بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
السلام عليكم

my Antropology assignment.

My Cultural Experience.

WARNING - This is based on true personal experiences with no intention to insult, offend or be rude to anybody.

I’m a Malaysian but I moved around from the south coast (Seremban) to the north coast (Kedah). Even in a country just with just about the same capacity of Illinois, to my surprise, I’ve encountered several instances where culture mattered. It took me quite sometimes to adapt myself with the culture and custom there. The northern people, Kedahans, have their weekends on Friday and Saturday whereas the southern people, Serembanians, have theirs on typical days of Saturday and Sunday. During one of the special months in Islamic calendar, my neighbor and I got together to make a special traditional porridge called ‘Bubur Asyura’. However, much to my surprise, the porridge was stirred for long hours and was left to set and harden until it made the pudding texture. It felt wrong to call it ‘porridge’. The dialect is totally different and hardly understood by those who aren’t familiar with the dialect. For six years living in Kedah, I still struggle to pronounce and speak the way they do. Most of the time, when I’m around my friends, I’d be imitated sarcastically by the way I speak (the normal, typical dialect) but when I try speaking like them adaptively, it’s as though I’m putting on a comedy show of my own and making a fool out of myself which is even worse. They would laugh harder. So, I’m doomed either way. Food-wise, the Serembanians eat a lot of spicy food. The people put chilies in all of the dishes including scramble egg or eat it raw like salad with rice.

I moved to England when I was twelve year old and I took a French class. There was a sentence that I had to say out loud, ‘ecouter de la musique’ with the meaning of ‘to listen to the music’. Nevertheless, for that moment I froze and went stiff. I chuckled a little but I didn’t want to say the word ‘ecouter’ because in Malay, explicitly it indicates the male private part of the body and it is also a stigma to say it. For the sake of my teacher and my classmates, I said it anyway and my face went flushed red with shameful feelings. A good example of integration is when I was a part of my high school choir team. There we so many concerts held and the one I had problem with, was when I had to sing some traditional Christmas carols. Some of the hymns were very spiritual and seemed to contravene with my faith. During the rehearsal I decided to lipsync but after a while I came out clean and confronted the music teacher of my dilemma. Apparently, to my relief, the teacher was pleased that I informed her earlier before the concert. That left us time to rethink of the songs that was more suitable and appropriate to sing for everyone.

I realized that I’m a walking symbol of my religion too, Islam. It is indeed a naïve realism of what is happening in France and most of the Europe countries of abandoning the wearing of the veil in institutions of education i.e. high school, college, university. Ironically, the modernism practiced in the country as they think leads to a ‘healthier’ and ‘more liberate’ lifestyle which is actually oppressing one’s individuality. This is a cultural interrelated where such a crucial thing as religion or faith is being treated peripherally. Perhaps because one’s more attached to the human made culture/lifestyle that changes in time more than the religion itself that is God-made and timeless. What happened to the freedom of speech and freedom of wearing whatever one pleases? In my point of view, it is imperative to acknowledge, understand and embrace everyone’s uniqueness and let them be counted in our lives now so that in the future’s perspective, we’re well ahead of raising a nation that knows no prejudice, celebrates diversities and values similarities. :)