners in normal casual clothing and no identifiers it is not straightforward at all.

I'm not sure about that. Filipinos get mis-identified as Thai, by Thais, in Thailand all the time.

in fact it is a bit of a joke. A cliche.

The Thai says something to the Filipino in Thai language, assuming that they are Thai.

the Filipino says, in English, 'I'M NOT THAI, I'M FILIPINO!'

then the Thai says, also in English, 'but you look Thai!'

this is funny, because Tai in Tagalog does of course mean EDITED.

So you can tell if someone is Filipino if they are wearing a care home uniform or if they are in prison? For God's sake. Another offensive moronic remark. For crying our loud - how much longer? I'm swiftly falling out of love with this..

it happens all the time though. In the UK people from 'the subcontinent' say that it is Bangladeshis of the three nationalities that are the most visually distinctive.

hilarious to someone like you. Frankly offensive to Filipino people. Get a life.

it is not offensive at all. It is a clue. Happened to me once. I saw a south east Asian person in a supermarket in a care-home uniform and gave it the the 'pssst Kumusta' treatment. But I got it wrong. They turned out to be Indonesian.

So you think it's hilarious that a Filipino gets called a **** by a Thai??

Again you insult people with your idiotic pontifications.

Admins: If you want to save this forum, you'd better start by permanently banning Whipster. It's too late as far as I am concerned - I've had enough of him and Pinky and Perky too who "high-five" each other's trolling posts (by awarding "agree" or "funny" marks).

He can't leave, it is too "challenging"

They (Filipinos) think it's funny. Their ironic response, in that situation is like 'oh so you think I look Tai. Thanks, a lot'.

the Thai hasn't got a clue what they have just said and that Tai means s&&$ in Tagalog.

Can we leave out the swear words, please?