Our classroom teachers are quick to teach children to say "Thank you" from grade school onward. I can even hear them ask the children, "What do you say?" when the sentence "Thank you" is expected. This is fine, but it also subliminally trains Fiipinos to have a gift-receiving mentality.

Sadly, those same teachers never teach those same children to apologize and say "I'm sorry".

That is why atchays never apologize. It is extremely painful and difficult for them to do so.

That is also why I admire politicians who are able to say "I'm sorry" and admit that they were wrong.