I was talking to my Filipina friend in Manila last night. (Thank goodness for Skype!). She mentioned that it was hot, so she was wearing thongs as usual. I said that I thought that was an Australian-English word and that we in the US said flip flops. Then I remembered that my brother, who used to live on the Micronesian island of Pohnpei, said that there they didn't call them flip flops because that was a derogatory name for a Filipino. On Pohnpei they are called zorries. But I had not offended my friend by using the term flip flop, because she said that she had never heard it used in that way before. She has traveled quite a lot in Asia and Europe, too.
So is this really a bad term for Filipinos?
zhet
1
ryanqqq
flip flops, no.
Possibly flips could have morphed to a negative meaning, notably in the US.
In the Philippines, it should still be a neutral to 'cool' way of describing Filipinos. I've not been there in years, so I could be way off now.
2
stormboy
I've heard it used in Hong Kong on occasion as a derogatory term for the many Filipinas working there.
3
myanmarbound
As with #3, in Hong Kong it is considered as a derogatory term for the many Filipinas working there.
5
kerouac2
I put that in there on purpose, Vinny, because I had never heard it either until I was told that in places like Trenton, NJ, about 30-40 years ago, many locals referred to Puerto Ricans as 'khaki walkers' as they all wore khaki pants and never took the bus, because it was too expensive for them -- so they walked everywhere.
6
karandavasana
Incidentally "zorries" must come from "zori", the Japanese name for traditional straw "flip-flops". I wonder if it is from the Japanese occupation of that area.
7
karandavasana
Also incidentally, when I was sending a private message earlier today I missed a typo in my message- I had typed "city" as "c0ty" (Have used zero because I can't type it here either, should be "o". Thorn Tree wouldn't let me send it because "c0ty" is also apparently a forbidden word on Thorn Tree. A quick Google turns up nothing but a surname or a French cosmetics house- does anybody know of a possible offensive meaning for this word?
8
weilong
Heard flip-flops used to refer to Philippinos. We call them jandals where I come from (the footwear that is, not the people).
In Sanity We Trust
9
alan1972
#9 - I would guess that at some point in Thorntree's past it was used as an abbreviation for "c*** of the year". TT's forbidden words sometimes have more to do with something that caused trouble on the forums at a specific time than with any general ranking of the offensiveness of various words.
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