Understand the Role of the Elderly in America(11/23/09)

From my survey, I observed that Americans are afraid of growing old. They feel that after they are growing old, they still have to work is very suffer. They think that after retirement, they should enjoy their lives and do whatever they want; but, as an American, they have to work more than other people due to the higher expenses in the United States. Besides of that, they also would not stay with their children whenever they grow old. This is because most of their children are working and they would not have time to take care of their parents. These entire situations are different in Malaysia. In Malaysia, the elderly are respected by the younger. The younger are taking care of the elder but not leaving them alone.

08. Observe American Adults interacting with children.(11/23/09)

From my observation, I found out that children in the United States are very close to their parents. They talk everything to their parents, and they are in good table manner. On the other hand, in Malaysia, children feel that their parents are their elders; they could not be too rude to them. Besides of that, in Malaysia, children do not learn any table manner. They share the same meal with their parents and even share their silverwares. On a playground, children are very active and enjoy themselves. In this situation, children in Malaysia do the same thing. They also enjoy themselves very much.

07. Family in the United States(11/15/09)

From this survey, I observed many differences among family in the US and family in Malaysia. First of all, I found that the children in the United States are very independent. Children in the United States are usually working to earn money to pay for their school fees. Parents in the United States encourage their children to work outside, but it is kind of different in Malaysia. Parents in Malaysia are normally do not allow their children working awhile they are still schooling. This is because of the different in their belief. Parents in the United States are always thinking that letting their children to earn money by themselves can give them more experience in their life. Besides that, through working, they can understand how hard to earn money. On the other hand, in Malaysia, parents think that education is the most important thing for a child. They want their children to focus in studying instead of working.

Second, I also found something interesting. From this survey, I knew that parents in the United States are very open-minded. For example, when their children did something wrong, they give them opportunity to explain. From this way, they train their children to express their own feeling and more chance to communicate with their parents. In Malaysia, when a child did something wrong, they are not given any opportunity to talk but just hear everything from their parents. This is why many children in Malaysia dare not to express their own feeling compare to children from the United States.

06. What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a multicultural society in the twenty-first century?(10/26/09)

In my opinion, I think living in a multicultural society have many advantages. I am a student from Malaysia. As everyone knows, Malaysia is a multicultural society. From young, we need to learn at least three languages in our daily life. From this point, I found that we learn more than other people from other countries do. We have more knowledge about other races’ culture. We can always share our knowledge to others. Besides that, we also have a lot of public holiday and festival in multicultural society. As there are many different races, so, we celebrate all races’ holiday together in our society.

Although there are many advantages, living in multicultural society still have a lot of disadvantages. For example, as I said, we learn many languages in our daily life. We learn Malay, Mandarin, and English from young. This make us can’t focus in just one language. So, we can’t speak well English as all the Americans do, we can’t speak good Mandarin as all the China people do. Besides that, there are some inequality civil rights in a multicultural society. Some civil rights laws are more towards the majority in the society. For example, in Malaysia, Malays can pay less than other races if they are buying the same item. It makes us think that we are victims in the society.

05. Would you have a gun in your own home? Why or why not?(10/11/09)

I would not have a gun in my own home. This is because it is too dangerous to do so. This is because gun is a dangerous weapon that we might hurt ourselves especially for a kid. The kid, who does not know how dangerous the gun is, might think that is a game. Besides that, it might cause death. I think this is the only thing that I would not have a gun in my own home.

04. Do you think money and what you own makes a person important?(09/29/09)

I think money and what we own do not make us important. In my opinion, I think our value is the most important thing for us as a human being. For example, money and what we own is just the assets that we own, they may not last forever in our life. On the other hand, value that we have will follow us whenever and wherever we go. It shows our personality in the society. A person with good value is always respected by others, and this person may be very poor. In the opposite way, a person with lots of assets but he or she does not have a good value, other people will obey or even hate him or her.

03. How would you describe the average the person in your country and what he or she believes?(09/22/09)

Most of the citizen in Malaysia are Malay, and follow by Chinese and Indian. Malaysia is an Islamic country while all Malays are Muslim. They were Muslim from the day they were born. They have no right to choose which religion to follow but only Allah. Most of the Chinese in Malaysia are Buddhist, and they believe in Amitabha and Kwan-yin. Besides that, some of the Chinese are believe in Allah, God or other spirit. Due to Malaysia is a multicultural country, there are many ethnic groups; therefore, in Malaysia, there are many religion and many believes. In this case, Muslims are the most percentage, and they are followed by Buddhist and others. On the other hand, there are some Malaysians don’t believe in any spirits but themselves. They believe in their own strength.