Monday 16 May 2016

Youth Self Awareness on Racial Discrimination in Malaysia

Hi guys! So, other than having to write a blog about culture and our i-friend, we had to also write a research paper. We chose the title: Youth Self Awareness on Racial Discrimination in Malaysia. We chose this topic because we felt like some of the youth are not aware that they are actually discriminating people of different race. Once we were done with the paper, we had to also make a "teaser" video regarding the paper.  So, this is our little video and we hope that you will enjoy watching it :)

So, click the link below to watch:

Wednesday 4 May 2016

Our I-Friend: Eid Celebration

Hello everyone! Today, we will be talking about Eid, which is my favourite celebration! I know that I am speaking on every Muslim's behalf when I say that we look forward to celebrating Eid every year after fasting for a whole month during Ramadhan. It is sad to say farewell to the holy month of course, but it is great to be able to spend time with your family.



This segment will be called "Storytime with Ray" as I will be quoting everything that he has told us rather than summarising everything which could end up missing some crucial details. Ima and I asked Ray about how he spends his Eid and if there were any traditions that he followed. This is what he had to say. 

Storytime With Ray

"Ahhh Eid! The best part of the year, after Ramadhan haha. For Eid, we always wear Thawb a.k.a the men Jubah, before going for Eid prayers. It is always held in a large area with lots of space, rather than in a masjid. And obviously, after Fajr prayers. Everyone usually gets ready in terms of shaving, haircut, etc. before the actual Eid day. And it's ALWAYS crowded during the last days so we have to book in advance hahaha.

After the prayers, we sit and listen to the Khutbah and after that, we meet everyone in the area, greet and wish them Eid Mubarak.

For my side, we usually have guests at home after the prayers. We sacrifice a goat/cow/camel/lamb beforehand and usually make a cuisine out of it. Saudis might have Kabsa but since we're not Saudis, we do it differently hahaha.

The first day is usually when we meet all our relatives, so my family would go to our granny's home where ALL my relatives would come together for Eid feast. And the day usually goes by with that.

The 2nd and 3rd day is when we go wherever we want to and basically enjoy ourselves. Mostly, it's the beach and malls. Me personally, I would go out with my friends and hang out."

Personally, for me, it is nice to see that there is not actually much difference in how people from Saudi and Malaysia celebrates Eid. However, in my family, we do not go out with friends and usually spend two to four days just visiting close relatives - I have a big family you see. Despite that, some of my friends do go to malls and spend time at the beach, so it is not out of the norm for Malaysians either.

Overall, Eid is mostly about spending time with your loved ones and lots of eating. I would not lie and say that I do not look forward to getting some "duit raya" either. Well, that is all from me and I hope you find Ray's Eid experience interesting too.

Our I-Friend: Customs and Communication

Assalamualaikum and Hello [from the other side~~~]

credits to giphy.com
So we're back again with another episode of "Our I-Friend", and just like I promised we did X-Ray Ray even more *wink. I should stop, sorry. Okay moving one, on our last post, belle posted something on verbal communication. So I wondered what Ray thought on both verbal and non verbal communication differences in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Non verbal communication Episode one: The index finger of disrespect
    Well we know in Malaysia that pointing our index finger to point something was considered rude and disrespectful; no matter what age or gender. I'm not quiet sure about other cultures, but heres a small but significant tip for all ya'll there thats visiting Malaysia for the first time or have a Malaysian friend; DON'T USE YOUR INDEX FINGER TO POINT. That's a no no.

credits to gifphy.com
Instead we use our thumb or use our hand to gesture to the object or person we want to point at. 
So we asked Ray on his thoughts about this. Ever since he came to Malaysia, he never did knew. To him, that information was new. So either Ray is not an observant person or that I'm wrong and its not a big deal here in Malaysia, OR people are getting rude even more and whats worse is that they don't know that they are being rude. What is happening to society?!

credits to gipfhy.com
So basically, Ray said that there's not much difference other than the finger pointing, because just as he said "so far, I have not gotten into any trouble so hehehe :D"

Episode 2: Customs says what?

Me: So Ray, whats the customs like in Saudi?
Ray: Not much difference but...

Episode 2 part 1: Greetings humans
So just like any other Muslims, we greet each other with salam and shake hands (the same gender of course). But whats the difference in Saudi?
Well people in Saudi who knows each other would usually 
  1. hug 3 times (right, left, right)
  2. with kisses on cheeks (they basically touch cheeks with each other)
It doesn't matter their age, because the greetings are the same. Except for strangers, as handshakes are acceptable to them only. And for the hostess at home, they would offer snacks and the traditional Qahwa. Which in Ray's words "like coffee but not coffee exactly".

credits to pin-interest.com

Episode 2 part 2: Communication through clothing

Female: 
  1. Most distinguished features of the Arabic customs
  2. cover themselves up aka with Abayas or Jubah (what we call it in Malaysia)
  3. The only exception max is the face that can remain uncovered
Communication:
  1. The men cannot talk to women outside easily
  2. In fact, they never do unless they HAVE to
  3. One of the reason they cannot talk freely because the Sheikh is always watching them, and if they get caught they'll get into trouble 
credits to tumblr.com
Employment:
  1. Usually dominated by men (retail counter, pharmacies, janitors etc.)
  2. Very few women can be found working
Driving:
  1. Women don't drive
credits to tumblr.com

So thats all from me. Until next time... [goodbye from the other side~~~]

Our I-Friend: First Impression

As you all know by now, our friend, Ray, is from Saudi Arabia. So, Ima and I wanted to know about his first impression when first coming to Malaysia. Was it difficult to adapt to the differences in culture? Did he struggle with making friends? Based on what I have heard from my other foreign friends, they find it difficult to strike up a friendship with Malaysians and the reasoning behind that, in their observation is that most Malays prefer to befriend other Malays. Hence, it makes approaching a Malay very difficult. So, we wanted to know how it was for Ray and if he experienced the same thing as the others.

Ray first came to Malaysia and enrolled in IIUM in February 2015. He said that it was a whole new world for him - new people, culture, and even driving position, he joked. He found everything to be interesting, but he was also lonely and did not socialise as much in his first semester. He said it was his first time abroad so he found it a little hard to adapt.

He started to socialise diligently during his second semester and was able to befriend many people. He also mentioned that about 99% of them are Malays. He said that perhaps the reason it was hard to befriend Malays is that they tend to be quite shy. However, if you approach them, talk to them, and make them comfortable, everything is out of the way. According to him, everything is going well so far as he has friends and he knows that he can make more.

I hope this helps you get to know Ray a little bit. Ima and I have been friends with Ray for almost half a year and we honestly did not know he was struggling when he first came here. Probably because he was so nice and friendly to us. He was also the one to approach us first and that could be because Ima and I are both shy. I guess I do agree with some Malays being shy since we are the prime example of that. By the time we knew him, he was already a friendly guy and we got along quite fast. So, finding out that he struggled in the beginning was quite surprising. 

Well, that's all from me, I'll talk to you guys next time with more stuff about Ray!






Our I-Friend: Food

Hello again! Today I'll be talking about Ray's (our i-friend) favourite food! I am quite excited about this topic because I myself am a food lover, but no worries, we won't be talking about me :)

Anyways, I asked Ray if there is any Malaysian food that he likes and his answer was tom yam! Yes, both Ray and I are aware that technically, tom yam is not from Malaysia, but hey, each country have a different version of tom yam and he obviously enjoys the Malaysian version.

Ray likes the mixture of sweet-sour and some spiciness as well. Ima and I enjoy tom yam as well, so we made a mental note to go get some tom yam with him soon!

photo credits to tomyam village at wordpress


Other than that, I also asked his favourite food or food that he often eats when he is back home in Saudi. The most frequent meal made in his household is curry. Sometimes it's fish curry, sometimes it's chicken curry and so on. He mentioned that the curry he eats at home tastes different from the curry that he tastes in Malaysia. Of course, recipes are altered to fit the taste of the locals, so it was not surprising and I am very interested to try his version of curry.


photo credits to google image


I realised that in terms of food, we have the same taste. It will be fun to go food hungting with Ima and ray and we won't be fighting over where to go. It's fun to see that even though we live far away from one another and come from different places, food can bring us together :)

Sunday 20 March 2016

Verbal Communication

Hi! I'm Belle and I will be talking about verbal communication. Of course, it will be quite long and boring for me to explain it all to you. So, I'm going to show you this short and simple video presentation that I made. Hope that you'll be able to understand it :)

So let's get to it!

gif credit to tumblr



Hope that my notes would be able to help you. I do, however, want to highlight about high context and low context communication.

 To put it simply, the people that practice low context communication are those who are straight to the point. For example, if you're in a meeting, the meeting will begin right away without any interruptions or useless small chats. Some of the countries that practice low context communication is USA and Israel.

Meanwhile, for those that practice high context communication, they tend to beat around the bush and use a lot of gestures. For example, in a meeting, they will start eating and make small talk before officially starting the meeting. Malaysia and Japan are two among many countries that practice high context communication. Generally, as Malaysians,  take our time when talking and we are not usually straightforward. There is a term called "berkias" which is what we do instead of flat out saying what we want to say.



Our I-Friend

Previously on [insert Culture here].....

Okay, so on our very first post we made, we mentioned a little something on this new segment we like to call "My I-Friend". Well now, its called "Our I-Friend" due to the reason that you're probably thinking about now; there's two of us. 

So ladies and gentlemen, bloggers, surfers and potatoes... Introducing our friend...... RAY!!!

credits to giphy.com

Ray:

credit to giphy.com

*Okay so this isn't really a picture of him, but we respect his choice of anonymity. 

So here's the thing, Ray isn't actually as awkward as the gif above might led you to believe. He's actually really friendly and cool. In fact, this wasn't our first time meeting him. We met him once upon a time ago. But this is our first time getting to know him even better. And here's what he shared with us about himself:

First, Ray is also an IIUM student, just like us. 
Second, he was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. (huh, I never knew that about him.)
Third, he likes to eat rice and curry most of time. Turns out we do have something in common between our cultures; Malay's love to eat rice too! Heck, we eat rice like 3 times a day. Maybe that's why he doesn't have much difficulties studying in Malaysia.

To get it even more interesting, remember our recent post? The one on Stereotypes? Well, we wanted to know him better and so we asked him on his opinions of "stereotypes". And being the awesome guy he is, this is what he kindly shared:

The stereotype people have on him is that people assume he's very rich. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that he was born in Saudi Arabia? 
Friendly advice: don't just assume a person's financial background before you even get to know the person. 

credit to GIFSec.com

Now, the stereotype that he had on people (the Malaysians or Malays) was that before he came to Malaysia, he expected people to be "A+ smart, short and shy". Well speaking on behalf of majority of Malaysians; we are short. There's no denying that and to those who do deny that; YOU'RE LYING TO YOURSELVES. 

Not so sure about the shy part, but on one of our recent Intercultural class we (me and Belle) had with our awesome lecturer Dr. Smart and Beautiful (name is classified),
credit to tumblr.com

...we came to realise that the Malays don't accept or handle compliments very well. We like to deny when people compliment us. For example:

A: Eh, cantik la baju you. (Hey, your shirt is pretty)
B: Takdelah. Gitu-gitu je. (Nahhh. Its just simple/ Its nothing much)

So I guess we are shy in some ways. And lastly, about the "A+ smart" stereotype. In my opinion, EVERYONE is smart in their own way. No one is not smart. Some knows things that others don't. A doctor might not know how to bake a cake, and a baker might not know how to cure a cold. The key word here is MIGHT. When there's a might, there's a possibility. 

credit to 24.media.tumblr.com

So I guess thats it for today. We hope to "X-Ray" Ray even more. *wink
credit to tumblr.com

I shouldn't have done that. I should stop. like right now. okay i'm stopping.      
                                                                                                                           credit to bustle.com                                                

Until we meet next time. This is Ima signing off. Have a nice day!
credit to tumblr.com

Thursday 10 March 2016

Stereotype vs. Discrimination vs. Prejudice Part 2

Belle's Story

Now, it's my turn!

Okay, you know the Britney Spears' song? I'm not a girl, not yet a woman? Well, that's me; somewhere in between a girl and a woman. I don't know about other countries, but here in Malaysia, women are stereotyped as bad drivers. Now, I wouldn't say that it is completely wrong, (because trust me I had had my fair shares of dealing with bad female drivers) but, it is not completely accurate either. 

Unfortunately, since I am a female, people tend to see me as a bad driver. Usually, I give people (usually guys) a ride, they would underestimate my driving skill by telling me go to slow, to stay on the left lane, to not overtake cars, and basically always ordering me to be "careful". I find it to be irritating and sometimes, I just want to give them a good ol' smack to the head. 


But after they've experienced my driving skills, they take back what they said. Some of my guy friends actually said that I am a good driver and they trust me with their life. They said that most girls are usually scared and they often tend to panic, but not me. Some of my female friends said that I drive like a man. You might ask why. Well, because I drive fast and I don't hesitate. I also tend to yell at people when they suck at driving even if they can't hear me. I also honk a lot mostly to cars that want to change lanes without signals. I am not proud of that, but in my defense, if I don't honk, we would end up with getting into an accident so I'm basically saving my life and the other driver's. I personally do not like stereotypes, but I get it and I know that even without realising it, we always stereotype people.

So, that is all for my stereotype story. What kind of stereotype have you dealt with personally?

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Stereotype vs. Discrimination vs. Prejudice

These three words can be misread and misunderstood easily without proper knowledge. People often confuse stereotypes with discrimination, or prejudice with stereotype, or discrimination with prejudice. Yeah, I do admit that it can be quite confusing, so here's a brief summary for you to understand the three concepts properly.


Stereotype = our thoughts

Prejudice = our feelings

Discrimination = our treatments/actions

Now here's how I view these three. I see it as a chain. If I let my thoughts conquer me, my feelings will be affected; and if I let my feelings conquer me, my actions will be the result of it. So what I'm trying to say is, stereotyping and even having prejudice is okay, as long as you KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.

However, do not let it overcome your mind and your emotions, because if you lose control, it will lead to discrimination; and that's BAD. Everyone has his or her own stereotypes, but not everyone will discriminate because of it. Stereotyping doesn't make you an evil human being; it just makes you human. RESPECT is very important and we must always give people the benefit of the doubt because sometimes, they'll turn out to be completely different, but since you already have a specific mindset, you would not be able to see it.



We will divide this part into two. The first part is a story shared by Ima on her experience stereotyping of others and my "twin" (Belle) will share her own story on being stereotyped.




Ima's story

Yes, like any other walks on this earth, I have had several stereotype moments on people, past and present. But I still respect them. So let me share one story that you might be able to relate to. Over the past years, I have had this stereotype on people who speak good English. My stereotype was that people who are good at conversing in English are terrible in their hometown dialect. For example; MYSELF. I was born in Kelantan and I can say I'm good in English. But, I cannot speak in my Kelantanese dialect.

*For those who don't know, Kelantan is a state in Malaysia and is located in the northeast of the Peninsular Malaysia. The Kelantanese dialect is one of the well known dialects in Malaysia because of how different it is to the standard Malay language in terms of speaking.


photo credit to google images

To me, you can either be good in English and bad at your own dialect, OR speak good dialect but bad in English. You can't have both; that WAS my theory. Until one day, I entered IIUM (International Islamic University Malaysia), and met this one girl who was unique. She spoke in English the day we met. She 's my classmate and my friend. I later found out she was from Kelantan. I was shocked of course, because well...she kinda broke my theory. BUT that did not stop me from being friends with her. THE END. It's a simple story but what I’ve learned from it has shaped my way of thinking.
I had my stereotype, I had some prejudice, but I certainly DO NOT DISCRIMINATE.


















Thursday 25 February 2016

Poem



I am the opposite of male
Mature in some ways, childish in some
I don't believe in fairytale
A realistic person I've become

I am an optimist
Panic is not me
My favourite book is the alchemist
Coffee is life and so is tea


-Belle, 2016
-------------------------------------------------------

I am a woman,
I am a writer,
I am a daughter and a sister,
I am quiet,
I am loud,
I am weak and strong,

I am… I am… I am…
I am not yours.
I am mine, I am me.
And I am Allah’s

-Ima, 2016