First off let me say sorry to all my followers.. I have not written for a long time. It seems have been so busy with the business and i am making a travel guide for Mactan Island. Started weekend events here at The Jungle, and along with seems a thousand other things, I have not had a chance to write much.. Anyways....
I have long tried so hard to teach and mentor my Filipino Staff here about service and about how to treat a foreign guests while they are here in PI.. I want to pull my hair out !!!!!!!! Seems no matter how much I teach them, or how much i try, it just seems I can not get through.. I laid in bed the other night and really tried to think how can I get this across.. What am I doing wrong... Its not only with them, but I seem to see it everywhere, in all kinds of business.
The part i have tried to teach them is that foreigners are so much of a different culture, that service and things in which are normal and acceptable to them, a foreigner ( especially white ) will find unappealing and bad.. I tell them you have to be so careful in everything you do.. Things like large size napkins, knife with meats, salt and pepper on the table, serve the drinks first, fill the glass with ice, no bones in the fish, no little bones in the meats, no hair on the pork, cut vegetables into bite size pieces, no big pieces of fat, pork chops should be larger than 1/16 of inch thick, greet you guests at the door. All of these things are just normal small things in which a foreign guests will expect. Its really not a big extravagant extra.. But just normal things they are accustom to in their country..
Coffee cup needs to be full, not half, do not move foods on the buffet with you hands, bring out dishes all together, COLD beer does not mean room temperature, and I could go on and on... Now for us foreigners this is just second nature and its just normal and not a big deal.. But here, its actually a special go out of the way, very fancy and very demanding to do those things. I find my staff getting so nervous and shaken when we large groups of foreigners ( especially white ) and they really have to try hard to get those few things in order and correct..
Now do not get me wrong. I have a very well trained and experienced staff and waiters and waitress who are very knowledgeable in service of foreign guests.. It is the new ones, and even sometimes the older ones who I still have to remind of some of the small things... Now, I have wondered, WHY????? So as i thought about it more, I come to the same conclusion as I have about other things... They have never experienced that, and they have been born and raised void of those types of things... So its really hard to teach them because they do not use it in their daily lives, and even in general the culture does not use some of the simple things...
I thought, take me and say ok, now organize and set up this fiesta, or this meal, or what ever.. Do it Filipino Style, that will please Filipino.... I also would not know or have a clue as to what to do.. I have not experienced that enough to be able to do it.. I also would probably leave out things and forget things because I am only doing it from being taught, not from real experience, or real visual on hand experience...
Soooo.. My solution was, I started taking them to Places that cater to only Foreigners and their way.. Some times to Foreigners homes where I am invited and allowed to bring someone, and to let them see first hand how it really is... I will have to say, its has been a blast.. So funny at times I really get big laugh... On the other hand, when they also take me to their homes, they really get a big laugh out of me also.....
