What I Felt Through Training Program in Malaysia

We, the 30 students of Woosong University, came back to Korea after the completion of two weeks of training at the University of Malaya in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Although it felt like it was somewhat of a short period of time, it was a good chance to feel and experience a lot of things. In my opinion, to cut a long story short, Malaysia is a very unique and special country.


Firstly, one thing that made me surprised the most was that Malaysia is composed of a variety of cultures. All this, as well as the peaceful coexistence of such different cultures at the same time. The diverse cultures in Malaysia were so distinctive that I could feel it in daily life. For example, there were all types of apparel being worn on the street. Not only Malaysian traditional clothes but modern and casual clothes as well as religious clothes. Downtown was scattered with all kinds of temples such as Islamic Mosques, Buddhist temples, Hindu temples and Sikh temples. Looking at all the different types daily religious practice was very interesting.


Besides diverse cultures, another novel feature was that there were a lot of foreigners. In fact, the major ethnic groups of the country are Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian. Moreover, in recent times, a number of people coming to Malaysia in order to study or to work are from South Asia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. So there were many chances to meet tourists and foreigners who live there while I was staying at the University of Malaya and walking in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Running into foreigners so frequently made me feel like a member of Malaysia, not just a stranger.


Furthermore, I got to think a lot about language. Actually, I encountered numerous kinds of languages that I’ve never experienced before while in Malaysia. Beyond Malaysian, some examples of them are Arabic, Persian, Cantonese, Panjabi, Tamil and so on. As meeting so many kinds of unfamiliar languages, I anew realized that indeed the world is wide and it has much to offer and learn from. And I thought that if this is a place where people from all over the world gather, English is a basic means to communicate but when it comes to learning each other truly, an active attitude to understand different cultures and ideas is necessary.

---

Jeong Seop Ahn is currently a Woosong Student majoring in the Nursing Department

Posted in: Cover Story,Malaysia,Student Feedback