This blog has my Social Studies teacher nerdiness written all over it. I know nerdiness is not a work, but it seems appropriate and when I’ve been out of the country operating in foreign languages for 9 months, I feel like I can make up a word or two.
Here are some cultural observations from my time in Malaysia thus far. Malaysia is actually an interesting mix of Indian and Chinese with a few actual Malays. People here can immediately identify the ethnic background of a person. We struggle a bit more delineating between Indian and Malay, but we are improving. The food usually falls into the Indian or Chinese category. We have yet to figure out what actual Malay food is or if it exists. We have been told we can eat monkey brains while the monkey is still alive. If that is Malay, I might pass.
Eating is interesting as you eat with your right hand only and most often without utensils. One of our favorite things is that our food is often served on giant leafs. Who needs plates? They scoop you some rice and then dump 2 or 3 different types of curry on your leaf. You mix it all up, make a ball, and use your fingers to scoop and your thumb to shovel. I am not very good at this and they are consistently giving me pointers. I think I was meant to eat with a fork. The food is usually spicy, but delicious.
Meals are interesting as we usually eat around 3:30 for lunch and 9:30pm for dinner. Meals are fairly long endeavors as it isn’t abnormal for us to spend 2-3 hours with our contacts at each meal. I didn’t realize there would be a point where I was consistently eating dinner around 10 or 11pm. I’m still waking up early so the schedule is killing me a bit.
The language situation reflects the culture. You have multiple languages spoken by almost everyone we meet. Many speak English, but sometimes it is Tamil (an Indian language) or Chinese, or most commonly Malay. The church we work with has both Tamil and English speaking services.
One of my favorite things is that many people ride motorcycles or scooters. This is because traffic is often very congested and so the motorcycle and scooter riders can go between or around stopped traffic. I know this is not legal in America, but it is normal everywhere else in the world. By the way, people drive on the opposite side of the road from the U.S. which is becoming normal as that has been the case for 6 of the last 7 months. I am not going to know which way to look before crossing the street in the U.S. Good thing I will be adjusting for the summer in Mitchell where I don’t have to worry about much trafficJ
I digress though. It is hot and ridiculously humid here. Most people wear jackets as they ride to protect themselves. What I have never seen anywhere before, is that everyone wears their jackets backwards so that they get air to their back while riding. I think it is genius, even if it looks a bit funny.
Now I’m in Malaysia and am enjoying the new cultural norms.
