Concept Application Blog

Malaysia is a strong Islamic population. So much so that in order to be considered legally Malay one must be Muslim. 

Sharia law is specifically for the Muslims to follow, this is why there has been much debate as to whether Malaysia is a secular state or Islamic.   After my first two interviews I realized that some of the things the students kept talking about involved their cultural norms that have come about due to the heavy influence of Islam. 

            "Intoxicants and games of chance" were called "abominations of Satan's handiwork," intended to turn people away from God and forget about prayer, and Muslims were ordered to abstain (5:90-91)(Qur’an)

Even if you are not Muslim in Malaysia these laws still have and effect on you.  If you wanted to go out and drink you would have to leave behind the majority of your friends.  This, for most people defeats all of the fun.  The limited beliefs on drinking have become a cultural norm for those in Malaysia.  Their cultural norm was shattered when they arrived on the UNL campus.  321 MIPs were handed out in general in 2010 and 367 liquor violations were handed out to students by UNL dorm staffers. “It’s a cultural thing,” said UNL Police Officer Aaron Pembleton. “People go to the bars downtown then come back onto campus drunk. It’s a norm.”(b.susnjar)       

            Another breach of cultural norms comes in the form of using curse words.  Its is prohibited in Islam to curse at each other.  During the interviews the students brought up what they believed to be excessive cussing.   As someone who comes from a Christian family that does not cuss and I personally do not cuss, I can relate with the Malaysian students.  Some felt it made situations more hostile even if they weren’t meant to be. 

            The cultural norm of Islam that is present in Malaysia is the largest riff for most students that attend UNL via the international program.  

References:

http://www.inter-islam.org/Prohibitions/khmrmk.htm#No%20-%20Drinking!

Huda.,2003 The Everything Understanding Islam Book http://islam.about.com/od/health/f/alcohol.htm

b.susnjar. December 5, 2011.  Crime Stats Mixed at Nebraska

http://cojmc.webfactional.com/2011/12/05/crime-stats-mixed-at-unl/

Qurran Sunnah

http://qsep.com/modules.php?name=assunnah&d_op=viewarticle&aid=60

            

Final Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_jOIq2Hdcc

Summary Blog

In the beginning of the semester I was made aware of the amount of international students on the UNL campus via social networking like UNL Haters, Twitter and Facebook. I’m not sure how much I would have looked into and or thought about all these comments and accusations of the international students, had I not taken this class.  (Martin & Nakayama 2012) define culture as: a learned pattern of behavior and attitude shared by a group of people.  The goal of my research was to see how the Malaysian culture fared against American culture. 

Kuala Lumpur

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks interviewing international students from Malaysia.  After the first interview the rest felt somewhat repetitive in their answers and how the felt about where they were currently living.  What I found most intriguing were the answers to some of my questions from one student in particular, Celine.  Right off the bat I found it interesting that she “Americanized”(assimilating) her name, which was originally Sze Ling.  When answering questions I noticed the other students were more timid and uncertain how to answer the question.  Not from lack of knowledge but as if there were searching for an acceptance from me I suppose. In more than one interview I was asked, “what would you like/need me to say?” I’ve met with Celine on more than one occasion so we had an established rapport, which may have aided in her confident answering.  Kurt Lewin’s circle model for intimacy definitely held true for the interviews, as time carried on the more they would self-disclose.  I kept noticing the repetition of a few topics, while others I found really interesting.  The three I focused on were drinking, population and Asians on campus.

All of the students brought up drinking throughout the interview.  Celine said she found it “extremely weird that you guys party every night.  Like on school nights! Why? In Malaysia we just drink on Fridays and Saturdays but other than that we don’t just sit and drink for no reason.”  Despite this Malaysia is the 10^th largest alcohol consumer in the world with 11 liters per capita (Tan 2011) There is no set drinking age in Malaysia however you must be 18 years or older in order to purchase alcohol. 

When I asked about population size Masahiro said he preferred it here.  He said, “People here have more organize, like when in line at bank there is a line.  We don’t do that at home.  Everyone just stands around in a big crowd.  You’re very disciplined here.”  Masahiro is from Kuala Lumpur the capital city of Malaysia and also the most populous with an estimated 1.6 million people.  He said the driving here is much better.  The streets have more organization and the people are more polite. 

One of the questions I asked the students regarded to whether or not they felt like a minority.  All three of them made the same conclusion that there were a lot of other Asian students.  Celine said, “Sometimes it feels pointless (coming here) I came here to experience a different culture but it feels like I’m still back home sometimes.” 

Hectic traffic in Malaysia

One more thing little side note I took that stuck out to me later was language.  As in cussing, 2 of them brought that up.  Celine kept coming back to that and making sure I wrote it down. “It doesn’t even work when they say it they just say it!”

Most of what the students talked about involved aspects of self control and personal space.  Those findings make a lot of sense to me in relation to proxemics.  Back in chapter 7 we learned about space like ‘public’ and ‘personal’.  So it grabbed my attention because it is fitting that they are in a new location and like distance and dislike how out of control other students get while drinking.

Martin, N.J., & Nakayama, K.T. (2012) Intercultural communication in contexts 6^th edition.  NYC.: McGraw Hil

Tan, M. Malaysia ranked world’s 10^th largest consumer of alcohol. May, 23,2011.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/23/nation/8737875&sec=nation

Cultural Reporter Introduction

This past week I was sitting around outside the Union eating some lunch and people watching.  On a side note there are very very odd things to be seen and heard around the union, I digress, I noticed( felt) that there were almost more Asian students then there were white.  After a while I began to think back to our first CAPs blog about Whiteness. “…Particularly as demographics change in the United States and as some white perceive themselves as the minority.”(Martin & Nakayama, 2012, p.195)  I found myself amazed by the sheer numbers because coming from a school with 2% minority rate I’m unaccustomed to being around other races.  I am quite sure that the Asian students here through the International program think the very same thing when they walk around since many of the countries they are from are somewhat homogenous. 

There is a website: http://unl-haters.tumblr.com/ that is actually pretty embarrassing for the University due to the blatant racism and closed mindedness of the students who attend here.   It is a collection of tweets made by students from UNL.  Some of the tweets contain #CampusAsians or #AsainNationl, these titles have become ascriptions that ostracize them even further, as if being somewhere new isn’t enough they are becoming a campus joke for some people just for being different.  This is why I chose to base my Cultural Reporter Blog on the Lincoln Asian culture with a concentration on Malaysians.

Culture is defined as a learned pattern of behavior and attitude shard by a group of people.  Malaysia also stuck out to me because they have such a complex culture due to its location; Eurasian, Indian, and Chinese.  Some people refer to Malaysia’s culture as a hybrid. National Identity in Malaysia is somewhat hard to hold onto not only because Malaysia is a hybrid but because it is still a relatively new nation that was founded in just 1963.    Most of the Malaysian International would be considered Malaysian elite, which means that they are educated in overseas universities.  The class identity in Malaysia is ranges from the type of car you drive to how tan you are.  Eastern Malaysia has territories; Sabah and Sarawak.  Peninsular Malaysia is divided into west and east by mountains.  West is more industrial and urbanized whereas the east is less populated with cultivated land. 

During this project over the semester I hope to encounter International students from multiple regions in Malaysia so I can better understand their regional identities.   I also hope that I can get a better feel in general for the International students and see if there is any common ground.

 References:

Martin, J.N. & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural Communication in Contexts 6^th Addition. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Anonymous (2012, August 22). UNL Haters. http://unl-haters.tumblr.com/

Ma, J. (2006, September) Culture of Malaysia. http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Malaysia.html#b

Cultural Reporter Blog