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14 Call Center Interview Questions & Answers

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The call center industry is one of the fastest growing in the country these days. As recently as ten years ago, there were only a few call center agents and the word call center was hardly ever used in the country. Today, almost every family has at least one member working in the call center industry. The reason for this boom is partly economics. In the Philippines, low paying jobs are very notorious and while call centers set up shop here because of the low labor costs, Filipinos decide to work for the call center industry because it pays higher than average wages. Consider this: if you are an average worker with an entry level position, you probably are getting paid seven to ten thousand a month; meanwhile, an average employee in the call center industry with an entry level position will get around fifteen thousand pesos a month, plus free dental and health benefits (HMO). Call centers also will pay your SSS (Social Security), PAGIBIG (home building fund), and PhilHealth (health ins...
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This is How Real Money Looks Like

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  Click to enlarge This was one of the gemstones I found at Yuchenco museum the last time I visited it. This used to be the paper money under US occupation when paper money was convertible into gold and silver.  Paper money was basically a certificate for gold and silver deposited into the state's coffers.  I don't know how they were able to deceive the people into accepting paper as money but even during the 1950s, paper money still had reminders written on it that it was legal tender, a clear indication that people back then still knew that there was something funny about using paper as money. Today, I am hearing more people getting interested in gold as money. Is a gold standard comeback looming? Lettering on the paper bill: TREASURY CERTIFICATE BY AUTHORITY OF AN ACT OF THE PHILIPPINE LEGISTATURE APPROVED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 13, 1922 THIS CERTIFIES THAT THERE HAS BEEN DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS TWO PESOS PAYABLE TO THE B...
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Is The Little Prince a Book about Spirituality

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I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately about spirituality almost everyday. Five years since I translated Le Petit Prince, I am belatedly realizing that the story of The Little Prince could have been about spirituality all along. One thing that I heard from a recent podcast that stood out for me was how stars are portals and that is where we all came from. And where does the little prince live? On an asteroid! When the little prince arrives on earth, he is greeted by a snake. He tells the snake that he wonders whether the stars are placed as guides so that one day we can come home again. Lately, whenever I am feeling tired, weary, and lonely, I find myself thinking that I'd like to go home... One of the remarkable things that struck me from the story of The Little Prince was how the little prince had to die in order for him to go back to his planet and his rose. This is how a lot of NDE experiencers talk about death by the way, a homecoming.  When my aunt died, I felt ups...
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Debunking a Misconception About the Cause of Autism

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  Yesterday, someone shared this post in Facebook. I found it amusing because I remember having a conversation with my friend about the cause of autism and its rise during the 1980s. I postulated couldn't it have been caused by something that we began routinely administering in the 1980s or even in the 1970s to children? Of course, just like in the the Facebook post, she said that oh they were simply not getting diagnosed but there were already a lot of people with autism even before the 1980s. I didn't say anything but in my mind I was asking myself why was she spending so much on speech therapy and special classes if this were the case? I mean if I knew that undiagnosed cancer cases would still lead normal lives, why in the world would I ever have the need to be diagnosed?  Or why would I ever need to spend money on interventions if I knew that everyone with a cancer diagnosis would turn out just fine?  If our parents turned out to be healthy and productive and some of ...
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Discovering a Different Perspective on Sulu's Struggle for Independence

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When I was still working, I remember reading an article about how people from Sulu wrote to the Philippine congress, opposing being part of what was about to become the Philippine republic. I recall sending it to my coworker, who told me that the Moros were correct to oppose being part of the Philippines. Today, I tried looking for that article but couldn't. Instead I found several articles about the Carpenter-Kiram treaty and how a group in Sulu (as well as the Sulu Sultanate) is calling for the revival of the said agreement through a congressional act. https://tribune.net.ph/2024/12/31/group-pushes-to-revive-us-statehood-movement-for-mindanao-and-sulu According to this article , the US actually governed Mindanao and Sulu separately from Luzon and Visayas. This brings to mind the UK where (if I'm not mistaken), the king governs scotland separately as well. I remember reading about this several years ago and this is the reason why the king has a different title in Scotland.  An...
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Revisiting Booksale: A Trip Down Memory Lane

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Last night, I saw an ad in Facebook from Booksale that they were having a Valentine sale. Today, I decided to give them a visit. The caption reads buy books with your date which you will never read Booksale is a bookstore with branches across the Philippines specializing in used and cheap books. Booksale is very memorable for me because when I was new in Manila, this was where I would buy books. Yes, back then, I still bought physical books. I even had a monthly budget for books and DVDs in my notebook (no spreadsheets yet).  I remember always behaving like a kid inside a candy store whenever I visited Booksale because their store at Mindpro  (recently gobbled up by SM), which used to be the lone mall in Zamboanga city wasn't very well stocked and did not have great selections. Of course, I'm pretty sure that this was not the same booksale in SM North that I bought books from between 2007 and 2009. They had probably changed location within the same mall over the years. At the ...
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The Little Prince Street Kohi Festival

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Last February 1 and 2, The Little Prince Street Kohi Festival brought together fans, collectors, and enthusiasts in a first-of-its-kind event in the country. It was a memorable two-day event as fans of the French novella had a chance to meet each other and become friends.  There were several activities featured at the festival centered around The Little Prince such as watercolor painting sessions, book readings, and book signings. Visitors could also browse shops selling unique Little Prince merchandise and trinkets. For entertainment, there was a Little Prince musical and storytelling as well as various other musical performances. They even had some Little Prince paintings commissioned specifically for the event! Little Prince Art Exhibit Little Prince Philippine Editions I had a wonderful time meeting fellow translators of The Little Prince and sharing experiences and insights with them. We had very interesting conversations. I also got to meet Dr. Lilia Antonio who was the first...
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Grab Advance Booking Review

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My parents had spent the holiday season in the city and we experienced a tough time booking a Grab car all the time. Catching a flight home before the New Year, we decided to pay extra for Grab's Advance Booking feature. Grab Advance Booking guarantees you a driver on your specified date and time. At the time of this writing, Grab Advance Booking works only for bookings going to the airport. Prepayment is required so linking the Grab app to a payment app or a credit card is needed. In our case, we prepaid for our ride to the airport using GCash.  We had a lot of misgivings because upon reading the terms and conditions, if the driver cancels, it turns out you only get a compensation voucher (unknown amount) and a refund. So I'm not sure what the penalty is for cancelling although I would think that the premium you are paying is enough incentive for the driver not to cancel. In our experience, Grab Advance Booking cost double the regular rate. When using the Advance Booking featu...
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Gold as an Inflation Hedge in the Philippines

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Gold is often seen as a hedge against inflation across different cultures and several millennia. Gold advocates would cite that the price of an italian suit in the early 1900s is the same today as it was back then. Today, I came across a post on Facebook that claims to be an ad for flights from the 1960s. Since gold was still money back then and had a fixed amount of dollars associated with it, this is a good data to compare the ability of gold to hold its value. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15YufUohLj/ During the Bretton Woods era, the price of gold was fixed at 35 USD per ounce. Meanwhile, 1 USD was worth 3.90 PHP. If a flight from IloIlo to Manila was 28 pesos, this would be equivalent to 7 USD. In terms of gold, 7 USD would have bought around 7 grams of gold (1 troy oz is equal to 31.1 grams). In today's peso, 7 grams of gold would be worth more than 30 thousand pesos. Far more than what Cebu Pacific actually charges today! The truth is I already knew that the cost of fligh...
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Tomler Personal Refrigerator Review

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Gone are the days when people would be apprehensive about buying electronics online. For me, I started becoming comfortable buying gadgets as well as small appliances like blenders and coffee makers online during the pandemic. A month ago, I decided to buy a personal refrigerator online.  At first, I had a lot of trepidations because I have heard of stories of refrigerators that suddenly stop working from people moving to a new place. After checking out refrigerators in the mall and seeing the price difference, I decided to take the risk and buy my first personal refrigerator online. I went with a fridge with an unknown brand name and it was also the cheapest one I found online.  The Tomler personal refrigerator arrived well-packed. There was one review that said that the fridge had dents when it arrived but seeing how it was packed in a bubble-wrapped box with styrofoam, I don't know how it was possible for the fridge to be delivered with dents. Online, there seems to be a ...
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Breathing life into a dead book

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In September of 2018, the Chavacano version of The Little Prince was launched. How the book came into existence was nothing short of a miracle. In 2013, one of the people reading my blog about Chavacano sent me a message about the idea of translating The Little Prince into Chavacano. He introduced me to a publisher which publishes the same book in different languages. I was disappointed to learn that the project did not involve any compensation so I shelved the idea. I think in the academe sector (where most translators come from), most people do things with the purpose of adding feathers to their cap as oppose to monetary compensation. In 2017, I no longer had a job and met a linguist (through my blog about Chavacano) who again, presented to me the idea of translating The Little Prince into Chavacano. Since I already had a lot of time on my hands, I tried doing the translation slowly, one sentence at a time.  After a few months, the translation was complete. We toyed with the ide...
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Smart's Magic Call Promo Review

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A few days ago, I needed to call an office and the only phone number available was a landline. Since I only had a mobile phone, I did a quick search online for rates when calling a landline from a mobile phone and I was surprised at the exorbitant rates! Fortunately, I stumbled upon Smart's promo offer called Magic Call. Magic Call allows Smart users to call any mobile phone (all networks) as well as landlines in the Philippines. Smart Magic Call is perfect for me because the promo does not expire. I mean I hardly call anyone using the cellphone so having to call a landline is a very rare occurrence for me. When calling toll free numbers, your Magic Call minutes will not be deducted. You will instead be charged a flat rate of 8 pesos. This is useful when calling banks and you anticipate being on hold for a very long time. Otherwise, it's better to call the regular landline phone number. Magic Call is available at 99 pesos and 199 pesos. You get 50 minutes at 99 pesos which is a...
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History through the Eyes of BPI

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I did not expect the BPI Museum in Cebu to be open but the guard said that it was. The BPI Museum in Cebu is not to be missed if ever you find yourself in the downtown area of Cebu. The museum has a comprehensive collection of artifacts related to banking and currency. The Bank of Philippine Islands or BPI predates the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Established in 1851 as El Banco Español Filipino, it acted as our first central bank. It is also the first bank in South East Asia. This is an exhibit of how banks used to look like inside as well as the first ATM in the Philippines. The BPI Museum also had an impressive collection of old maps. If you love history, the BPI Museum will give you a chance to appreciate our country's history through a glimpse of the various currencies being circulated at different periods of time. How BPI survived the second world war is also a very interesting story.
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