Local customs of my country: Malaysia
We have many local customs that are pretty interesting but I don't really practice all of them because I don't see the point of it anway. However, I will still share it with you. Some are pretty amusing.
1. Do not point with your forefinger. It is consider rude. (I think it's weird :P I always point with my forefinger). If you want to point to something, you must use your thumb. The proper way is to use your thumb on your closed fist. Your thumb shows the way you are refering to.
2. We do not wear shoes in the house. Whenever entering someone's house, always remember to take off your shoes before entering the house. This is because the shoes are consider quite dirty. You walk outside with it and you don't know what you had stepped on. It's very unhygienic. In Asia, we always like to sit on the floor and do stuffs on the floor. That is why taking off your shoes before entering our house is very important. It also saves our mother's energy to clean the floor.
3. Farting in public is consider rude here however burping isn't. However, there are also people that think that burping is rude. For me, to be on the safe side, better don't fart or burp in the public. :P
4. We don't tip. Therefore, I don't tip. No one expect you to tip in Malaysia. So keep your money.
5. We queue in front of the public toilet cubicles instead of at the entrance unless there is a sign said so.
There are lots more but for the time being I can only think of these.
Posted by, Sweet Surrender
1. Do not point with your forefinger. It is consider rude. (I think it's weird :P I always point with my forefinger). If you want to point to something, you must use your thumb. The proper way is to use your thumb on your closed fist. Your thumb shows the way you are refering to.
2. We do not wear shoes in the house. Whenever entering someone's house, always remember to take off your shoes before entering the house. This is because the shoes are consider quite dirty. You walk outside with it and you don't know what you had stepped on. It's very unhygienic. In Asia, we always like to sit on the floor and do stuffs on the floor. That is why taking off your shoes before entering our house is very important. It also saves our mother's energy to clean the floor.
3. Farting in public is consider rude here however burping isn't. However, there are also people that think that burping is rude. For me, to be on the safe side, better don't fart or burp in the public. :P
4. We don't tip. Therefore, I don't tip. No one expect you to tip in Malaysia. So keep your money.
5. We queue in front of the public toilet cubicles instead of at the entrance unless there is a sign said so.
There are lots more but for the time being I can only think of these.
Posted by, Sweet Surrender
5 Comments:
I must have looked like a fool among my fellow Malaysians because I tip.
I wonder whether your #4 qualifies as a local custom, which implies widespread acceptance of usage.
Malaysians don't give tips as far as I know. Even when dining at 5-star hotels, you are not expected to tip. No one expect you to give tips, it's not our culture here. Well, if you want to, they won't reject too. So it's OK. Foreigners usually will tip if they are from countries that practice this. Even guidebook of visiting Malaysia will tell you that we don't tip here. It's up to you to want to tip or not but I am very sure, most Malaysians won't tip *LOL* However, I encountered foreigners that wanted to tip before and the restaurant staff at a local resort rejected it because we don't have this kind of practice here.
I'm not sure does it comes other local customs or not. At first I was thinking about posting different races and religions customs but after reading some other members post, I decided to write about the general ones instead of being specific on certain races or religions. *SHRUG*
Or maybe they do it the non-intrusive way, i.e., already computed into your check or bill ...
Hmmm... Besdies service tax and/or GST nothing else stated in the bill. I know that in the US, waiters/waitresses can get quite a lot of pay per night becuase of tippings but here in M'sia... Dream on... They only got paid with minimal wages per month(RM400 or so only) or got paid by hour.
I had just met up with friends coming back from overseas and they all agreed that tipping is never heard of in Malaysia and working as waiters/waitresses in Malaysia will not get the pay as you got in the US or UK. Even I went to S'pore, I'm not required to tip there.
Tipping is kinda an alien here hahahah...
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