One of my goals here is to learn a lot more about Malaysia and to share my little nuggets of insight with you. I have been here a little bit longer than four months so I am started to get a little more familiar with this very interesting country.
Because I had some cash flow problems when I first moved into my new apartment (delay in setting up bank account until my visas was finalized), I avoided signing up for cable TV and so far, I have managed just fine watching the 5 channels that come free over the airwaves (channels 1,3, 7,8,and 9). Not surprisingly, television in a multi-cultural country such as Malaysia is pretty multicultural. Most of the TV shows are broadcasted in Bahasa Malay, the national language of Malaysia, but there are also shows in Mandarin and English as well (commericals during the same show can be in multiple languages). I guess that it is only the Indian Malaysians that don't get TV in their own language. Each night there are news broadcasts in Bahasa, Mandarin, and English. Sometimes there are shows from either Korea or Japan that have subtitles in both Mandarin and Bahasa which covers about half of the screen (thus the Tamil speakers and I still have no idea what these shows are about).
If Malaysians learn about the US by watching the American shows that they show over here then they must think that we are a pretty screwed up country (OK, maybe they wouldn't be too far off). There are some American dramas that I like to watch like "The Mentalist" and "Fast Forward", but they are shows from last season so I have already seend them (luckily, my memory is poor so I enjoy watching them again). They don't appear to appreciate American humor because I haven't seen and US sitcoms on TV. One show that I was surprised to see was one of my favorites from my early childhood- "Popeye the Sailorman". Popeye cartoons come on every Saturday at 5:30 in the evening. I guess Malaysians like their spinach!
There are a variety of Malaysian shows. Because I don't understand the language and very few shows in Bahasa are dubbed into English, I often don't really know what is going on. Some obviously are slightly modified from the shows we are familiar with (The Biggest Loser, Next Top Model, Amazing Race), whereas others are quite a bit different from the shows we watch at home. For example, one show appeared to be "American Idol for men wishing to sing the call to prayers that are broadcast from local mosques 5 times each day". I could never tell which of the judges was Simon!
I have learned a little about Malaysia by watching the Malay dramas. There appears to be a lot of bullying going on over here, so the rich and good looking are constantly victimizing the poor and the ugly. Even though I can't understand the dialog, it is clear that the wisest people in all kampongs (villages) are the grandmas and the biggest idiots in town are the fathers of the hero or heroine. Luckily, in every episode the plucky hero/heroine seems to be able to triumph whatever adversity was facing them that week, so I am always uplifted. There are often religious overtone to these shows (lots of praising Allah), but sometimes there are "witch doctor"-type characters as well (I haven't figured out the role of "bomohs" (magic people) in Malaysian society yet, but they show up in TV shows and newpaper stories pretty often).
From watching the ads on TV it is clear that the biggest problem facing Malaysia women remains their excessively dark skin!
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