“Malaysia, truly Asia” means

“Malaysia, truly Asia”. I am guessing you have ever heard it somewhere on internet, TV ads, or magazines, especially if you are interested to travel to Asia. Yeah, it is a popular slogan from Tourism Malaysia. A slogan to promote their tourism to the world, to every people on earth, so people will visit this beautiful small country. Malaysia, the second most visited country in South East Asia, below Thailand, knows very well how to make benefits from their people and their cultures, since it is only small country with not so many favorite tourism spots like beaches and mountains.
Their people, the Malays, are most likely typical South East Asian people. They are friendly, humble, little shy, but the most important, they can speak English well. English is their second language, after their mother languages. The Malays, consist of the 3 biggest ethnic groups, which live peacefully since back years. They are respectively Malays, Chinese, and Indians. They are actually called their self the Malays, because they are officially Malaysian Residents. Although the “real” Malays are the biggest group among them, which also mean they have a big number of people in government and play big role too for the country, Chinese and Indians are not categorized as minority in this country. They still have freedom just like the “real” Malays have, they have the same chance to join into government, military, or others. It is just the matter of number.
What’s the different then among those 3 groups then? Their cultures are the answer, especially their languages and foods. Talking about language, Malay is the most spoken language used by the Malays, then Chinese which consist of Cantonese and Mandarin, and Tamil, the most spoken language used by the Indians in this country. Those 3 languages (Cantonese and Mandarin are likely same) are very different to each others. So you’ll probably be surprised when you got here for the first time. Actually when you are in the public transportation and you hear 3 different languages at the same time. Then you’ll realize that it’s not only happened in the public transportation, but also everywhere else like in shops, malls, public university, food courts, etc. And for the additional information, there are lot international students in every university in Malaysia recently, they are mostly coming from the Middle East and Northern Africa and most of them are speaking Arab. Malay, Chinese, Tamil, and Arab. That’s a great composition of language.
Different ethnic groups create different kind of foods also. That’s what happened in Malaysia. Therefore there are plenty of different foods we can taste here. Nasi or rice is a common and a must food for the Malays. Nasi Lemak is one of the most popular Malaysian food. The reason is because it is simple and affordable for everyone. It consists of rice, fried egg (sunny-side up egg), fried peanuts, and sambal (traditional spicy sauce). For Chinese, the combination of noodles and vegetables are the most common food for them. It can be fried noodles or combined with a soup. While for Indians, curry and Indian bread are the most common. For Indian breads, they can be combined with cheese, eggs, fish, vegetables, and many more. Most of the restaurants or food courts in Malaysia provide those different kinds of food, so people can easily choose which foods they want to eat. Yet there are still some restaurants which are specialized either in Malay, Chinese, or Indian food.
The combination of Malaysian people and their cultures play a significant role in this country. Conflicts of ethnic groups could be happened anytime, fortunately it is barely happened here. Appreciating and giving freedom to each other are the keys. That’s what I experience for the last 2.5 months living here as an exchange student.
So yeah, living or traveling in Malaysia means you likely live or travel in different countries in Asia in one time. What a right slogan (or ads) after all. Malaysia, truly Asia.