Trying hard

In the Philippines, we have a colloquial term for people who tries hard to fit to a certain group or project a certain personality but miserably fails. We call them T.H. ( trying hard).
Before having a chance to work with people of different cultures, I have always thought that Filipinos are the most T.H. culture. But then I met several people of different cultures and learn to understand that Filipinos are not the worst of the T.H. kind.
I had a manager who was very demanding and most see it as because he is an achiever that is why he expects the same from his subordinates. A colleague of mine said "he's racist". "Really?" was all I can say because I have not observed anything from him to conclude like that. And my colleague said, just observe how he treats other employees of different nationality than him.
Racism has been associated with "white" people because it was perceived that they think of themselves as the superior race. But it has never been widely associated with "colored" people.

As our project progresses, I have observed my manager's extra closeness to employees of the same nationality as his. I thought, that's okay. Filipinos do that. They actually say that Filipinos are very group oriented, always wants to join his own people. But then I noticed how he favors these employees, lenient on their deadlines, laughing with then if they mistakes, allowing them to take leaves (wherein you cannot reach them). No one complained because these people are actually nice. But when he openly embrasses other employees with the slightest mistake while he covers the mistakes of his favored people. The racist tag becomes a little true. But then you her that he makes fun of other cultures sometimes not even behind their backs or call other nationalities as a "different ethnic group". So I was left to wonder if his nationality is "superior" as he project them to be.
With some twist of fate, I ended up working at the country of that manager. And this is what I found, they speak very terrible english (even managers of MNCs, or even those who supposedly studied in the US or UK), most of their training are in their dialect because no one attends if done in English. I am not intelligent but I met some who leave me at my wits end because of their difficulty in understanding the simplest instructions but they would laugh at you when you inform them you dont understand. They eat in places flocked by flies without any hesitation. In one restaurant, we actually saw a cockroach crawling near the customer tables but all they give you is a smile if you bring it to their attention. And they make fun of other people's culture, belief and country openly as if theirs are perfect.

So, I began to appreciate Filipinos more as they are more sensitive to the feelings of other people, friendlyand helpful not only to "whites" but to almost if not everyone they met. So yes, Filipinos are T.H., trying hard to please others, to make friends, to communicate or help. But now, I realized, I will take that anytime.