Fili’s world

Oh, this is exactly the example I was looking for. This week marks the first day of the first lunar month according to the Jewish biblical calendar, which means that Israelis will be celebrating their news years this Wednesday. Since two weeks ago, I’ve started receiving countless variations of "Happy New Year" messages from people I’ve never even met.

One of the top questions I’m asked by Taiwanese I meet is about cultural differences between Israelis and Taiwanese. Resulting to cliches, I try and explain that in many ways - Israelis are the opposite extreme to the Chinese/Taiwanese face concept. Israelis are direct, open, even somewhat aggressive, Mediterranean style. But, that general statement usually doesn’t really explain much. As I don’t exactly fit that stereotype, they don’t really understand.

Maybe this next video I got from a few friends for new years with the title "Fuck you Fili" will help make things a bit more clear. Here’s the video, followed by my translation to English:

 

 

Man : hey, sweetie, "Happy New Year!"
Woman : "Happy New Year?", that’s SO lame!
Man : Lame? so what would you use?
Woman : "Fuck you!"
Man : "Fuck you"?! nice!! so, fuck you, darling.
Woman : Fuck you, sweetie.

Family : Yeah… ?
Man comes in and goes to hug everybody: Good evening, fuck you all!
To the first guy in the house : Fuck you, man.
To the lady : How are you? fuck you!
Lady : thank you!
To the guy on the couch: Please, here’s a small something. Yo bro, fuck you too!
To the lady : Wonderful, wonderful, fuck you!

On the bar, bartender : There you go.
Costumer : Thank you so much, and fuck you.
Bartender : Have a good night, and fuck you.
Costumer : Thank you.

A man’s playing video games on TV.
Woman : Aviram, Aviram, your aunt is on the phone. She wants to talk to you.
Man : I can’t talk right now, so please tell her "hi" and to go fuck herself.

Guy in a car answers the phone : Hello.
Friend : Yo, bro, wass’up?
Guy : Yo, Afraim, how’s it hanging?
Friend : I just called to wish you a "fuck you", you king! (Hebrew slang)

(10 people saying "fuck you")

A guy on his mobile : I just called you to say "fuck you" and please pass this along to grandma Ester…. yeah, no problem, so … fuck you all, and… goodbye.

A man plays with his baby : Fuck you.

The guy from the car : Oh, thank you bro, fuck you. Pass it along to all the family, bro. To mom, to dad - fuck them.
The friend on the phone : Thank you! you too. Please tell your sister "fuck you"  for me, and to your mother, tell them I love them and fuck them.
Guy : Perfect, bro, perfect.

To anybody who’s been in Taiwan for a short while, I think the differences are self explanatory. The way people talk, what people do when they meet, how they express themselves, and naturally - the vulgarity. There is just no personal "face" in Israel, probably the country with the lowest level of "face" anywhere in the world. While it might be relatively okay for an Israeli coming to Asia, you can only try and guess what an Asian-Taiwanese would feel like in Israeli culture.

So, have a happy new year, or maybe just…