Dear Nancie and Friends, Nancie Fimbel asked lots of questions about my last note, and I thought some other people might be interested in the answers, so I'm making them publicly. Some of you don't know Nancie. She got her Ph.D. in religion from the U. of Chicago. (I hope I got that right, Nancie!), which may help explain her particular interest in this topic. At 02:21 PM 12/22/98 -0800 you wrote: >Hi! >I'm back among the land of the living, having just turned in my grades! >Hoo-ray! > I haven't turned in grades yet. The final is supposed to be on Jan 1, which is a holiday! My class this term is Fri evening, so happens to fall on both Christmas Day and NY's day. The campus is closed on those days, but they make no adjustment in the schedule for those of us with classes on those days. The official advice is to just hold an extra class sometime. My class is almost entirely evening students who hold down full time jobs during the day and take more than one evening/weekend class. So you can imagine how impossible it is, with 40 students, to schedule a different time. Another suggestion is to hold a "double" class. Since many students have trouble making it on time to my class from 6:30-9:30, that would mean having another one from 9:30 - 12:30! Apparently some people do this, but I know my body will not do anything productive at midnight. So on the original syllabus I scheduled the final for Jan 1 and just cancelled the class for Christmas day. I made their term papers due on the last day of class, Dec. 18 and had class presentations of their projects scheduled. About midway through the term we started negotiating about the final on new year's day. After several rounds of trying to find an alternate time (Sat. afternoon, Sunday morning...) the "class representative" suggested to let them discuss it during the break and come back with a suggestion. He came back with, have the final on Dec 18 and papers due on the 1st (no presentations). Since I'm forcing them to talk about their projects in class anyway, I thought that sounded fine. I don't know what they do during break to get a consensus, but a similar thing happened in my previous class. The culture here is much more oriented toward consensus building, as well as authority structures, and less toward personal achievement. People seem much more aware of other people around them than we are in American culture. Whenever I'm looking slightly confused, be it just looking for someone in their office, or figuring out how to get a dead machine to work, someone comes to help. The young women in the office outside my door seem to be always doing something together. They often have some kind of a craft project going, they've been making tiny little flowers out of plastic straws and "cotton-buds" (Q-tips) the last few days. One day last week one of them taught the others how to make little gift boxes out of last year's Hari Raya cards. They were very small, meticulously made, and quite beautiful. Yesterday, during the lunch break, I saw 2 of them with their heads down on a desk napping in an empty office. Mostly these things are at the end of the day or during lunch, but I also see them playing computer games, etc during regular office hours. If the US has a problem with top-heavy mgt, Malaysia is very bottom-heavy. The amount of office staff we have at the Business Centre is truly astonishing. By the way, the fees in the MS-Bus program includes tea and donuts or something during break. Each class rep organizes it for that particular class, so if there are 3 MS classes one evening there are 3 snack tables. The class rep also photocopied my notes for the whole class one evening during break. >Your discussion of Ramadan is terrific! How did you find out what >religion people are? Obviously, dress "gives away" some people, but do >the rest talk about it or is it only that the holidays give you an >excuse to ask? Do people in your apartment building segregate >themselves by religion? Are there hostilities? Does one religion have >more status than others? It is usually obvious what religion people are around here, but there is no embarrassment about asking either. I occasionally have trouble telling whether someone is Indian or Malay by looking at them, or even Chinese vs. Malay. Quite a lot of people are of mixed parentage around here, but as you might imagine from its position on the globe, Malays kind of look in-between Chinese and Indian anyway. But if you can't tell by looking you can tell by the name. Malays are always Muslim. It is illegal to change away from Islam, but you can convert to Islam. Indians are almost always Hindu, but a few are Christian or Muslim. Chinese are pretty mixed as to Buddhist, "ancestor worship", and Christian. Christian Chinese or Indian usually have Anglicized names. One colleague is Jeremy Abrahams, a Catholic Indian, for example. My Bangladeshi neighbor is named Mohammed, so I don't have to ask that one. > >Now I'm going to give you grief about reading the Straight(s) Times! Is >there any homosexual population that's out? I'd guess not--correct? > There is not much really open homosexuality in MY, although apparently there are some gay bars. I have seen some people in the arts that, while I've never seen them with another man, don't seem to be hiding anything. One acquaintance in telling me about what a lovely house her batik-maker friend has, repeatedly told me he was a bachelor living with another man, as if I wouldn't get it. Of course the Straights Times refers to the Straights of Malaka, the water between Malaysia and Sumatra. "Straights Chinese" is it's own culture, a mix of Chinese and Malay, likewise "straights cuisine" >more. We aren't hearing much about Anwar's trial. How much about >Clinton's impeachment do you hear? Do people there think the whole >thing is silly--for example, as they apparently do in France and >elsewhere where affairs aren't such a big deal? > I mainly get my impeachment news from CNN. It's enough for me. I think Malaysians think the Clinton thing is just as silly, and just as political, as the Anwar thing. They usually ask me what I think about Clinton rather than telling me what they think. But I can guess from the comments I hear about Anwar. Mostly they think the charges are ludicrous. Most of them sound like most of the Americans I know, saying something along the lines of "All the politicians do that sort of thing, it's all political". Of course Anwar is in jail and has been beaten, and that they take very seriously. None of the witnesses stick to the same story 2 days in a row, which gives the whole thing an atmosphere of high-camp, along side the serious political dimension. The general feeling is laughing and crying at the same time. Clinton's problems are slightly amusing, but not very compelling alongside. Merry Christmas and Salamat Hari Raya to all, Jackie =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jackie Snell 6/ 98 - 3/ 99: jaq@admin.upm.edu.my University Business Centre Off: +60(3)9485-649 4th Floor Admin. Bldg. Fax: +60(3)9433-513 Universiti Putra Malaysia Mobile: +60(19)9457-239 43400 Serdang, Selangor MALAYSIA Dave's Mobile: +60(19)3299-445 Marketing Department After 3/99: snell_j@cob.sjsu.edu San Jose State University Off: +1(408)924 3484 One Washington Square Fax: +1(408)924 3445 San Jose, CA 95192-0069 USA