deebeedee

Ok, since I just appropriated material from one of the forums I visit regularly, I think I’ll do it again. The following is from a post of mine in thepinoy.com on the practice of saying Po and Opo as a sign of respect for Filipino elders. Po (or ho) is something you tag on to a sentence when addressing older Pinoys. Opo (or oho), a variation on oo - the Filipino word for “yes,” is also used when addressing elders.

Personally, as kids growing up in Manila, we were never taught to say “Po” or “Opo.” It was never really emphasized. I never even called my older sisters “Ate.” I called them by their first names. I did address my parents as “Papa” and “Mama.”

Now that I’m older, I’ve taught myself to say “Po” and “Opo” thanks mainly to the influence of my wife. I’ve had to learn to use them with my parents-in-law and other Filipino elders in general. In fact, I’ve started using them with my parents as awkward as it may have sounded in the beginning. They only deserve to be treated with that type of respect, whether or not they have instilled it in us.

Now what puzzles me (and irks me somewhat) is when folks, especially those in Filipino-run stores (I live in the States) who don’t look any younger than me and oftentimes look a few years older than me, address me with “Po,” “Ho,” and “Opo.” Now is this a presumption of age on their part or simply a sign of courtesy given to a customer, no matter what age?

Because I now take public transportation regularly, I expose my poor self to the elements. The other day when my wife picked me up from the BART station, she said, “Amoy araw ka (you smell like the sun).” Now this doesn’t mean I smelled Tide-fresh. Rather it means I smelled like the outdoors. You know, that smell. In the Filipino vernacular, “smelling like the sun” means someone has been walking under the hot sun and smells like it. Well, on that particular day O picked me up, the sun wasn’t out and I hardly sweated. I simply spent some time outdoors. I attribute this smell to pollutants, particularly automobile emissions, that cling to clothes and give you that outdoorsy scent that gets mistaken for body odor (ha, how’s that for explaining that away?). Besides, has anybody taken a whiff of the sun before?