INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS WELCOME PARTY (14-Apr)

The night was fabulous. I managed to mingle with many familiar faces whom I never knew about their nationalities until tonight. I managed to brush up on my Japanese too because I needed to communicate with the Japanese volunteers. Even though some of them obliged to speak in English, I thrived to speak in Japanese and I am very grateful for their support and encouragement. The volunteers are really nice people.

I had plentiful of sushi for the night and lots of pastries. At the rate I am going with the portion of my meals and lack of exercise, I foresee I would put on weight in less than a month. The cold weather further increased my appetite for every meal and in between meals.

The international students this year is well represented with countries all over the world. As usual, the largest representation comes from China. South Korea takes second place. Malaysia is probably one of the larger ones in terms of number of Monbukagakusho scholars in Japan. I say this because many Chinese and Korean students are here on exchange programmes instead of the scholarship. Malaysians command a great deal of respect from the Japanese because of our rich diversity of cultures, customs and religions. They are simply amazed by how we could live with one another harmoniously. This is definitely an asset to our country. Unfortunately, many of us in Malaysia including myself do not see that and take it for granted most of the time.

I have also been doing my part as an “ambassador” in promoting Malaysia to Japanese and other students here. They are simply excited hearing about the diversity and people in Malaysia. They are most impressed with our weather, crystal clear sea waters, and Japanese-friendly environment, cheap but delicious food, stability and business friendly environment. They were more surprised when I informed about how many of their compatriots have been repeating their investments in Jusco, Isetan, Toyota, Honda, Panasonic, and blah blah blah, to all over Malaysia from a humble beginning. I doubt I would be able to tell so much if I were an undergrad. I am glad my working experience helped a lot in talking to really matured postgrad students who ask serious topic questions about investment opportunities in Malaysia. I am sure they do not ask these questions simply without pondering over the figures later on. I never felt such “heavy” responsibility as an “ambassador” until I am here representing no one but my country. There were many “phew” moments when I was thrown with many statistic questions like GDP growth, population, income per capita, taxation, average salary income for fresh graduates, percentage of each races, and even average rainfall per year! I think I fared pretty well in tackling most of the questions, thanks to my previous reading up on these fact and figures. Isn’t it great for Malaysia to have a patriotic citizen like me???...hahaha

The Japanese volunteers were also organizing o-hanami for the weekend which I could not attend because I have promised Syakir and the rest of the Malaysians to go on a separate and more private arrangement.