Welcome.
We hope you, readers
have a very fine morning/day/night/life!
Let’s learn something new shall we?
Yes, we shall.
So for this entry we
will give a review and comment a bit on this
All in all, it’s about Pellegrino Riccardi,
a cross cultural expert
shares his personal and professional experience on how
very
different cultures can successfully coexist next to each other.
Riccardi comes from both an English and an
Italian background,
and is currently living in Norway (WOW) Okay so for the
past 27
years he has travelled around the world and interacted with
countless
different cultures and nationalities.
In the video, Riccardi's approach is
about understanding what
people see and understanding the difference between
perception
and normality. Small details are often overlooked within one’s
own culture which can be identified as a cultural norm but poses a
challenge as
it may be perceived differently by other cultures or
nationalities.
For instance, what
seems strange or baffling to a foreigner may,
however be perfectly normal to a
Malaysian. It all depends on
one’s perception.
WET BATHROOM? Completely NORMAL.
On the subject of
bathrooms, it may seem STRANGE to the
average foreigner of the wet typical traditional
bathrooms in
Malaysia. A traditional Malaysian bathroom contains a trough of
clean water, from which water is scooped up in a plastic dipper
(gayung) and
poured over the body while standing on the floor of
the bathroom. After soaping
up all over, more dippers full of water
are splashed over oneself to rinse off.
This same practice is utilized
when going to the toilet, resulting in very wet
toilet seats (which is
completely different with the Western’s bathroom which
is VERY
DRY).
 |
| Plastic Dipper (Gayung) |
Thus, despite this differences that we have, what Riccardi
was
trying to point out is to be “accepted and familiar” in adapting with
other
people’s culture as a sign of respect.
So take note
Malaysians, when visiting country which values
dry bathrooms and toilets,
restrain yourself from making it wet!
That’s all. Sayonara!
P/s: Feel free to comment for any questions to feed your
curiosity.
We won’t bite……..probably. Hee, joking…..Maybe not.
Pp/s: Totally joking….or do us? Hehe
Love,
A & N.
