Ladies, would you be offended if a guy tells you to "Magpa-Canton ka naman"?

Question

I'm not making this up... A Filipina co-worker of mine all excited went over to our nurse's station with some good news. She just recently got approved for an extended leave with pay and wanted to celebrate it at work. She said she could make 3 kinds of dishes at home then bring them to work the next day so we could all share it. Some said pinoy-spaghetti (the sweet sauce kind), some said kare-kare, others wanted dinugan. The entire week I have had the craving for pancit so I went "Magpa-canton ka naman"... right after that came out of my mouth, I realized how dirty it sounded but I just pretended to be stupid about it. She got pissed and blew off the whole thing. I ended up treating my other co-workers to some chinese food after our shift for s******g up a potential free meal at work.

Would you have reacted the same way?

Answer 1

funny!  what's wrong with it?  you blurted out what's on your mind by accident,  i would not be offended coz i know it's a joke, a slip of the toungue, etc.

Answer 2

For me this sounds unprofessional and I would feel not respected. Some ladies are sensitive so it's best not to use dirty green jokes. If you know the person so well and she feels comfortable with that level of joke then fine.

Answer 3

i dunno what that means but she needs to get over it.

Answer 4

Obviously, your lisp made your comment sound more like a preposition.  See a speech therapist to avoid more embarrasing conversations.

Answer 5

obviously how she reacted seems she had an idea of the sexual meaning of the the sentence. Anyway, it was her reaction. With me, though i know it's possible sexual meaning/slang since we're talking about food, i will just shrug it off, and just prepare pancit canton and bring it the next day.. just use the word "pancit canton" the next time you have to say it.

Answer 6

to tell you the truth if it was all of a sudden blurted  out like that in the midst of my excitement yes i wouldve been a lil be annoyed, but you cant blame her. Its a filipina thing, :) anyhows sounding stupid about it, which she probably get the message after she blew up isnt a good excuse, seek her out and just say your sorry and that its a perfectly from a word of a hungry mouth.

boo yah canton. . :D

Answer 7

maybe she heard it first time.  it's an old common joke in the office and everyone always laughs at it. but i agree, if you heard it first time it sounds dirty, but she'll get used to it anyhow.

Answer 8

It depends on the context. Normally, I would say that this joke is not an offensive one, and that she would have been better off to just play along and laugh about it. It's an old joke and filipinos have learned to laugh it off.



However, it is possible that being in London, you guys have not heard of this before. If she is a very shy and conservative person, then she wants to be treated with respect and courtesy and comments like this, especially if heard first time might seem offensive to her. The way your friends reacted also affects whether her reaction is justified or not. If your friends reacted in a way that made the comment somewhat embarrassing for her, she will most likely get mad. But if if your friends just laughed about it, instead of her, the the context is inoffensive and she is overreacting.

Answer 9

i like tsu-pancit too.

Answer 10

That's a d**n good reason not mix your English and Pilipino words (Tagalish).

You probably didn't mean it, but, it just sounded offensive!

Did you know that the pilipino dessert p**o has an entirely different meaning in Spanish (Mexican)?