My friends, bear with me. There are just a few things that make me happy (not true of course, just my theatrics!) in my dreary life, and this is one of them. I, G.L.E.A, finally got the coveted 5/5 rating! Heheheh... Mighty SHE finally gave in, and silently agreed that my first written works were not those written with beginner's luck and maybe there is pattern of ahem......... brilliance innate in them and the mind that made them up! Bwhahahahahah

Mighty She gave me 5/5. SHE also scribbled at the bottom: "A wonderful piece of work! Excellent!"   And my Serbian Master's holder Speech Pathologist and girl pal Iranian Master's holder Microbiologist insisted that they read my work. Again Speech Pathologist said, "why are you still here? Why don't you take TOEFL right now?"

To that I answered, I actually like seeing you here, I like seeing adults around me, and all from different countries and cultures too. I am very fascinated by the peoples in my class. I see professionals who are very frustrated because they can't 100% efficiently communicate in English. I am compelled to write about each of my classmates but perhaps in another time.

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What are the important qualities of a son or a daughter?  Have these qualities changed or remained the same over time in your culture? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.


Parents generally want the best for their children, and in turn the children also want the same for their parents. There are many qualities that are important for the children to have, and these of course probably differ from culture to culture. In the Filipino culture, obedience, generosity and respect for elders are probably three of the more important qualities that parents expect from their children.

Obedience. The Filipino culture dictates that until their children are living under their roof, they are bound to the rules of the parents. It is quite common to see parents  guide their children (sometimes rather strongly) thru major crossroads in life.  Parental influences have strong impact on what course and university their children attend, who they should be friends with and sometimes whom to marry.

Generosity. There is an expectation of support the parents have upon their children especially in their golden years.  Parents usually expect a little subsidy from each child who could afford to. When parents get sick or need drugs for their health maintenance, children with means are expected to shoulder a huge chunk of the expense. Some children do this without prompting, some needed to be reminded of this "obligation."

Respect for elders.  This is  almost a sacred tradition for most Filipinos. We  have  system of names  we got from the  Chinese  that affects and reflects this important quality. We say "ate" meaning older sister before saying her real name.  Say, for example, if we are to refer to an elder sister whose name is Loma, we are to say "Ate Loma."  For elder brothers, the pre-name would be Kuya, and there are a host of other pre-names for middle sister, brother, youngest brother and the like. We also show respect to our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles by putting the back of their right hand to our forehead, we call this tradition, "amin." We "amin" when we are heading out the door for the whole day or for longer periods of time, and when we come back from wherever we came from into our homes.

These qualities, obedience, generosity and respect for elders, are still very much evident in the Filipino culture. At some point though, some people take it to the extreme to the detriment of family members. But mostly these dear qualities are still kept and endured by most families and I don't see any of these fading away in the near future. And I kind of like it that way.