Module 2 Part 1 Culture of Malaysia

L-030-3
LEVEL 3
CULTURES OF MALAYSIA

1. ) The do and don’t when visiting a Malay family.

a) Remove your shoesIf you've to go to someone's private home especially Malay home in Malaysia, remember to remove your shoes outside. Here, shoes are not permitted inside homes and considered really disrespectful in case you do so. b) Use Right HandIn Malaysia, always use your right hand to eat food. Even if you're handling food with knife and fork, use right hand for eating. For taking or giving anything too, try to use your right hand. c) Gift EtiquettesApart from using right hand, always give properly wrapped gifts. You must also ensure that gifts are wrapped in cheerful colors like pink, red etc, never wrap gifts in black, white or blue.

d) Acknowledgement
Always consume drinks or food offer by a Malay family. By not consuming reflects that we are unfriendly and not giving due respect towards them.


2.) Distinct characteristics of various communities;-

i.) Malay; - the Malay community are the largest community in Malaysia. The language spoken by them is Bahasa Melayu also known as Bahasa Malaysia, which means the national language of Malaysia. Malay communities are of Muslim faith and Malay males will go to mosque every Friday for their Friday prayers. Different Malay community in different states speaks with different dialect. For instance, Malay in Kelantan may speak differently from those in Kedah or Perak.
Malay community celebrates ‘Hari Raya Puasa’ or commonly known as Hari Raya Aidil fitri on 1st day of Syawal after a month of fasting in the Ramadhan month. They also celebrate ‘Hari Raya Haji’ also known as ‘Hari Raya Korban’. The Hari Raya for the year of 2009 falls on 20th and 21st of September, 2009 while Hari Raya Haji falls on 27th of November, 2009.


ii.) Chinese;-the Chinese community is the second largest community in Malaysia. Majority of Chinese consist of different communities that speak different dialects, for example Hokkien (Fukien), Hakka, Cantonese, Teochew and Hockchiew. Most of Hokkien communities are populated in the northern of peninsular Malaysia while Cantonese are more concentrated in central part of Malaysia. Mostly Chinese are of mixed faith of Buddhism, being the majority follow by Taoism and Christians as well as some Muslims. Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year and other festivities such as mid –autumn festival or Moon cake festival and many others. Chinese .New Year falls in 26th and 27th .January, 2009. During the eve of Chinese New Year, family’s members will return home to join in a get together reunion dinner. Chinese prefer red colour rather than black as black is refer as a colour use for mourning.



iii.) Indians;- the Indians community is the third largest community and mainly we will find that the different sub communities of Indian are of Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam and Punjabis or Sikh community may also be sum up in the Indian community. Indians are mostly Hindu faith while the Sikh had their Sikhism faith. Indians normally celebrate Deepavali which falls on 17th October, 2009. Deepavali is also known as Festival of lights . .Meanwhile the Punjabis will celebrate Vaisakhi which falls on 20th April, 2009. Vaisakhi is also known as a Sikh New Year in the Sikh calendar. Thaipusam is also a celebration by the Indian community and Thaipusam is a festivals where the devotees will pierce themselves with special spikes and carrying ‘ kavadi’ which is well decorated. Thaipusam falls on 8th February, 2009.



iv.) Eurasians; - the Eurasians is a minor community and majority of them are found in Penang and Melaka. Eurasians is a mixed ancestry of Europeans and Asians and are descendents of European parentage, mostly of Portuguese, Dutch, British and German. In Melaka, we will find mostly Portuguese and Dutch Eurasians while in Penang, they are of mostly of British parentage. The Eurasians are of Christian’s faith in nature. They celebrate Christmas on every 25th of December, every year. Eurasians will normally converse in English language. They do take pride in their parentage.