People here often have the perception that my friends and I are not Malaysian. Yes, they know that we are from the South-East Asian region but they just do not know which country. It is often “Are you from Indonesia?” “Are you from Singapore?’ or even sometimes “Are you from Vietnam?”. No offense to these three countries but sometimes we as Malaysians feel hurt and even to be honest feel a little jealous. This is because most of the people here in Korea know the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. So, what about the country in between Thailand and Indonesia? The general perception of most people is that the country sandwiched in between is also Indonesia. Indonesia and Malaysia may sound similar and we may share the same looks but we are not the same. We are our own country and Indonesia is our wonderful backyard neighbour.These perceptions actually show how much people here know about Malaysia, not very much I guess. So, here is a little introduction about Malaysia.
    Our capital city is Kuala Lumpur. The city is one of the key gateway cities and includes one of Malaysia's most famous manmade structures, the Petronas Twin Towers. These 1,483-foot skyscrapers at one time were the world's tallest buildings. But this scrapper still remains as the tallest twin skyscraper in the world. Now would people know about us? Maybe yes maybe no. So what else can I say about Malaysia? We were also one of the first South East Asian countries to host a Formula 1 race in 1999. Now, Singapore is the other country who has actually hosted a Formula 1 race. So besides having two tall skyscrapers and hosting Formula One races, people may ask “what else is famous about Malaysia”?
    The main ingredient that makes Malaysia so special as a country is that we are a multi-cultural country. We have three main races namely Malay, Chinese and Indian. There are also many other ethics in our country. As a nation we have about four different religions among us namely Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. We live peacefully as one community without any misunderstandings and we stick together as one community called Malaysians. Malaysians celebrate many festivals together. As for the Malay, they celebrate “Hari Raya Aidilfitri”, the Chinese race celebrates Chinese New Year and the Indians celebrate Deepavali. The Christians tough celebrate Christmas. We as Malaysians normally do not see these celebrations as four different ones, every Malaysian celebrate each of these festivals as one community. There is one question friends from other countries usually ask me when I tell them about Malaysia “How do the races live together peacefully in your country the answer was simple, that’s what makes us special as a country. This good relationship among races makes us strong as a nation every day. I am definitely proud and honoured to tell people that “This is Malaysia” and 저는 말레이시아 사람이에요 (I am a Malaysian).
 

By Aaron Denison, Exchange Student, University of Malaya