This is to personal preference, good for you if you agree!
1. The Food.
This is regardless to what kind. It varies literally from Char Koay Teow to Mamak and bawah pokok Mee Goreng or Tom Yum mee or Popiah with Laksa or even the simplest thing as the Teh Tarik and the road side Roti Canai. Wherever you are outside of Malaysia, there will never ever be Malaysian food that tastes as close to the ones we have back home. Seriously.
2. Being able to unleash our full Malaysian. Lah, mah, meh, kans and all.
You know how we love our slangs, kan? Seriously kan, nobody else would understand. So the other day I was in Algebra and we had a group discussion and we had to solve a math equation. I was almost there and my tablemate asked me if I got it yet. Guess what I replied? "Wait ah. Wait ah. Sekejap". I did get my stares and fair share of explaining what it is. Hahaha. But putting that aside, nobody will understand your lah, ma, kah, meh, kua, aiyooooooo, wei, dei, mempersiasuikan anywhere else in the world.
3. You can speak English?????
Yeah, well, people have a very extremely hard time believing that one from a country like Malaysia can speak English. Well, sucks to be you if you were under the stupid impression that we Malaysians can't speak English. We sometimes know more than the ang mor kias!! Kidding. But it's getting really annoying when people speak to you with the impression like you speak no English. Heck, I speak English, Manglish, Rojak, Malay, a little bit of Chinese and definitely pretty good Hokkien.
4. Explaining why you don't speak Chinese.
I don't know about you, but I miss being in the country where people understand what it means to be a "banana". It's not that I don't speak Chinese, its just that I don't read or write the language. And just because you look Asian, people automatically think you're from China. Like pssshhhttt there shouldn't be anywhere else where Chinese exists expect for China, right? Then comes the Why do you not speak Chinese? How did you survive?" Err, well, where I'm from, you don't have to be able to speak Chinese to survive.
5. Explaining Malaysia.
This is hard. We obviously understand that we are three main races that are united as Satu Malaysia and we have our own language, but were also different in a way. It's hard to explain how were from Malaysia but we're Chinese. Or we're from. Malaysia but were Indian. Or even how we're Malaysian Chinese but we are also Christians. Stereotypically, when you're Chinese you speak Chinese, you're from China and you're most likely a Buddhist. Er, well people have such a hard time wrapping their minds around our amazing concept of life. It's too hard to explain.
6. The Weather
While it is fun to be somewhere colder and not have sweaty backs and pits everywhere you go, even when you first got out of the shower, it is very discouraging to wake up in the morning and it's so cold you need to start getting ready for school and face the cold. That isn't fun. But if it was something like wrapping yourself up in a blanket while it is cold, I am so game for that. While I don't miss the humidity back home, I miss the warmth, SOMETIMES.
7. Malaysian drivers. Penang, in particular.
Watching Penang drivers are fun when you're in the back seat. But not when you're the one driving. Its fun watching your driver (perhaps your brother, or mom or even dad, or your friend?) Literally going "WTFFFFFF" when some idiot cuts lane abruptly and literally forgot their signals exist. Penang drivers are definitely a kind of its own. We cut lane, go above speed limit, most of the times even go super slow, we also have cars that produces super loud engine noises but can barely drive any faster than 40km/h, we beat the traffic light, tailgate, flash, honk and speed on the highways. But nevertheless, we know what we're doing.
8. School uniforms.
For those of you who think that school uniforms are a huge pain in the butt, trust me when I tell you that it is a lifesaver. For 2 months I've been struggling everyday on what to wear for school. On some days I'm super nice and on some I can easily feel like I'm wearing my pajamas to school and look super baggy. But I do miss school uniforms. They're easy and set out for you. It's a lifesaver. If Malaysia were to say that we could wear our own clothes to school, imagine all the hiao po's and the amount of time people spend in front of their closet just finding what to wear and then in return making everybody late for school.
9. Not smiling at random strangers.
If you currently live in a western country, maybe you would understand and maybe you won't. But the amount of strangers who instead of avoiding eye contact when you walk past each other, they smile or say "hello, how are you doing?". Back home if you did that, you would probably be some kind of weirdo. Technically we can be very friendly and nice or the complete opposite.
That's about it for now! :)
Zoe
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