Documentary on Pinay teachers immigrating to America

[beejay 123]

Saw this on tv the other night-

PBS - The Learning

It's a documentary on Filipinos recruited by the Baltimore Public school system to teach in the U.S. It's about 90 min. and you can watch the whole thing online. It starts in the Philippines and then follows a few of the ladies during their first year of teaching and then briefly as they return home after their first year. It's by Ramona Diaz who is the same woman who made the great documentary on Imelda a few years back.

It's worth checking out if you have time.

-b

[TeapotGirl 66]

There;s an error. cant watch it.

[beejay 123]

Sorry about that.

Here is the link for the show site on PBS

http://video.pbs.org/program/1154485580/

try that and then select "The Learning" which should be available in the list of full episodes below the main graphic.

If that does not work I would go directly to the pbs website

http://www.pbs.org/

Then select "watch video" from the menu at the top of the site. There you should be able to scroll through and find the videos for POV and select "The Learning" or select POV from the 'programs' pull down menu.

Hope one of those works for you.

[Psoas10 17]

I watched it and it was very good. The culture shock of being from the Philippines to going to the ghetto of Baltimore most have been huge. The one teacher reminded me of some teachers I had in Hawaii. The best story was about the young teacher whose family thought she was rich and spent all her money and kept asking for more. I am glad my wife had an easier time adjusting here.

[beejay 123]

I just had another thought - it might not be available to watch outside of the U.S. If those links still don't work and you are not in the U.S. then I would assume that might be the problem.

Here's a preview for it on youtube

Here's a longer excerpt also from youtube that profiles the teacher from Cebu

[beejay 123]

I watched it and it was very good. The culture shock of being from the Philippines to going to the ghetto of Baltimore most have been huge. The one teacher reminded me of some teachers I had in Hawaii. The best story was about the young teacher whose family thought she was rich and spent all her money and kept asking for more. I am glad my wife had an easier time adjusting here.

My husband had already fallen asleep when I was watching it and shot up immediately (usually he's a pretty heavy sleeper) when the Cebuana teacher was lecturing her class - he must have had flashbacks He was pretty irritated at the young girl's father and his desire for money over all other things. I thought the young lady you mentioned did a good job of setting some ground rules while still letting the family know that she cared for them and wanted to help them to work towards a better life. I think that is one of the biggest adjustments when coming here and for families back home to understand, that even though it appears you are making a lot of money, life here is very expensive and there isn't as much disposable income as one would like to think.

[Camilo Osias 2]

.... life here is very expensive and there isn't as much disposable income as one would like to think.

Right, you are. However, some Filipino women fancy a rose garden when they marry a Cano, but the rose garden turns out to be a patch of crabgrass!

[YodaPagoda 0]

I really enjoyed this video, and I hope this is available outside the USA so the people who need to see it (families of Filipinos going to the USA) can see it. The video also made me kinda homesick! I miss the Philippines!