Emirati professor secretly worked as taxi driver, says Filipinos are polite and always give tips

Filipino Times

22-02-2025

An Emirati professor secretly worked as a taxi driver and discovered that Filipinos were always polite and consistently gave tips.
In an Instagram post by Dennis Mallari, Ammar Shams, an Emirati law professor at the British University in Dubai, shared that he worked as a taxi driver for two months in 2023.
Shams revealed that he decided to drive a taxi to understand Dubai residents and citizens more as well as the city where he spent most of his life.
Over the two months of working as a taxi driver, however, one certain nationality caught his attention. 'There was one behavior that stands out. One nationality, one group of people, consistently and without fail, gave me a tip,' he said.
Although the tips were small in amounts, he was amazed by the consistency of Filipinos giving tips. 'Small as it may be, it may have been two dirhams or five dirhams, but every single time a Filipino got in my taxi, they gave me a tip,' Shams said.
Another thing that Shams noticed is that Filipinos always treated him politely. 'The other aspect that I found very refreshing was that they were amongst the most polite and respectful passengers I had,' Shams shared.
'They consistently referred to me as Kuya, which I will always keep dear to my heart,' he added.
At the end of the video, he expressed his appreciation to all the Filipinos out there. 'Thank you, Filipinos, for being who you are,' Shams concluded.
Watch the full video here:
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A post shared by Dennis Mallari (@dennisbmallari)