Cross-Cultural Conversations

Observations by a Malaysian studying in Australia

 

The pre-job

 

After weeks of looking for a job, I finally received an offer from an express rail company. They were conducting a month-long campaign in which Sales Ambassadors, which is really just a fancy term for Salespeople, would promote and persuade air passengers to purchase train tickets, instead of taking a taxi, to get to the city from the airport.

 

Before I begin my proper job, I was assigned to hand out survey forms to passengers to find out their expectations of the train service. The survey form consisted of mostly tick boxes and a small space for passengers to give their comments. In general, foreigners were more willing to write in comments than Malaysians.

 

This is less than surprising, as our culture does not promote the practice of giving opinions. Elders unjustifiably label children who speak up as kurang ajar (rude). The rote learning philosophy of our education system prefers students to memorise information rather than question them, and our self-censoring media discourages views that lean towards the opposition for the sake of national stability.

 

It should be noted, however, that both Malaysians and foreigners were equally adept at ticking the boxes in the survey forms.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 15:45 | link | comments |