STORIES, STORIES

I moved to Malaysia in 2013 to work in publishing. Almost two years of living here means it's time I list down the things I've learned, after the initial fog of novelty has cleared and I've fully immersed into this new lifestyle. Quickly and dirtily, some background info: I come from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and all my experiences are tied back to that stringent culture, but I'm also Filipino – Southeast Asia is not completely strange to me. I'm apparently shaped by my Islamic upbringing even though I strictly speaking don't adhere to its ideals. This is Item #2 of that list. MIND YOUR LANGUAGE Malaysians speak 3 major languages – Bahasa Malaysia (Malay), Tamil and Chinese (Hokkien or Mandarin), but English is very widely used, which is why it's easy for me to survive here. But knowing English here (as in most other countries where it isn't the first language) is not nearly enough; one has to know the local version of it to truly understand what pe...

I moved to Malaysia in 2013 to work in publishing. Almost two years of living here means it's time I list down the things I've learned, after the initial fog of novelty has cleared and I've fully immersed into this new lifestyle. Quickly and dirtily, some background info: I come from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and all my experiences are tied back to that stringent culture, but I'm also Filipino – Southeast Asia is not completely strange to me. I'm apparently shaped by my Islamic upbringing even though I strictly speaking don't adhere to its ideals. This is Item #1 of that list. THERE WILL BE SEXIST PIGS I've just come home from a driving class – I'm trying to get a driver's licence, not necessarily because I want to drive, but because  I can . I am not  un-allowed  to. After years of living in a place where I am denied the right to transport myself from Point A to Point B without the assistance of a penis-owner, you'd think I'd be more ec...