MALAYSIAN STUDENTS OVERSEAS

In 1997, I continued my studies in the UK. It was the most liberating experience in my life because not only I get to own an oversea university degree, but also I get to mingle around with people outside my own community. Not to mention the hands-on experience to brush up my language skills. The funniest thing that I realized during my whole experience as a foreign Malaysian student in UK is how other Malaysian students did not like to mingle with the locals there. Language inferiority I later found out. I mean what is the point of going to study overseas and not be like the locals? It was like we’ve created our own small community out there, communicating in our own language, and cooking our own food. It’s a shame really because back home, we complain that it’s hard to master English language because the people around does not converse in English. So when you finally given the opportunity to converse in the English community itself, we shunned. I remember how my professor used to tell me how shy we Malaysians are. There are times she had to intervene when it come to these students choosing their own groupmates for a project. There is one other matter that seems pretty odd to me. There are some students that took advantage of being away not only to study, but to get hitched in matrimony, mostly with other Malaysian student lah. I'm not sure if the parents knew about it back home but its becoming a phenomenon.
Apart from the academic learning, I also get to learn that getting hitched in a foreign country is far much easier and all they need is your passport, made you swear that both individuals are single and that's it. As for the Muslims, the local imam can solemnise the marriage with only one or two witnesses. I guess being away from your parents made it easier to do a lot of things, be it good or bad. I'm not saying getting married is wrong and it is within their rights to do it as long as it is done in a legit manner but I'm intrigued to know why there and why then. Some priveleged students are sponsored by the government or large corporations to obtain a degree, not to get hitched. And to have some seniors and fellow friends to participate in the whole marriage thing is very very disappointing.
What I’m trying to insinuate is that, studying overseas do not mean study, study, study and hope you’ll get a degree. No, it’s the experience that matters. We need to learn to socialize outside our coop, master the language along its local connotation and sample their food (as long as its halal, for the Muslims). I was privately funded by my father who worked tirelessly to send me to a foreign university and for that I studied harder because I know, on top of supporting his other six children, sending me there means forking out a fortune especially when back then it was 1997, the year where we see the ringgit devalues so much against the pounds. I gathered as much experience as possible in my whole two years there and I even picked up some British accent. I also get to know some few Malaysians who had successfully secured a job there and helping other fellow Malaysians by teaching some English dialects so that mixing around will be so much easier. I hope that for all the aspiring students who are preparing to study overseas, please, no inhibitions and explore the country, the language, people and culture and create a study group with the locals or other international students and don't worry about being called sombong (snob) by your fellow Malaysians because they're just saying that because they're jealous. The experience to study overseas is a chance of a lifetime, make the best of it and of course, be sure to come home with an Honours Degree and treat your parents to your newly acquired skill of foreign cooking.