Assalamualaikum, hello there humans~

And yes, for today's topic, it's related to the picture above :)

Okay, before we start, can you do us a favor and read the questions below? Please and thank you :)

So now, how do you feel? Do you know what are the above actions are? They are called....

And prejudice is bad because they form an opinion on people without any basis, but don’t worry, if you’ve experience prejudice, it means that you’re just a human.

Somehow it’s part of human nature to quickly form an assumption or basically judge people even those they don’t know.

Based on our reading, prejudice is having a negative attitude towards certain people. When a person acts on his prejudice, it is discrimination.

So I bet now you can guess what today’s topic going to be~ huhu

Okay, anyway we are going to take turns telling you guys our experience of being a prejudice and the victim of prejudice. Just as an aside, there’s always people out there who fear the act of prejudice and its effect. So, we’re going to state ours as well at the end of our post.

Now let’s start!

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*knock knock*

*door creeks open*

Assalamualaikum guys! Nad’s here! So I’m going to tell you guys my experience first.

I, am just another human being. I do have prejudice towards a certain group but it’s something that I hold only to myself.  Somehow, to tell you my prejudice is like exposing a bad side of me publicly… Definitely a brave move for me to openly disclose it here.

In any parts of the country, there are definitely crazy drivers out there. Those who carelessly drive and make their own traffic rules. Similarly, here, whenever I see a car going bonkers I will quickly assume the person behind the wheel is a Chinese lady (I’m sincerely sorry if I offended you)

But, Why? Honestly, I think it’s because I grew up with the believe. As a child I love to sit inside cars. The moment I hear my parents’ plan to go out or hear the beeping sound of the car unlocking, I will run and persuade my parents to bring me along. Even just going to the grocery store or when my dad wants to park the car in our house compound. How this prejudice is instilled in my mind is because whenever my parents face a tough situation caused by these reckless drivers, they will automatically shout..

“I bet the driver is a Chinese lady!”

Now, now I’m not putting the blame on my parents but I’m sure there’s a reason why such statement is blurt out. It’s because 90% the time they almost got into accident with Chinese lady. Thus, such statement was made. Well, I guess experience is the best teacher.

I have also been in a position where I’m a victim of prejudice. My body type is quite on the small side. It’s hard for me to gain weight even though I eat a lot. This is my nature, how I was born and how God had created me. From secondary school to university life, there are some people who spread rumors saying that I maintain my body because I have an eating disorder. Yes, these types of people still exist, those who assume that naturally skinny people have an eating disorder. However, I think such prejudice towards naturally skinny people or we call it as skinny-shaming have been reducing as many articles have been published to avoid people from misunderstanding us.

Ps: If you can relate, click : http://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/pictures-that-sum-up-every-naturally-skinny-girls-life#.jcY3BBmJg

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*Kicks door*

*BAAAAMMMM!!*

My turn!!

Thanks Nad for sharing your story..

Umm, well in my case, I have this negative assumption towards “hijabsters”.

(Sorry if this a sensitive topic for some of you guys)

I know I’m not the perfect Muslim myself, but maybe in my unpopular opinion, i thought that maybe to some of the "hijabster", wearing headscarf may not be an obligation towards Allah anymore but instead it has a become somewhat of a fashion sense.

The reason is because maybe in my opinion, the chest area of a woman are very sensitive and needed to be covered. Moreover, from my observation, some of them even only wore a headscarf  - which only covers their hair/head but not their neck.

Sorry if I offended some of you, but this is just my unpopular opinion as I, myself have flaws of my own.

As to being the victim of prejudice, well long story short, I just have to keep my English communication skills to myself whenever I hang out with my friends outside IIUM. I could sense their glares every time I speak in English. However, i think it's fine because it does not bother me that much. People think what they want to think, so I just let them be.

For both us, we believe our greatest fear of the effects of prejudice is that it could threaten the unity among Malaysians. Malaysians are made up of people of different races and over time we have learned to respect and embrace each other, that makes Malaysians are one big family. Prejudice towards different races could threaten the peace and love we have enjoyed over the years.

So that is all from us, sorry for the long post, but if you made it till here…

Here’s a gift!!

Thank you for reading!.. See you guys in the next post!

Hello there world!!

And for Muslim, Assalamualaikum my dear sisters and brothers~

So we’re just going to do a quick introduction today about our new CUTE INTERNATIONAL FRIEND who’s from CHINA!!

And when we said she’s cute.. we’re not even kidding. Her personality is so adorable we just want to hug her tight and feed her candy all day!!

Lol haha okay anyway,

Since our mission was to make her like us, we thought that it’ll be better for our friendship to get closer if FOOD was involve!! Hehe

So we ask her which Mahallah she’s staying at, because it’ll be easier for her if we go and meet her rather than the other way around.

It's Mahallah….. 

.......to be continued.

Hehe, sorry about that.

So, can you guess which Mahallah she’s living in?

Aren’t you curious about who she is and how she looks like?

I mean… how CUTE she looks like… huhu

If you are, then keep our blog in check cause we’ll be back for more updates about her!

But for now, Toddles!!

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Preview:

“She has a Muslim name?!”

“How old is she again??!”

“She doesn’t like Malaysian’s rice?!”

Assalamualaikum! Hi there earthlings!

Amy and Nad here, again. Huhu

We come in peace by the way. Hahhaha lol okay

Anyway, for today’s entry, we’re going to start off with a saying by Scollon..

The saying above kind of peak our interest and curiosity..

Aren’t you curious too?

Honestly, at first we were a little lost and kind of confuse but then we realize that maybe it carries two different meanings.

Confused? Want to know what we’re talking about?

Okay, so for the first 7 words – “People often don’t say what they mean.”

What pops in our mind when the word appear is,

Why? Well, we think our Malaysian friends can relate to this because it’s very common in our culture.

The experience of growing up as Malaysian can be said to be quite interesting.

Remember those intense moments when you were scolded by your mother or school teacher?

As a child, the only thing you could do was probably cry, look down at your feet, keep quiet and silently take in all the nagging.

Now here’s the thing... if you notice, Mothers and Teachers would sometimes utter these words after they finish scolding..

“Mak/Cikgu marah awak sebab mak/cikgu sayang awak”.

Basically, they’re trying to say that all those nagging are because they  CARE  and because they  LOVE  us.

When they were mad and keep on lecturing, usually they didn’t say what they really mean -  which is for her child or the students to change and be a better person

They might point out our wrong doings during the scolding but it’s actually for our own good!

You might didn’t get it when you were small.. but haven’t you realized it now? 

If they didn’t do what they did.. we might not even become who we are now!

They raised us to be strong, to be smart and to be able to differentiate between RIGHT and WRONG!

My dad once said..

(P/s: then later, i found out it was a quote from a tv show called Supernatural -_-')

So, to conclude from this post, the meaning behind the sentence below is within the word itself..

“People often don’t say what they mean”…

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Now, for the second part is “people often don’t mean what they say”.

Again, relating with our culture, we believe that majority of Malay readers can relate and have come across this situation:

When we are hanging our clothes and our neighbour come and ask “Are you hanging your clothes?”

It’s obvious that the action that you’re doing, at the very moment, is hanging your clothes. Then why such question is asked?

We believe that their main intention is not to ask what are we doing that instance, but as a way to start conversation.

We’re pretty sure that they don’t mean to ask such senseless question. It’s just something that they utter, unconsciously or automatically at that moment, when they saw their neighbour.

Also, the other reason that we could come up with is to simply liven up the established relationship. In Malay language we called it as ‘bergurau-senda’ hehehe.

So, to our faithful readers, we would love to know your view on this saying:

       

Do drop your comments on the comment section below. Thank you! J

Assalamualaikum guys!

How are you guys doing? Fine?

Hope you are and...

Yes, we're back!!

Okay, so let's get to it!!

See the video below? Do me a favor and click on it.. hehe pretty please~

Did you click on it? I guess you didn't huh?

It's okay, i'll tell you what it's about and then maybe you can watch it later!

The video above is very interesting and it's titled..

"How to counter Intercultural Miscommunication"

TED talks have never failed to bring and invite creative, open-minded people to share their experience. 

In the video posted above, Pelligrimo Ricardo shares his experience on the times where he was left awkward and speechless by some of the customs of other cultures.

Although at times there arise conflicts due to cultural misperception and miscommunication, the speaker enjoins people to change our perception, on how we see and perceive things. 

One the tips that he shared to counter intercultural miscommunication are:

We mostly experience cultural differences among our colleagues. There are bound to be miscommunication or misunderstanding due to the diversity of our culture. 

For example, some of us don’t mind in sharing food or using the same eating utensils. Nonetheless, some of us find the behaviour quite peculiar or worst, disgusting!

Hence, we need to learn and respect other cultures as people have “different ideas of accepted and familiar”.

We have not yet engaged with any international students but hope to meet and befriend them one day.

We would like to know how you overcome intercultural miscommunication between your friends, colleagues or when you are travelling!

So that's all for now, BuBye!!

Assalamualaikum!

Hello!

Bonjour!

안녕하세요!

The connotation of "Beyond The Vision" is to view other cultures beyond what is served by the media and assist in creating a global mindset.

Our names are Amy & Nad. 

This blog is shared by both of us as we have the same interest in learning different cultures. 

We are students of International Islamic University Malaysia. We believe that by engaging in other cultures, we could expand our perspectives, discover new knowledge and gain better understanding on the diversity of each culture. 

Sometimes, experience are the best teacher! That is why, culture are best learn through experience and by meeting new people from a wide variation of norms and ethnic.

So that is all for now, stay tuned for more updates from us!! Au Revoir guys!!