Malaysia-Is the birthday that important?

I have to say people here love celebrating birthdays: a gang of friends, 5 or 6 people, a big fat dinner, flowing up a long session of Karaoke; pictures, videos, next morning, when you check the face book, all the lovely moments are there.

Is that fun? should be! 5 or 6 times a year according to your social size, maybe twice a month? but have you reached the point of getting bored of it or even though just because all of your friends are doing it, you are doing it?

I would not go to the "whether is fun" part as each individual has his or her own definition and the inner side of you know exactly how it felt when you were there. My question is: have you ever thought about the same day, just 20 or 30 or 40 years ago, is the same day that your mum suffered a lot? and for you being here to celebrate it, your parents have contribute way more than you could imagine, but, have you ever done anything to them on your birthday to show your appreciation? or do you really appreciate it?

For those who already have a job, have you taken your parents for dinner or bought anything for them on your birthday?

For my dear students: have you thought of washing your mum's car on your birthday?

Or you still have "I am ENTITLE of celebrating it because is my birthday" attitude?

oh, Grow up, folks!

Malayisa- Slow internet

Ok, Whatever you do in Malaysia will take you longer time in any other normal countries. One good example is to compare it with Singapore, oops, I guess that's a country name people here don't want to hear about.

let's take a look a Internet speed here:

Malayisa- the 50RM

During lunch break, I decided to get myself some candy for rewards, even I usually don't eat them as Mum said no.

you can always find those Indian managed book stores here selling all different kinds of candies. my favorite one would be those less sweet ones. A young Malay lady was standing in the casher:
ohhh...50RM is a big moneeeeeeeeey

"oh, sorry, I just withdraw cash, that's all I have, you don't have change?"

"noooooooo...it's big moneeeeeeeeeey, do you want to buy anything else?"

"nah"

"DiGi prepayment?"

"No, thank you"

"ohhhhhhhhhh, who buys candy using 50RM?" she was rolling her eyes on me

"Ok, never mind" I took back my money and walked straight to the Indian manager, "sir, I am sorry to tell you that your staff would not accept my 50RM to buy that packet of candy, so I decide to buy it next store"

after I left the store, the Indian manger was counting his bulk of 10RM with his staff and asking her why why why...

Classic Malaysia!

Malaysia- Wait, I need to calculate the Bill

I did have a culture shock when the first time I went out for dinner with friends in Malaysia: when the bill arrived, one of them took out the mobile phone and calculated the bill very professionally and accurately to CENT.

Ok, friends, here is the style of what north Chinese people do: 200RM bill, 4 people, regardless whatever you ordered, each one 50RM. done? then make a move!

However when I am here, 200RM bill, according to what I ordered, let's say a 36RM dish, plus tax and service charge, I might get a bill of 42.30RM. 30 cent!

it's nothing wrong to do the Malaysian way, but for my personal experience?--- I feel really embarrassed to calculate the bill on the table, and i am utterly speechless!

Malaysia- cockroach

1.20 am, we had a visitor---cockroach!

Speaking of that, in my entire life in North China, I had never ever saw a cockroach. I heard about its name a lot when I talked to friends living in South part of China. However once I landed in Malaysia, cockroach is just another often visited friend.

"Mum, cockroach here can fly!" first time I saw it and called back home to report the news.

From screaming toward cockroach to managing to kill them, that's a huge step in X girl's life. Just as what I did that night with house mate, by using mosquito sprays and all kinds of other tools we could find by hands, officially and successfully we killed a cockroach!

Female friends, lesson learned, we can be much stronger when guys are not around!

Malaysia-Shopping Mall in the Weekend

I love shopping in Malaysia, but going to a shopping center on the weekend here is just a nightmare!

I really thought only China has the human resource to make a shopping mall crowed, apparently Malaysia has the same power too. Going to the huge shopping centers like: One Utama, KLCC, Pavilion on weekend is just another way to stress you out, or at least stress me out.

I found people here walking very slow when they are shopping, and no one would like to walk on side of road or stand on the left side of the elevator, so other people who are in hurry can actually pass by. In short, the result of that is you have to really fight with human bodies to get where you want.

Another thing I don't really understand is: why do you bring your kids to the shopping mall? Kids here, I am speaking of those small babies. Personally I don't think it's very hygiene for them in such public places, and they are spending most of their time sleeping. what's the big fun for them? they probably think: hey, I am sleeping! can't you people be quiet? Zzzz...

My personal guess is that it's hard to find babe sitters or it's simply a family time here; on the other hand in China, children are left to the grandparents to take care of during the weekend, Chinese grandparents love to be part of the third generation in any way possible, so it's not often to see many babes in the shopping malls back China, I also hope it won't be more in the future either.

United Kingdom-Come on, David Cameron!

Come on, David! you can make it!

Malaysia-leg or feet?

To my dear Malaysian Mandarin speakers:

Whether you know notice it or not, there is a huge difference between leg and foot, not only physically, but also literally.

In Chinese, we have two words to say them:

leg-we call it "tui"-腿

foot-we call it "jiao"-脚

so you can imagine how hard for me to figure out what you mean when you say "oh, her foot is so long" when you actually mean " her leg is so long"

Same story, when we say someone is huge in size, we don't use " da zhi"-大只，because the word "只" is a measure word for animals, for example: chicken, duck, bird etc. (check a dictionary, and you will find it out) Can you imagine how funny for me when I hear that?

Please do not say: "oh, that's Malaysian Chinese!", unfortunately there is not a language called 'Malaysian Chinese' ! all you need is to get on with more vocabularies, or at least to get it right.

Kind regards

X

Malaysia- Inter-racial Marriage

Walking around KLCC, you would very soon realize that there are lots of inter-racial couples in Malaysia. The most popular ones are Caucasian and Asian, but we also have Chinese with India, Chinese with Malay...It sounds like we Chinese are very flexible in this area.

Caucasian with Asian is usually Caucasian male with Asian female, and between them there will be a huge age gap. The first thing comes into your mind would be: Money!

I guess that's very true! at least 90% is true. I am also sure there are cases that they are really deeply in love. However, except the exceptions, here comes the typical story you can hear for hundred times: a gorgeous young Philippine girl got married with an old rich Caucasian guy, and usually the marriage was being reached by getting pregnant, the wedding has to be held in Philippe, or the legal papers are from there. then after one year or two, one day when the guy got back home, the house was empty. House, cars, child are now all belong to the Philippine girl, not mention it might also include your half of other net assets, and if you are stupid enough, you may also buy her family a house in Philippine. It's the oldest grandma story ever, but still, it's happening every day.

Not being bias to Philippine, it might also happen to Thailand girl, China girl, or any other nationality. my question is: if we all know that the girl comes after the money, or most likely for the money, why those guys are still making the same mistakes again and again?

I think there is a paper called "prenuptial agreement", guys, sign it! nothing is for sure. if she tells you that this agreement does not represent true love, tell her that's exactly the way to represent true love: unconditionally accept who you are not what you have.

Sign it, but also make sure you sign the Iron one, not the one can be brought to the court to be argued at the end of day.

Good luck!