Culture Shock in Malaysia all over again...
My first two weeks had teething problems, as I was trying to adapt back to the Malaysian way of doing things... (stern looking guardians watching your every move, the malaysians way with double parked cars in narrow streets, negotiating illegal u-turns which would have caused many Australians to look on in horror!) It was culture shock all over again when I finally took my mother's car out for test drive today... !
Not to mention the fact that a lot of Malaysians are not very courteous people, especially today when I was at Public Bank in Tmn Desa. The desk staff took forever to serve customers (even though it was only two persons!). These staff take it as though most of us have a very long lunch time, when in reality most of us may only have half an hour..! I remembered the time when I had to wait in line at another Public Bank in Mega Mandung about three years ago, and there were only a few customers, but the staff took almost half an hour to serve us!! I decided to just cancel my account with Public Bank today due to their inefficient customer service. (No wonder they closed down...!)
Another very off putting observation I found is that a lot of service staff do not really greet customers when customers enter a "formal" place.. like a shopping mall, or a shop. (I know that some employees do, but some couldn't even be bothered to...) Which I found really rude of them to be.
One of the other bad habits of Malaysians is how they tend to abuse recycling boxes... there are a few recycling containers around my place in OUG, and it looks like an eye-sore.. people leave bags and bags of stuff around the recycling containers, and I can't make out if they are rubbish, or bags meant really for recycling purposes.
The govt of Malaysia should make Malaysians pay for plastic bags like how South Korea does. Their govt has made in such a way that in order that the garbage disposal services to pick up your household garbage, the residents of South Korea have to put it in specially bought bags from supermarkets. Many households divide their garbage into plastic, metal and organic waste in order to save space and money on these plastic bags.
Convenience stores, supermarkets and many places do not give plastic bags for free, and customers have to pay extra for these little conveniences. Further to that, most restaurants practise the same too.
Without such harsh laws, many people just won't adopt these practices. Even Japan does not do it as well as Korea does. In the subways of Korea, I have observed a lot of people collecting old newspapers (to sell). Australia is trying to do some (they sell carry bags for only $1 AUD), and at least the resident do not abuse recycling containers, but Malaysia is probably among one of the worst .. mostly not because the rakyat can't afford to (we aren't that poor a country, you know??!), but mostly because most of them don't care enough to put the effort to... and supermarkets here like JUSCO even try to make a profit from selling carry bags... (not so much because they care, but because they want to profit from it too!!)
SIGH SIGH.... Malaysians... when will you guys ever get out of your "tidak-apa" attitude?? Legalistic is one thing, but some things are just too much. No wonder your garbage is overflowing with no place to go.
Not to mention the fact that a lot of Malaysians are not very courteous people, especially today when I was at Public Bank in Tmn Desa. The desk staff took forever to serve customers (even though it was only two persons!). These staff take it as though most of us have a very long lunch time, when in reality most of us may only have half an hour..! I remembered the time when I had to wait in line at another Public Bank in Mega Mandung about three years ago, and there were only a few customers, but the staff took almost half an hour to serve us!! I decided to just cancel my account with Public Bank today due to their inefficient customer service. (No wonder they closed down...!)
Another very off putting observation I found is that a lot of service staff do not really greet customers when customers enter a "formal" place.. like a shopping mall, or a shop. (I know that some employees do, but some couldn't even be bothered to...) Which I found really rude of them to be.
One of the other bad habits of Malaysians is how they tend to abuse recycling boxes... there are a few recycling containers around my place in OUG, and it looks like an eye-sore.. people leave bags and bags of stuff around the recycling containers, and I can't make out if they are rubbish, or bags meant really for recycling purposes.
The govt of Malaysia should make Malaysians pay for plastic bags like how South Korea does. Their govt has made in such a way that in order that the garbage disposal services to pick up your household garbage, the residents of South Korea have to put it in specially bought bags from supermarkets. Many households divide their garbage into plastic, metal and organic waste in order to save space and money on these plastic bags.
Convenience stores, supermarkets and many places do not give plastic bags for free, and customers have to pay extra for these little conveniences. Further to that, most restaurants practise the same too.
Without such harsh laws, many people just won't adopt these practices. Even Japan does not do it as well as Korea does. In the subways of Korea, I have observed a lot of people collecting old newspapers (to sell). Australia is trying to do some (they sell carry bags for only $1 AUD), and at least the resident do not abuse recycling containers, but Malaysia is probably among one of the worst .. mostly not because the rakyat can't afford to (we aren't that poor a country, you know??!), but mostly because most of them don't care enough to put the effort to... and supermarkets here like JUSCO even try to make a profit from selling carry bags... (not so much because they care, but because they want to profit from it too!!)
SIGH SIGH.... Malaysians... when will you guys ever get out of your "tidak-apa" attitude?? Legalistic is one thing, but some things are just too much. No wonder your garbage is overflowing with no place to go.
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