Hanging out with the Prime Minister of Malaysia

http://www.pmo.gov.my/?menu=gallery&id=3580&page=1951

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsindex.php?id=641258

Feet pampering and how Harry Potter relates to teaching in Malaysia

Orientation continues which means I am still spending most of my day in the MACEE office listening to speakers talk about the country. The past couple of days have focused on the structure of the education system here. The setup of their system is very different than the US system. In fact many of the ETA first reactions to the description of the Malaysian system is skeptical and adversary, mostly because of the extreme philosophical differences between the systems. The Malaysian education system is very exam oriented.

This is a criticism is often made by American teachers in regards to the American system (or at least made by my several teacher friends and family), but the Malaysian system is much more exam focused. They take three big exams one in our equivalent to  6th grade, 9th grade, and 11th grade. Each of these tests are used to stream students into the Math/science, Commerce, Humanities, or Technical tracks. The highest scores are put into Math/science and then commerce and so on. Also, these scores are the only grades that future employers and colleges will ever see. No one cares about how the students do in the classroom, just these three tests. 

If you are trying to picture how the Malaysian school is set up think of Harry Potter. My non-HP readers bear with me on this. So you, a young witch, start Hogwarts studying the 5 basic subjects and then at the end of your primary schooling you choose the electives you want to study for your OWLs. You are supposed to choose the classes you’ll need for your future career so the big 6th grade class will tell you how likely you are to be placed in a certain field. At the end of 3 years you sit for your OWLs and the classes that you pass are the classes that you can choose from to study for your NEWTs. In other words, you are again streamed into further career paths. After 2 more years of taking your NEWT level classes you sit for the NEWTs. You must get a certain number and kind of NEWTs to go to college so the year before taking the NEWT is stress filled studying.  This method limits creativity and deemphasizes the importance of humanities by only memorizing information for tests and by making the humanities the path for only the third tier students. However, this system has been proven to work. It’s the system of much of Europe and Asia. The US values the freedom to change your focus easily and to think creatively. The Malaysian system values creating scientists and  covering as much material as possible. I see the positives and negatives in both systems, not yet having taught in either system. 

Fun fact of the day: Students who attend school in the public schools are required to take a morality class and it is one of the subjects they are tested in for the OWLs.  Also, Home Ec still exists here.  

In the evenings we have been exploring the city. There isn’t a lot to do except for shopping, but as I am still living out of suitcases buying odds and ends isn’t really practical. Instead we have been pampering our feet. Two days ago we got our feet eaten by fish removing all of the dead skin. My reaction went from fear to ticklish to relaxed to ticklish again in the span of 90 seconds. Today we indulged in a Thai foot massage. 

Ghost stories, never crossing your legs, handshaking etiquette, and 100 other ways to become Malaysian

I am currently in a holding pen of sorts, being being trained and learning the different skill sets I’ll need for the next few months before being sent off to my assignment. Kuala Lumpur or KL is the capital city and is more cosmopolitan than I expected. I’m in a fancy hotel near the embassy and the Fulbright office where we go daily for orientation. KL is a different beast than Malaysia as a whole. My roommate whose family is from KL is still in shock that she will be living in rural Malaysia. They keep telling her it’s not too late too back out. This is because they themselves have not really left KL. I will be going to Terengganu on January 20th, which is one of the most conservative states in Malaysia and therefor very different than KL. 

I’ve been in Malaysia for approximately 3 days now and all my time has been filled with intensive culture classes. Most importantly we have been being trained on the etiquette of being a non-muslim in a muslim majority culture. Much of the etiquette has to do with age differences and the relationships amongst the genders. As a woman I am expected to wear loose long clothing and in general be mindful of my sexuality. This I expected. However, the divide between the genders is much larger than I first expected, as in men and woman should not touch at all. Handshakes at this point seem to be a complicated affair because a man should not extend his had to a woman, but a woman can extend her hand to a man, but this may cause him to become offended so it’s better if she doesn’t. Instead they just nod their heads. On a side note, one thing I really like about the way Malaysians greet each other is that after the initial handshake/nod they lift there hand to their hearts as to say “I welcome you into my heart.” It’s really a sweet gesture. 

Another thing that we have been briefed on several times is the Malaysian tendency to avoid confrontation and the importance placed on politeness. Because of these values we have been taught many gestures that are supposed to reinforce our respect for the people around us. They include: not pointing with your finger at anyone or anything instead gesture with a loose fist, not crossing your legs in a way which points the bottom of your foot at someone, taking your shoes off before you enter a home or place of importance, and always give or receive an item with both hands. There are a lot of little ways to offend Malaysians here that Americans wouldn’t think twice about. Luckily I am a young foreigner so they will not hold it against me as much.

Another interesting cultural difference I have experienced so far involves our living situations. The Malaysian Fulbright program has expanded 3 fold this year and as such the government is still trying to find adequate housing for all of us. One of the houses we were set to have has just been taken away from us by the Malaysian government because the house is believed to be haunted by a ghost. The government doesn’t want to take the chance that the ghost will harm one of the ETAs so we must find a new suitable housing option. Apparently ghosts are very popular here and many of the Malaysian movies and tv shows revolve around ghost stories. 

There have been a lot of dos and don’ts the past couple of days, and it’s all very overwhelming. I am looking forward to moving out of KL in order to start experiencing everything that they are telling us, but we still have 2 more weeks of orientation. Tomorrow we are going on a scavenger hunt, so expect pictures soon.