Catherine Jane A.
Lapuz
FM 1-B
Similarities
Verbal Communication Filipino
Filipinos often communicate
indirectly in order to prevent
a loss of face and evoking
hiya on either side of an
exchange. They tend to avoid
interrupting others and are
Indirect Communication more attentive to posture,
expression and tone of voice
to draw meaning. Speech is
often ambiguous and
Filipinos may speak in the
passive voice rather than the
active to avoid being
perceived as speaking
harshly.
Since many Filipinos try to
save face and avoid hiya in
their interactions, many will
Answers be overly polite and seldom
give a flat ‘no’ or negative
response.
When speaking to those who
are older or of higher status,
Respect Filipinos tend to use the
polite forms of speech.
Non-Verbal Communication Filipino
It is common practice to
remove one’s shoes before
entering someone’s home.
Visiting The host may offer you
slippers to wear inside the
home.
Burmese (Myanmar)
The Burmese are indirect
communicators. They
generally take a roundabout
way to make their point
known in order not to offend
the other person in the
conversation. Upfront
honesty can be deeply
intimidating and uncouth;
hence people tend to be
subtle and discreet about
their opinions.
Consider that some Burmese
may give you the answer you
want to hear instead of an
honest one. This is done out
of politeness, but can be
counterintuitive in a foreign
context.
It is expected that people are
especially conscious of their
behavior in the presence of
an elder.
Burmese (Myanmar)
Take your shoes off when
entering someone’s home.
 If someone is eating and
someone walks past, many
Filipinos will offer the person
Eating passing by to stop and eat.
However, this is not a literal
offer but rather out of
respect.
Among relatives or friends of
the same gender, it is
common for Filipinos to walk family or friends of the same
hand in hand or arm in arm.
This is generally done so as a
sign of affection, friendship with their arms around each
Physical Contact or if they are shy and would
like someone to accompany
them. Filipinos tend to be
modest and conservative in
their interactions with their Men and women rarely touch
significant other, and public
displays of affection among
couples (such as kissing or
hugging) is quite uncommon.
Some Filipinos may make a
Tongue clicking sound with their
tongue when they are upset
Smiling The ubiquitous smile should
not be misconstrued as
agreement or pleasure in
what has been discussed. The
smile can just as easily be
used to hide embarrassment,
annoyance or disagreement.
It is rude to eat something
without offering it to anyone
else present first.
Furthermore, if you are
eating in view of others, it is
a customary gesture to ask
anyone around you if they
would like some.
It is normal for physical
affection to be shown among
gender. For example, people
may walk hand-in-hand or
other. However, it is
generally rare for couples or
friends from opposite
genders to do so in public.
one another, though it may
be more common in urban
areas.
Some Burmese may make a
clicking sound with their
tongue when they are upset
The Burmese tend to smile
throughout conversations.
Whilst it can indicate
happiness, smiling is also
sometimes used in an
attempt to cover
awkwardness,
embarrassment, sadness or
even anger. Therefore, try
not to take someone’s
cheerful demeanor as an
indication that they are
emotionally unaffected by
everything you are saying.
 Differences
Verbal Filipino
Word - Order Tagalog has a flexible word
order compared to English.
While the verb always
remains in the initial position,
the order of noun phrase
complements that follows is
flexible
Alphabet The Balarílà ng Wikang
Pambansâ of grammarian
Lope K. Santos introduced
the Abakada alphabet. This
alphabet consists of 20
letters and became the
standard alphabet of the
national language.
Non - Verbal Filipino
Filipinos tend to use eye
contact to show their
sincerity in the conversation.
This happens regardless the
Eye Contact status of the person talking.
Filipinos may point to objects
by puckering their lips and
Pointing moving their mouths in the
direction they are pointing
to.
Burmese (Myanmar)
Burmese is a tonal, pitch-
register (as well as social-
register), and syllable-timed
language, largely
monosyllabic and analytic,
with a subject–object–verb
word order.
The Burmese alphabet
consists of 33 letters and 12
vowels and is written from
left to right.
Burmese (Myanmar)
Eye contact shows
attentiveness to the person
talking. However, direct eye
contact should be diverted
every now and again to
soften the interaction.
Intense eye contact can be
viewed as a challenge to the
other person.
Feet are considered to be the
dirtiest part of the body and
should not be used to point
at things or move objects.
The soles of one’s feet should
not be pointed at others
 Written Filipino Burmese (Myanmar)
Structure Tagalog is a non-tonal Like all Sino-Tibetan
language with a relatively languages, Burmese has a
small number of phonemes, simple syllable structure
i.e., sounds that make a consisting of an initial
difference in word meaning. consonant followed by a
vowel with an associated
tone.
Vowels Burmese has eight vowel Tagalog has 5 vowel
phonemes, i.e., sounds that phonemes, i.e., sounds that
distinguish word meaning make a difference in word
meaning.
Vocabulary Tagalog vocabulary is Hinduism and Buddhism have
Austronesian in origin with had a profound religious and
borrowings from Spanish, linguistic effect on Burmese.
English, Min Nan Chinese, As a result, learned or
Malay, Sanskrit, Arabic, specialized words which
Tamil, Persian, came into the spoken
Kapampangan, and other language through the written
Austronesian languages. one often contains Pali
loanwords, similar to Latinate
words in English