Revised Cultural information of Malaysia
LU WANG
ENG191 SEC21 Fall 2009
Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia and its capital is Kuala Lumpur. “Malaysia consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of 329,845 square kilometers. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants. The country is separated into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo, by the South China Sea. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei. The country is located near the equator and experiences a tropical climate.”1
There three ethnical groups of people live in Malaysia: Native Malaysian, Chinese Malaysian and Indian.
Malaysian is the official language in Malaysia. Chinese Malaysian also speaks Mandarin, other Chinese dialects and English in Malaysia, too. “Malaysia as a unified state did not exist until 1963. Previously, the United Kingdom had established influence in colonies in the territory from the late 18th century, so English is widely understood in service industries and is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school due to the history of the British colony.”2 A lot of Chinese immigrated to Malaysia 100 years ago during the war time and became the first generation of Chinese Malaysian, therefore, Chinese Malaysian inherit almost the same culture and custom as Chinese culture.
Malaysia is also a multi-religions country. Almost native Malaysian believes Islam and therefore Islam is the official religion in Malaysia. Chinese Malaysian believes Buddhism a Daoism. Indian believes Hinduism. There are just a small amount of people are Christian in Malaysia.
Malaysia has many holidays for different ethnic festivals since it is a multi-ethnic country. Native Malay culture, traditional Chinese culture and traditional Indian culture are three dominant cultures in Malaysia.
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Malaysia
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
First Interview Report
In the part of preparing the interviews, first I made 10 unique questions which are designed for International Students. These 10 questions contain the aspects of their life, study and culture. Second, I wrote the objectives for the interviews in the purpose of conducting three interviews successfully and productively. After creating our own blogs during the English 191 class, we got a great information base to communicate our ideas and progress of our interviews with classmates. I read each classmate’s objectives of his/her interviews and their comments on my first objectives. After reading, I noticed that I missed many detailed and crucial points in my first objectives. In order to make the objective more professional, clear and thoughtful, I revised my old objectives in many places and made it in three parts: before interviews, during the interviews and after interviews. I chose the final location of interviews’ place in the study room of the library on campus because this is the most quiet and convenient place for students to conduct a formal interview. I also prepared voice recorder to record the conversation during the interview and the electronic dictionary to help international interviewees express their thoughts better and more smoothly.
Choosing three interviewees is not a very difficult in St Cloud State University since there are around 1500 international students studying on campus. First of all, I needed to decide to which cultural I would interested in interviewing and finally I focused on Malaysia for the following two reasons: I travelled with my family around Malaysia 10 years ago and this country left me very deep and great impression on the cultural diversity and beautiful scenery; ICSA (International Chinese student Association), which is composed by Chinese Malaysian student, is one of the biggest student association in SCSU and they have hold many successful cultural events on campus. I went to Malaysian night two weeks ago and invited three committee members from ICSA to be my interviewees. They are very friendly and warm-hearted to receive my invitation of the interview and we exchanged the cell phone number at that night.
After communicating with three interviewees, I scheduled the first interview on OCT 25th at 10:30 am in the study room of library on campus. The first interviewee is the event director of ICSA, Tak Seng Choy. I had reserved the study room two days before the interview’s day and told him the room number on the night before the interview. I dressed formally on that day and came there about 10:00am to set the voice recorder and organized the interview procedure in my mind again. I met my interviewee on time in the study room. He came with the question paper which I had given him when we first meet on that Malaysian Night. I offered him with the drink which I had already prepared before. I found he had already wrote some general ideas on the question paper for each question. I told him to be relaxed and feel free to use the electronic dictionary which I had prepared and put beside him when his thoughts stuck in his mind and didn’t know how to translate in English. I also asked him whether I can use the recorder to record the whole conversation and post it online. He said I could use the content of record when I was writing the transcript but refused me to post it online. After both of us reach the agreement, I pressed the start button on recorder and formally began our interview. I began the interview by formally introduce myself with standing up and making a firm handshake with Tak and stated the purpose of conducting an interview with international student to get knowledge and understanding another culture and custom. The next parts of interview went very smoothly because both of us got fully prepared with the questions and answers. Also both of us were getting more and more relaxed during the interview. I concentrated in listening every minute and used eye contacts and buddy language to interact with Tak. Our interview probably ran about 13 minutes and successfully accomplished every goals and procedure of the planned interview. At the end of interview, we also exchanged our msn and I also gave him a small gift.
My first interviewee was Tak Seng Choy and his English name is Jason. He came from the capital of Malaysia. His family immigrated to USA 8 years ago but he didn’t come USA with his family until he graduated from his high school in Malaysia 4 years ago. He had stayed in Los Angles for two years to study English and came to St Cloud 2 years ago. He studied in IEC program in SCSU for 0ne year and then became college student in SCSU. He is the event director in ICSA and he has performed the Lion Dance on many Malaysian cultural events. His ideal major is computer science but he is now majoring in business because he was born in a business family and his parents want him to take in charge their family company in future.
As an international student myself, I found many same situation I faced with as interviewee’s. Especially when I heard the reason why the interviewee hesitated at first to come to USA is because he didn’t want to leave his friend and the land he born in I was deeply touched at that time. I remember how struggled I am before I made decision of study abroad. I understood that I would face many difficulties and suffer huge homesick but I still encouraged myself not to give up my dream, pursuing my higher academic goals. Studying abroad is a hard and big decision through my life and shows my brave and determination of achieving my personal life goals. Also, through the process of conducting this interview, I found it was not easy to follow the steps from what I wrote in the objectives. The whole process of interview cost a lot time and preparation, but after I experienced it I think it worthed. It let me experience a new learning style which requires me to plan, conduct and revise a project all by myself. When I finish the first report of the interview, I feel very the self-satisfaction which gave me the motivation in experiencing other different writing tasks.
Short report about Malaysia:
Geography
1. Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia.
2. It has fourteen states and three Federal Territories.
3. Its total landmass is 329,845 square kilometers.
4. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur.
5. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants.
6. The country is separated into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo, by the South China Sea. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.
7. The country is located near the equator and experiences a tropical climate.
Language
“Malaysia as a unified state did not exist until 1963. Previously, the United Kingdom had established influence in colonies in the territory from the late 18th century, so English is widely understood in service industries and is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school due to the history of the British colony. “(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Malaysia) Malaysia is a multicultural nation. The national, or official, language is Malay which is the mother tongue of the majority Malay ethnic group. The main ethnic groups within Malaysia comprise the Malays, Chinese and Indians, thus Chinese and Indian are also spoken in Malaysia.
Religion
Malaysia is a multi-religious society and Islam is the official religion.
• 63.4% Islam
• 18.2% Buddhism
• 7.1% Christianity
• 6.3% Hinduism
• 2.6% Chinese Traditional Religion
Culture
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual society. Malaysian cultural mosaic is marked by many different cultures, but several in particular have had especially lasting influence on the country. Chief among these is the ancient Malay culture, and the cultures of Malaysia's two most prominent trading partners throughout history--the Chinese, and the Indians. These three groups are joined by a dizzying array of indigenous tribes, many of which live in the forests and coastal areas of Borneo. Although each of these cultures has vigorously maintained its traditions and community structures, they have also blended together to create contemporary Malaysia's uniquely diverse heritage.
Lu Wang
English 191 Section 21 Fall 2009
Interviewee: Tak Seng Choy
Country: Malaysia
Interview Date: 10/25/2009
Transcript of the first interview:
W= Lu Wang T= Tak Seng Choy
W: Where did you come from?
T: I came from Malaysia to USA 5 years ago.
W: Oh, I see. How long have you learned English?
T: I was taught English from kinder garden and I am still learning now.
W: You speak very fluently English! What else language do you speak?
T: I was born in a Chinese Malaysian family so my grandparent came from China so we speak Chinese in our daily life, too. We also speak Malaysian as our official language in public.
W: Cool, you master so many languages. Why do you come to USA?
T: My family immigrated to USA 8 years ago. I didn’t followed them to USA at first because I didn’t want to leave my friends in Malaysia and I am not sure whether I would like the living style in USA so I decided to stay in Malaysia until I graduated from high school. At that time, I was feeling like to experience more new things and know more new friends so I came to USA to attend college.
W: Why did you choose St Cloud State University?
T: Because when I first came to USA, I was still waiting for my green card, I was considered as an international student at that time. St Cloud State University is very famous for offering the substantial scholarship for international students and my family also live in Minnesota, so I applied for this school.
W: I see. Actually that’s exactly the same reason for me to choose this school. Do you like here?
T: Yes, I do. Although St Cloud is a very small town compared to the city which I came from, here is very nice, peaceful and convenient. It is a great campus town for me to pursue my academic goals.
W: I think so, too. I quite enjoy my life here as you. Do you meet any problems or troubles here so far?
T: Well, of course. I think the biggest trouble for me is the weather here. I have already experienced three winters here and they were all terrible. I had three car accidents happened in each winter to me while I was driving in a snowy day. In my study life, I think the language is also a very big problem for almost international students including me. We need to spend a lot time to reading to understand the knowledge in books. I could just understand little from the lecture of classes when I began studying here. I spent a lot time learning English by reading, watching American Movies and making native friends, so my English improved a lot now.
W: Yeah, I was in the same situation as yours before but now I am getting better at English. Just now you said one of the reason you didn’t want to come to USA with your family was that you were not sure whether you would like the living style here, so after living USA for 5 years, do you like live here.
T: Yes, I do though I had hesitation and worries at the beginning. I am very accustomed to the living style here.
W: As a Chinese student here, I experienced a totally different living style after I came to USA, what about you? Is the living style here very same or different from Malaysia?
T: My situation is definitely same as you since both of us came from an Asian country which has totally different culture and custom from a Western country. For example, People here go anywhere need to drive but in my country most places you want to go can just be reached by walk, subway or bus.
W: That’s true! Are there any differences in academic environment you think between Malaysia and USA?
T: I think here academic environment needs you have more ability of self-discipline than that in Malaysia. Professors here usually give you enough time to finish homework in order to help yourself to find your own ways learn and to extend the knowledge taught in class. This learning style requires you well self-organized ability. I think this is the most unique and special difference between these two country.
W: Do you like the difference you just said?
T: Yes, I do. I feel very free and comfortable to learning things in that style instead that accomplishes homework in the same form.
W: What do you think is the most important thing you learn during the time you study here?
T: I think the most important thing happened to me is that I know how to be independent. Now I learned how to live by myself and how to earn money by myself to support my life. I also have formed a clear life plan for my future American life!
Choosing three interviewees is not a very difficult in St Cloud State University since there are around 1500 international students studying on campus. First of all, I needed to decide to which cultural I would interested in interviewing and finally I focused on Malaysia for the following two reasons: I travelled with my family around Malaysia 10 years ago and this country left me very deep and great impression on the cultural diversity and beautiful scenery; ICSA (International Chinese student Association), which is composed by Chinese Malaysian student, is one of the biggest student association in SCSU and they have hold many successful cultural events on campus. I went to Malaysian night two weeks ago and invited three committee members from ICSA to be my interviewees. They are very friendly and warm-hearted to receive my invitation of the interview and we exchanged the cell phone number at that night.
After communicating with three interviewees, I scheduled the first interview on OCT 25th at 10:30 am in the study room of library on campus. The first interviewee is the event director of ICSA, Tak Seng Choy. I had reserved the study room two days before the interview’s day and told him the room number on the night before the interview. I dressed formally on that day and came there about 10:00am to set the voice recorder and organized the interview procedure in my mind again. I met my interviewee on time in the study room. He came with the question paper which I had given him when we first meet on that Malaysian Night. I offered him with the drink which I had already prepared before. I found he had already wrote some general ideas on the question paper for each question. I told him to be relaxed and feel free to use the electronic dictionary which I had prepared and put beside him when his thoughts stuck in his mind and didn’t know how to translate in English. I also asked him whether I can use the recorder to record the whole conversation and post it online. He said I could use the content of record when I was writing the transcript but refused me to post it online. After both of us reach the agreement, I pressed the start button on recorder and formally began our interview. I began the interview by formally introduce myself with standing up and making a firm handshake with Tak and stated the purpose of conducting an interview with international student to get knowledge and understanding another culture and custom. The next parts of interview went very smoothly because both of us got fully prepared with the questions and answers. Also both of us were getting more and more relaxed during the interview. I concentrated in listening every minute and used eye contacts and buddy language to interact with Tak. Our interview probably ran about 13 minutes and successfully accomplished every goals and procedure of the planned interview. At the end of interview, we also exchanged our msn and I also gave him a small gift.
My first interviewee was Tak Seng Choy and his English name is Jason. He came from the capital of Malaysia. His family immigrated to USA 8 years ago but he didn’t come USA with his family until he graduated from his high school in Malaysia 4 years ago. He had stayed in Los Angles for two years to study English and came to St Cloud 2 years ago. He studied in IEC program in SCSU for 0ne year and then became college student in SCSU. He is the event director in ICSA and he has performed the Lion Dance on many Malaysian cultural events. His ideal major is computer science but he is now majoring in business because he was born in a business family and his parents want him to take in charge their family company in future.
As an international student myself, I found many same situation I faced with as interviewee’s. Especially when I heard the reason why the interviewee hesitated at first to come to USA is because he didn’t want to leave his friend and the land he born in I was deeply touched at that time. I remember how struggled I am before I made decision of study abroad. I understood that I would face many difficulties and suffer huge homesick but I still encouraged myself not to give up my dream, pursuing my higher academic goals. Studying abroad is a hard and big decision through my life and shows my brave and determination of achieving my personal life goals. Also, through the process of conducting this interview, I found it was not easy to follow the steps from what I wrote in the objectives. The whole process of interview cost a lot time and preparation, but after I experienced it I think it worthed. It let me experience a new learning style which requires me to plan, conduct and revise a project all by myself. When I finish the first report of the interview, I feel very the self-satisfaction which gave me the motivation in experiencing other different writing tasks.
Short report about Malaysia:
Geography
1. Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia.
2. It has fourteen states and three Federal Territories.
3. Its total landmass is 329,845 square kilometers.
4. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur.
5. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants.
6. The country is separated into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo, by the South China Sea. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.
7. The country is located near the equator and experiences a tropical climate.
Language
“Malaysia as a unified state did not exist until 1963. Previously, the United Kingdom had established influence in colonies in the territory from the late 18th century, so English is widely understood in service industries and is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school due to the history of the British colony. “(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Malaysia) Malaysia is a multicultural nation. The national, or official, language is Malay which is the mother tongue of the majority Malay ethnic group. The main ethnic groups within Malaysia comprise the Malays, Chinese and Indians, thus Chinese and Indian are also spoken in Malaysia.
Religion
Malaysia is a multi-religious society and Islam is the official religion.
• 63.4% Islam
• 18.2% Buddhism
• 7.1% Christianity
• 6.3% Hinduism
• 2.6% Chinese Traditional Religion
Culture
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual society. Malaysian cultural mosaic is marked by many different cultures, but several in particular have had especially lasting influence on the country. Chief among these is the ancient Malay culture, and the cultures of Malaysia's two most prominent trading partners throughout history--the Chinese, and the Indians. These three groups are joined by a dizzying array of indigenous tribes, many of which live in the forests and coastal areas of Borneo. Although each of these cultures has vigorously maintained its traditions and community structures, they have also blended together to create contemporary Malaysia's uniquely diverse heritage.
Lu Wang
English 191 Section 21 Fall 2009
Interviewee: Tak Seng Choy
Country: Malaysia
Interview Date: 10/25/2009
Transcript of the first interview:
W= Lu Wang T= Tak Seng Choy
W: Where did you come from?
T: I came from Malaysia to USA 5 years ago.
W: Oh, I see. How long have you learned English?
T: I was taught English from kinder garden and I am still learning now.
W: You speak very fluently English! What else language do you speak?
T: I was born in a Chinese Malaysian family so my grandparent came from China so we speak Chinese in our daily life, too. We also speak Malaysian as our official language in public.
W: Cool, you master so many languages. Why do you come to USA?
T: My family immigrated to USA 8 years ago. I didn’t followed them to USA at first because I didn’t want to leave my friends in Malaysia and I am not sure whether I would like the living style in USA so I decided to stay in Malaysia until I graduated from high school. At that time, I was feeling like to experience more new things and know more new friends so I came to USA to attend college.
W: Why did you choose St Cloud State University?
T: Because when I first came to USA, I was still waiting for my green card, I was considered as an international student at that time. St Cloud State University is very famous for offering the substantial scholarship for international students and my family also live in Minnesota, so I applied for this school.
W: I see. Actually that’s exactly the same reason for me to choose this school. Do you like here?
T: Yes, I do. Although St Cloud is a very small town compared to the city which I came from, here is very nice, peaceful and convenient. It is a great campus town for me to pursue my academic goals.
W: I think so, too. I quite enjoy my life here as you. Do you meet any problems or troubles here so far?
T: Well, of course. I think the biggest trouble for me is the weather here. I have already experienced three winters here and they were all terrible. I had three car accidents happened in each winter to me while I was driving in a snowy day. In my study life, I think the language is also a very big problem for almost international students including me. We need to spend a lot time to reading to understand the knowledge in books. I could just understand little from the lecture of classes when I began studying here. I spent a lot time learning English by reading, watching American Movies and making native friends, so my English improved a lot now.
W: Yeah, I was in the same situation as yours before but now I am getting better at English. Just now you said one of the reason you didn’t want to come to USA with your family was that you were not sure whether you would like the living style here, so after living USA for 5 years, do you like live here.
T: Yes, I do though I had hesitation and worries at the beginning. I am very accustomed to the living style here.
W: As a Chinese student here, I experienced a totally different living style after I came to USA, what about you? Is the living style here very same or different from Malaysia?
T: My situation is definitely same as you since both of us came from an Asian country which has totally different culture and custom from a Western country. For example, People here go anywhere need to drive but in my country most places you want to go can just be reached by walk, subway or bus.
W: That’s true! Are there any differences in academic environment you think between Malaysia and USA?
T: I think here academic environment needs you have more ability of self-discipline than that in Malaysia. Professors here usually give you enough time to finish homework in order to help yourself to find your own ways learn and to extend the knowledge taught in class. This learning style requires you well self-organized ability. I think this is the most unique and special difference between these two country.
W: Do you like the difference you just said?
T: Yes, I do. I feel very free and comfortable to learning things in that style instead that accomplishes homework in the same form.
W: What do you think is the most important thing you learn during the time you study here?
T: I think the most important thing happened to me is that I know how to be independent. Now I learned how to live by myself and how to earn money by myself to support my life. I also have formed a clear life plan for my future American life!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Preliminary report on Malaysia
Geography
- Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia.
- It has fourteen states and three Federal Territories.
- Its total landmass is 329,845 square kilometers.
- The capital city is Kuala Lumpur.
- The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants.
- The country is separated into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo, by the South China Sea. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.
- The country is located near the equator and experiences a tropical climate.
Language
" Malaysia as a unified state did not exist until 1963. Previously, the United Kingdom had established influence in colonies in the territory from the late 18th century, so English is widely understood in service industries and is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school due to the history of the British colony. " ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Malaysia) Malaysia is a multicultural nation. The national, or official, language is Malay which is the mother tongue of the majority Malay ethnic group. The main ethnic groups within Malaysia comprise the Malays, Chinese and Indians, thus Chinese and Indian are also spoken in Malaysia.
Religion
Malaysia is a multi-religious society and Islam is the official religion.
- 63.4% Islam
- 18.2% Buddhism
- 7.1% Christianity
- 6.3% Hinduism
- 2.6% Chinese Traditional Religion
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual society. Malaysian cultural mosaic is marked by many different cultures, but several in particular have had especially lasting influence on the country. Chief among these is the ancient Malay culture, and the cultures of Malaysia's two most prominent trading partners throughout history--the Chinese, and the Indians. These three groups are joined by a dizzying array of indigenous tribes, many of which live in the forests and coastal areas of Borneo. Although each of these cultures has vigorously maintained its traditions and community structures, they have also blended together to create contemporary Malaysia's uniquely diverse heritage.
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