We have Different Cultures - Malaysia vs UK
26/10/2017
There are some days where I sit in front of my laptop and non-stop watching advertisement and short film through YouTube. (my passion I shall say) I enjoy watching those that are meaningful, relatable, touching and unique in its own way.
Here, I found one "Merdeka" (national day in Malaysia) short film by Celcom & Axiata that is totally worth watching, especially to people who study overseas, work in overseas and live in overseas. I bet all of you would feel the same way as I do.
This short film is about a British school teacher named Emma. She came to Malaysia to teach in a secondary school. She experienced many cultural differences between hers and her Malaysian students. The Malaysian students were more than delighted to share her their cultures. They introduced many different cultures to her such as: Nasi Lemak (Malay food, famous among the Malaysians), Batu Seremban (traditional game), calling Ais Kepal vendor "Uncle" (Malaysians refer each other like a family to show respect, even though they are complete strangers to each other.), taking off the shoes before entering a house and so on!
DO WATCH THE SHORT FILM TO GET WHAT I MEANT!
There are some days where I sit in front of my laptop and non-stop watching advertisement and short film through YouTube. (my passion I shall say) I enjoy watching those that are meaningful, relatable, touching and unique in its own way.
Here, I found one "Merdeka" (national day in Malaysia) short film by Celcom & Axiata that is totally worth watching, especially to people who study overseas, work in overseas and live in overseas. I bet all of you would feel the same way as I do.
This short film is about a British school teacher named Emma. She came to Malaysia to teach in a secondary school. She experienced many cultural differences between hers and her Malaysian students. The Malaysian students were more than delighted to share her their cultures. They introduced many different cultures to her such as: Nasi Lemak (Malay food, famous among the Malaysians), Batu Seremban (traditional game), calling Ais Kepal vendor "Uncle" (Malaysians refer each other like a family to show respect, even though they are complete strangers to each other.), taking off the shoes before entering a house and so on!
DO WATCH THE SHORT FILM TO GET WHAT I MEANT!
My thought after watching (disclaimer: only applies on me and my own experience):
I felt so related to this short film, especially the part where it said that we stepped into a foreign country to learn and share. I do agree with this point. In fact, I came to UK to pursue my study is to mainly gain experience and learn more. However, it is far different from what I thought. It is just like the actual version of "expectation vs reality" to me.
First point:
In this video, I can see that "Emma" received a warm welcome from the Malaysian students but in my case, I do not feel the enthusiasm from my UK classmates. I do get that they are already used to having foreign students but I do not expect that the individualism is so strong (of course, there are some who are really nice too). What shock me the most is, in Malaysia, we know people from other classes, we talk to them and we have fun together, but in UK, they do no know each other and they only mingle to their own group of friends. They almost have zero interaction with people who are out of their gang. Hence, I felt that it is quite hard to make friends in UK. Yeah, it is due to individualist and collectivist cultures.
Second point:
"Emma" was shocked to listen people who have no blood ties connection but still refer each other like a family. For this, I believe in most Asia countries, we do have this significant culture. We have this great importance of marking the ones who are elder than us as one's social superiors. In simpler way, we use the addresses such as "uncle", "auntie", "Mr." and "Mrs" to show our respect to them. For example, in Malaysia, when we want to address our lecturer, we will add "Mrs" or "Mr" in front of their name, without it, it sounds rude and not respecting them. While what I learnt from UK is, they do not address their teacher as teacher/tutor/lecturer/miss/mrs/mr/, they address them only with their real name. Besides, there is this scenario where when our lecturer passed us notes, the UK students will not return the extra sheets to the lecturer, they simply just leave it on the table. When we saw this, our mind pops up a lot of questions. "Why aren't they returning it to our lecturer?" "Are they taking lecturer's kind intention as granted?" We certainly feel that this should not be happening. However, I am not to comment which is good or which is bad. This is just the cultural differences between Malaysia, a large power distance country and UK, a small power distance country.
Third point:
I might just create a new blog post discussing on the obstacles I face. hahaha
SO, the 5th week studying in UK is coming to an end and there is another 12 weeks left. I am totally enjoying my days in UK and hoping for a longer period staying here (despite having culture differences). But, what can I say? Time is ticking way too fast that I barely can catch up with. What I can do is to enjoy EVEN MORE and appreciate the day I spend here.
This is the end of my sharing and I hope you guys do enjoy reading it. Have a nice day and be nice to people around you! Share your smile to them, never be stingy with it.
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