Tom Pepinsky

Category: Teaching

  • A Dialogue

    On Monday, we had a special event at MACEE.  There’s a Malaysian woman who has been teaching at American University in DC for 10 or 15 years, and every other summer she brings a small class of masters students here to Malaysia for a really cool month-long summer program.  She brought her class of 11 students to our office, and there they met with about 15 Malaysian students from two of the local public universities.  The idea was to have a dialogue between young Americans and Malaysians about relations between the countries and perceptions that each group had about the other.

    It was quite interesting, and I heard some unexpected answers, mostly from the Malaysians.  The professor moderated and asked questions that she had collected from the students.  They talked about things like the pre- and post- 9/11 perception of America, how relations can be improved between the two countries, and what makes people proud to be from their country.

    That last question gave me (jm) some food for thought.  I was surprised that both the Americans and Malaysians had some answers in common when asked why they were proud of their respective homelands.  The main overlaps were how far each country has come in a relatively short time and the diverse populations and cultures in each country.  The diversity thing was funny.  They kept saying that they were proud that all three races live in harmony here.  It bugs me that they use the word "race" to differentiate between Indian, Chinese and Malay.  It’s the same in Indonesia, they just don’t use the word ethnicity.  Also, one kid said something about the "Malays, Chinese, and Hindus" coexisting together which I thought was weird.  Not all the  Indians here are Hindu, which I’d expect a college kid to realize.

    It was nice to hear that these kids treasure the diversity in Malaysia.  But somehow it didn’t quite sit right.  Every time TP gets a cab driver talking, we immediately start to hear about his problems with and stereotypes of the other two groups.  They often get quite worked up.  And this happens, without fail, every single time.  So yes, people here can be friends with people from different backgrounds and heritages, but it just doesn’t seem like things are at all integrated below the surface.  And I also noticed that whereas in America, everyone is Indian-America, or Cuban-American, or Korean-American, here it doesn’t work that way.  It’s Malay, Chinese or Indian, period. It seems to me that this is a telling mentality (that’s not to say that America doesn’t have some room for improvement on minority issues too).

    On a lighter note, several of the kids said they were proud of the great, cheap food here.  I’m definitely in agreement with that one.

  • Brainwash Camp

    Lindsey and I (jm) had quite an adventure today.  We went along with my boss from work to talk with 35 Malaysian students who are heading off to the States for college soon.  They are all being sponsored by the National oil company, Petronas, and they get a four year free ride, all expenses paid, and a $1000/month stipend.  All they have to do is work for the government for 10 years after they graduate.

    We had no idea really where we were going, we thought it was out near the airport somewhere.  But our driver kept going and going until we were convinced we must have missed the place.  There were palm plantations as far as the eye could see, which actually did make for some fun wildlife watching from the car.  First we saw a bunch of monkeys foraging by the road, then we had to swerve suddenly to avoid hitting a 4 foot long moniter lizard who was crossing the road very slowly.  Luckily the car behind us saw it at the last minute too, and we were spared watching a sad accident out the back window.  The lizard eventually made it across, but I fear at the rate he was going he wasn’t going to be able to outrun the pythons that live in the plantations (they feast on the rats, who feast on the palm nuts).

    We finally go to where we were going after almost two hours, and it was a compound like place in the middle of nowhere.  While driving around trying to figure out where we were supposed to be, we came across a pretty view and all of us did a double take.  Turns out we had reached the ocean, which was weird, especially since it was fenced off and there was no access to the water even though it was about 10 feet away.  We finally found the right spot, and there was no electrical outlet for our computer for the presentation because the New Zealand students and reps had the big auditorium.  So we just stood outside and winged it for an hour and answered some questions.  Most of the kids are going to the Colorado School of Mines, so Lindsey got to tell them all about that area which was very cool.

    Before we left, I asked the coordinator lady exactly what this place was that we were at.  She said it’s a camp where they do programs to "brainwash the kids about how good the Malaysian government is before they go abroad so they’ll all come back after graduating."  I kid you not.  This was quite a funny way to put it.  So after sputtering to try and come up with a reply, we made a pretty quick getaway (except our driver was a little lost and had to come back to get us).  The rest of the day was spent browsing at the fancy mall in the middle of town and eating yummy food.  We leave for Lankawi tomorrow morning, so we’ll write more when we can.