France Answers Questions About America

This week, Alison, blogger of Mama Wants This and FranceRants, are interviewing each other via our blogs!  

I came to know Alison a few months ago, when she burst on the blogging scene, making new friends everywhere.  I quickly became intrigued with the fact that Alison lives in Malaysia and was curious about what her life was like there.  We agreed to interview each other about our respective countries and you will find our interviews on our blogs. 

Below are the crazy questions I asked of Alison, and she indulged me with patient and informative responses. Please visit her blog, Mama Wants This to read her questions and my answers regarding American things like Halloween, LA, and the Kardashians. (Feel free to provide additional information via comments if you feel my responses are a bit off.  Although don’t tell her what Black Friday really is, because I totally lied. I mean how inane is it that Americans have given a name to a day that we devote to Christmas shopping?). Once there you can also sign up to follow her blog and/or follow her on Twitter!

France: Not to be stereotypical, but many Americans think people from Asian countries eat gross things, like squid eyeballs covered with fermented fire roasted tofu sauce.  What's the grossest thing you have ever eaten in Malaysia?

Alison: Asians do eat things that are considered gross, like the century egg which is considered yummy by Chinese people. The grossest thing I've ever eaten is ironically something Americans probably love – chicken liver. I can't eat innards of any kind.*shudder*

France: Dang, you must have had some bad pate to rate a nasty century egg above chicken liver! Back to Malaysia, I need to know if Malaysian equals Asian? I mean the word Asia is in there somewhere, so I just made the assumption, but wasn’t Malaysia under British rule for a while? Does this mean Malaysians speak English? Or Malaysianese (is that even a word)? Can you please explain your country’s structure to confused folks like me?

Alison: Yes, Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia. It is a British colony, and achieved independence on August 31, 1957.

Malaysians are generally multilingual. The official language is the Malay language, and English is the second language taught at school. I speak three languages – English, Malay and my mother tongue, Cantonese, one of many Chinese dialects. It's very multicultural here so you'll here many different languages being spoken!! Most Malaysians do speak English, yes.

France: Does Malaysia have KFC, McDonald's, and/or Chipotle fast food restaurants?

Alison: Unfortunately for my ass, yes, Malaysia does have KFC, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, but no Chipotle. We do have our own version of fast food -  it's called a 'mamak'. They're usually open 24/7 and offer local delicacies such as 'nasi lemak' (literally translated to 'fat rice') – it's rice with spicy sambal, anchovies, boiled egg and cucumber; 'mee goreng', which is fried noodles and 'roti', which is Indian bread. All fattening, all greasy, all unhealthy and all, totally delicious.

France: Bummer about not having Chipotle, because their 1800 calorie carnita burritos are de-lish. So do Malaysian fast food restaurants have drive-thrus? And if so, does the order taker sound all garbled when they are asking you for your order, because I am wondering if the fast food speaker systems in your country are better?

Alison: Yes, in fact, there are drive-thrus. Our speaker systems are awesome. The order takers? Notsomuch.

France: Out of curiosity, does the Malaysia version of TMZ report every single thing that the stupid Khardasian family does?

Alison: To be honest, I don't even know what the Malaysian version of TMZ is as local celebrity gossip here is so meh! Malaysians LOVE Hollywood gossip so we er, go to TMZ too. I'm not sure we care much about the Kardashians. (Kim who? What are they famous for? What did they do? Huh?)

France: I wish I could answer your questions about the Kardashians, but unfortunately I am not equipped to handle them.  I'm not sure anyone is, really. How about holidays?  What holidays do Malaysians celebrate and which is typically the favorite one?

Alison: People, if you don't like to go to work much, you should move to Malaysia, STAT. This country is so full of holidays, I wonder how anyone gets anything done.

We are multicultural here, so we have many cultural and religious holidays. There's Chinese New Year (usually January/ February) Muslim New Year (lalso known as Eid, usually in September/ October), Deepavali (for the Hindus in October), Christmas, New Year's Day.

There's also Wesak Day (Buddhist, in May), Thaipusam (Hindu, usually in January/ February), Hari Raya Haji (Muslim, in October) and a few others. Oh, and state holidays! And Sultan's birthdays! And the King's birthday!

There's Independence Day too on August 31. And oh, a newly declared holiday, known as Malaysia Day on September 16.

In 2011, there are a total of 12 national holidays and around 4-5 additional days for each state for state holidays.

Seriously, do you want to move here?

France: Well I do want to move out of Illinois one day, but I was thinking of somewhere...uh, less exotic. Like Colorado. Now tell me the truth, do Malaysians pig out like Americans on your holidays and then pass out on the sofa, stuffed and unable to move, with the top button of your pants undone? Or do you guys pass out on futons? Or are futons Japanese?

Alison: We have sofas just like you guys. And yes, food is important to us. It's always about the food. We do stuff our faces. In fact, for some of the national holidays above, the government hosts huge events called 'open house', where everyone is invited to come eat. I'm quite serious.

I do believe futon is originally Japanese. :)

France: Yeah, futons. Japanese or not, they confuse me (is it a bed or is it a sofa?). I am also getting the sense that you guys don't live in grass huts, which is a relief.  Let discuss sports. What favorite sports do Malaysians watch or participate in? And do the men who watch these sports paint their faces with the team’s colors? And do they cry or throw little temper tantrums when their team loses?

Alison: People, men worldwide cry and throw temper tantrums when it comes to sports. Soccer, or football as it is known here, is the most popular sport. People play it and they watch it on TV. Malaysians love the English Premier League (from whence David Beckham came), the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A. Malaysian men probably will paint their faces if they watch the game in a stadium – they will also wear their team jerseys proudly, and think that if they shout at the TV/ players in the stadium, they will affect the outcome of the game.

Badminton is pretty popular here. In fact, the world number one male badminton player is Malaysian.

France: Soccer to badminton, huh. Who-da-thunk-it? I mean say the words 'soccer' and some women think of the players as hot-looking athletic guys with sinewy sweat glistening muscles running around shirtless (not me though).  Then say 'badminton' and I get nothing. No conjured up image. No muscles. No half-nakedness. Maybe just a brief visual of some guy with skinny legs and knock knees wearing white shorts and holding a fluorescent pink bird. Oh well. On to the next question which is: do cars in Malaysia having steering wheels on the left or right side?

Alison: We drive on the correct side of the road, our steering wheels are on the right. ;)

France: Hmmm. And are Malaysian men capable of stopping and asking for directions if they are lost in Malaysia?

Alison: One word: NO. Men are the same worldwide, as you may have gathered by now.

France: Figures. How much is a gallon of gas in Malaysia? Heck, is it even called a gallon of gas, or is Malaysia advanced like the rest of the world when it comes to measurement, and its called liter of gas?

Alison: We go by 'litre', and we say 'petrol', in Malaysia. It used to be cheap but now it's RM2.80/ litre or US$.94/ litre. One gallon is about 4 litres, so it'd be US$3.84/ gallon, which I surmise is more than what you guys pay! Also? The price is fixed, nationwide.

France: Oh I see, Malaysians like the fancy spellings and terms. Nice. (And btw, I live in an area that has some of the highest gas prices in the nation, so you actually pay less.) Okay, one final question: have you ever been to America, and if so, where did you go?

Alison: Oh yes! I've been to America a few times:

When I was 9: My sister and I, escorted by our aunt, visited family in California. I believe they lived in an area called Hercules. We were on a one month vacation which included trips to Los Angeles, Reno and Waikiki. What stands out for me? 

• Learning to skateboard
• Making Jello for the first time
• Disneyland and Universal Studios
• The huge buffet at the hotel in Reno and the fact that us kids were stuck in the hotel room one night when the adults went to watch some show that we were not old enough to go to!
• The grocery stores! Everything looked huge - from the boxes of cereal to the cartons of milk and juice.

When I worked for Nike: My first work trip for Nike in 2006, was 4 months after I started, and I went to Oahu, Hawaii!! Yeah baby. After the work trip, I made my way to San Francisco to visit my brother and the same family I saw when I was 9.

Subsequent trips for Nike to America: 2 trips to Portland, Oregon where the Nike World Headquarters is located. One my first trip, I went to New York City after the event in Portland ended, and spent 6 wonderful days there. On my second trip, I again visited my family in San Francisco.

The work trips are what I miss most about having a career!

My travel visa to the US doesn't expire until 2016 so I'm hoping to make my way there soon! Maybe for a blogging conference?

Alison, thanks for your time and gracious answers (you're one of the nicest people  I've met through blogging)! Malaysia sounds different, yet similar to America. Remember folks to visit Mama Wants This to give your input on one of the still most controversial American issues: Camp Angelina or Camp Jennifer!