The first time you set foot on south east Asia you feel disoriented, especially if you reach a remote area. Climate and weather make you feel like in a never ending sauna, spicy and intense food flavours make your mouth requiring flood of beer, different habits and manners make your integration hard.
Being an expatriate then is definitely different from a backpacker or a tourist. As expatriate you look for an ordinary daily life as closest as possible to the one at your hometown. You have to be prepared to accept quite a few weird habits as well as avoid to complain because as i use to say when you are in Rome do as romans do.
If you can't afford it would be so distressing you will regret the day you left.
Working abroad in another culture is not only about facing a language barrier, it's about dealing with other people, manner, religion, food, lifestyle and priorities.
The most important thing is to avoid using your background as the proper culture when trying to understand or accept another habit, customs, what people do or how they do it. Don’t judge the other culture comparing it with yours. It won't help you getting on well with your colleagues or friends.
What may be consider as impolite in Italy is perhaps not at all in Malaysia.
Luckily, my cultural impact with SE Asia has been toned down after few trips in Thailand, China, HK and Japan where i learnt how to get on well with such a different customs and where actually i started to appreciate their philosophical attitude. They might not be straightforward, they won't socialize at the first approach, people say asians lie, they just smile to mask their emotions, particularly Thai and Japanese. True or not i much prefer people smiling rather than the coldness of other countries.
Anyway my colleagues were quite surprised to see me eating almost everything at the Kopitiam using chopsticks as well as driving easily through the traffic jam of KL or don't complaining about weather and hygienic conditions.
Well, i'm not saying i'm get already used to the local culture, i probably won't get used to it at all. I'm too critic, smartass, curious observer and joker to do it.
Mucking around the malls during the weekend indeed i had the same feeling when i looked astonished at Germans wearing socks with sandal at the Arena of Verona; they might feel comfortable but people like me kept looking at them as a social awkward. I mean Malaysians are not Germans at all and they probably have never worn sandal with socks but the culture shock i've experienced walking around is well represented by the metaphor mentioned.
The outcome of dress policy imposed for women is to a certain extent preferred compared to the appearance habits adopted by malaysian men and that says a lot about it. I'm not talking about style, not even about a proper colours outfit, i'm not that pretentious. Let's just say that tidiness, hygiene and good smell are not a priority at all for most of them.
Being an expatriate then is definitely different from a backpacker or a tourist. As expatriate you look for an ordinary daily life as closest as possible to the one at your hometown. You have to be prepared to accept quite a few weird habits as well as avoid to complain because as i use to say when you are in Rome do as romans do.
If you can't afford it would be so distressing you will regret the day you left.
Working abroad in another culture is not only about facing a language barrier, it's about dealing with other people, manner, religion, food, lifestyle and priorities.
The most important thing is to avoid using your background as the proper culture when trying to understand or accept another habit, customs, what people do or how they do it. Don’t judge the other culture comparing it with yours. It won't help you getting on well with your colleagues or friends.
What may be consider as impolite in Italy is perhaps not at all in Malaysia.
Luckily, my cultural impact with SE Asia has been toned down after few trips in Thailand, China, HK and Japan where i learnt how to get on well with such a different customs and where actually i started to appreciate their philosophical attitude. They might not be straightforward, they won't socialize at the first approach, people say asians lie, they just smile to mask their emotions, particularly Thai and Japanese. True or not i much prefer people smiling rather than the coldness of other countries.
Anyway my colleagues were quite surprised to see me eating almost everything at the Kopitiam using chopsticks as well as driving easily through the traffic jam of KL or don't complaining about weather and hygienic conditions.
Well, i'm not saying i'm get already used to the local culture, i probably won't get used to it at all. I'm too critic, smartass, curious observer and joker to do it.
Mucking around the malls during the weekend indeed i had the same feeling when i looked astonished at Germans wearing socks with sandal at the Arena of Verona; they might feel comfortable but people like me kept looking at them as a social awkward. I mean Malaysians are not Germans at all and they probably have never worn sandal with socks but the culture shock i've experienced walking around is well represented by the metaphor mentioned.
The outcome of dress policy imposed for women is to a certain extent preferred compared to the appearance habits adopted by malaysian men and that says a lot about it. I'm not talking about style, not even about a proper colours outfit, i'm not that pretentious. Let's just say that tidiness, hygiene and good smell are not a priority at all for most of them.
Exactly priority, as i said, just like when you see a Mercedes S class 500 owner eating at Kopitiam a 5 MYR dish!
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