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Culture Smart / Cultuur Bewust
Malaysia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
Don't just see the sights—get to know the people.
Malaysia presents visitors with an exciting and fascinating medley of cultures--Malay, Chinese, Indian, Arab, Eurasian, Dayak, and aboriginal. Though very much a modern nation state, its diverse communities retain a considerable amount of their unique heritage and, in its customs, religions, festivals, costume, cuisine, languages, and architecture, Malaysian society perfectly illustrates the virtues of a vibrant pluralism.
Culture Smart! Malaysia sets out to help you navigate this rich and complex cultural mix. It provides a succinct and straightforward introduction to Malaysian history and society, explains the deeper core values of the different ethnic groups, and guides you through the maze of Malaysian etiquette and behaviour for both social and business settings.
Have a richer and more meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on history, values, attitudes, and traditions will help you to better understand your hosts, while tips on etiquette and communicating will help you to navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.
Malaysia presents visitors with an exciting and fascinating medley of cultures--Malay, Chinese, Indian, Arab, Eurasian, Dayak, and aboriginal. Though very much a modern nation state, its diverse communities retain a considerable amount of their unique heritage and, in its customs, religions, festivals, costume, cuisine, languages, and architecture, Malaysian society perfectly illustrates the virtues of a vibrant pluralism.
Culture Smart! Malaysia sets out to help you navigate this rich and complex cultural mix. It provides a succinct and straightforward introduction to Malaysian history and society, explains the deeper core values of the different ethnic groups, and guides you through the maze of Malaysian etiquette and behaviour for both social and business settings.
Have a richer and more meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on history, values, attitudes, and traditions will help you to better understand your hosts, while tips on etiquette and communicating will help you to navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.
200 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 2008
10 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 21, 2023
Quite similar to the Singapore edition and understandably so, it used to be a single land mass before the eviction but the people and the culture remain more or less the same.
Enjoyed the first half, as usual, with all the history and the "ethnography" of the people. One thing quite struck me was how dated this edition was. There was talk of reading a map or going blindly into a place. I couldn't really understand some of it until it really struck me. The second half, again, was a little boring but it still had good reading material on the nitty-gritty details of doing communication and business with the Malaysian people. It's a fascinating multi-ethnic country and I was talking to my manager just the other day about how the Malaysian people were able to overcome their ethnic differences, to whatever extent, and cultivate a civilized society. I was really ignorant about developed, in general, South East Asian countries are. I'm enlightened now.
Enjoyed the first half, as usual, with all the history and the "ethnography" of the people. One thing quite struck me was how dated this edition was. There was talk of reading a map or going blindly into a place. I couldn't really understand some of it until it really struck me. The second half, again, was a little boring but it still had good reading material on the nitty-gritty details of doing communication and business with the Malaysian people. It's a fascinating multi-ethnic country and I was talking to my manager just the other day about how the Malaysian people were able to overcome their ethnic differences, to whatever extent, and cultivate a civilized society. I was really ignorant about developed, in general, South East Asian countries are. I'm enlightened now.
July 20, 2024
I recommend this book to anyone planning to visit, do business, or live in Malaysia. Particularly helpful: Chapter 9 - Communicating and the Appendix: Useful Apps
August 2, 2009
This book is approximately a wikipedia-level discussion of Malaysian culture and how to avoid causing any major offense. It's a quick read of about an hour (and I wish I'd read it before I was on the plane and had packed possibly offensively short above-the-knee shift dresses for a business meeting in this Muslim country) and gives a skim of an overview.
Dislikes: There's a little too much space allocated to the titles for royalty--it's unlikely your average traveler will come in contact with such an august personage, it was more like the American reverence for monarchy--and not enough pronunciation info for the simple phrases provided.
Overall, I was glad I checked this out from the library and gave it a whirl, but I wouldn't recommend buying a text like this.
Dislikes: There's a little too much space allocated to the titles for royalty--it's unlikely your average traveler will come in contact with such an august personage, it was more like the American reverence for monarchy--and not enough pronunciation info for the simple phrases provided.
Overall, I was glad I checked this out from the library and gave it a whirl, but I wouldn't recommend buying a text like this.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews