For the culture in Russia, they celebrate festivals more related to national festivals. We should celebrate national festivals not because of holidays but understand the meaning behind of each celebration. Definitely, the culture traditions of the country and each religion could be maintained. In Malaysia, we are lucky because we can celebrate the festivals together although different religion as most of the case, foods unite people.  

Cheers,
Wallace

Malaysia is a porous pot that containing multiracial people and cultures. Basically, we do have the benefits in termed of language, at least we know 2 languages that will be officially taught by our educational systems which are Malay and English. When I told her that for myself as a Chinese, I knew about four languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay and English) until now I’m learning the fifth language which is Japanese. She was amazed and hope to learn as many languages as well.

She lives in a dormitory, three people per room. It shares the same view that in UMT as well. Their dormitory is old which was built during the Olympic in Russian. As for a university student, we only can go back to our hometown at most four times per year which same for both Russian and Malaysia local university lifestyle.

The most challenge for a university student no matter where we are, who we are: homesick at the very beginning. We experienced the same, go to a place that located hundreds kilometers away. Not for fun, but for our dream and future. Although it is hurt sometimes and we reluctant to do so, it is all for our own good. As if every cloud has a silver lining. We do have the same culture that, we often called our family during leisure, not to let them worry, just to share those happy moments during our days.

Besides, in Russia, their families are large and friendly. The meaning of the family in Russia is not limited to husband, wife, and children, yet they normally get a good relationship with their extended families such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephew, and nieces. They often visit their grandparents and will get some family history from their grandparents about: how their parents meet up?. It is common that in both Russia and Malaysia that we are not dwelling together with our grandparents.

In term of family and friends, it means different meaning at different stages of lives. Friends are needed throughout our lives but family comes first and prior to everything for us. We share the same view that as age goes up, the value of family goes important as well. Of course, we greeted our family and friends in the same way in term of courtesy. As for both of us, we rather share only the happy moments to our family members but not the hardship. We share the problem to our friends rather than family members. This happens not that we don’t want to share, but we don’t want them to worry about us.

In Russia and Malaysia, we took it seriously in term of basic manner. For example, we have taught to be polite when meeting to those who are older than us.

Borsh is one of the traditional food in Russia. Not same in Malaysia that, their traditional foods are normally possess high nutritional and healthy value. For example: the Borsh is made from beetroot, potatoes, cabbage, meat, and onion. 

Overall, in term of family, Russia and Malaysia more or less the same. As we treat our family in a good way, our children will get affected and influenced by this environment and learn to be good as well. So this tradition will pass down to many of generations. 

 For their children, they can stay with their parents for as long as they wish, same as our country. So theoretically, you can live with your parents even when you are 40, but many teenagers, especially those who come to other place to study have to learn to become independent and adapt to the new environment themselves. Same as Malaysia, in Russian country, women and men will be see as equal. However, women often still regarded as “inferior” in some spheres like (business, family life) women tend to be more shame about their behavior than men.

About their traditions, there are some meaningful traditions like women’s day there in Russia at the 8^th of March, New Year festival, and someone’s birthday. The traditions that used to be among popular in Russia is the family gathering that happen in almost all families. For those festival that they celebrated, they usually served with huge variety of different salads, salted herring (often with dressing), cheese, pickled and fresh vegetables, sausage, sandwiches with salted red fish, "holodets" (jellied meat) and everything on earth - but it's all cold. Then comes a "hot meal": traditionally it's mashed potato with roasted chicken, but sometimes you can also find turkey, roasted sausages, or some other meat or fish, usually roasted or grilled. (Which is different with Malaysia, more similar to the western country). Finally after all that comes tea with a cake, chocolate sweets and fruits (mostly bananas, oranges and apples). However, for new year meal has some peculiarities, there will be tangerines and “olivye” (a special salad) and a champagne.

Unfortunately, many of their traditions had been dropped, same like what happen in our country. We are all greatly influenced by Western culture like celebrating Christmas, Halloween, valentine’s day so it kind of replaced the old traditions. What very difference from us is the cultural traditions that their parents and grandparents practice when they were growing up, for our country Chinese culture, our parents used to bring us whenever they go and stay by our side always to protect us. They more towards letting the child to explore and learn by themselves, so that they will grow to become more independent. Most of them have a “dacha” it’s like a small piece of land in outside of town or even with a small cottage house. For most of the younger Russians it’s now place to have a good rest in summer. They spend the weekends gardening, plan a lot of flowers, vegetables so they can have their own clean and reliable vegetables and fruits. It’s also a good place for people who are retired to spend their time. They usually celebrated new year and women days with their own family.  She hope her children will continue to celebrate the customs and festivals that she practice so that the traditions can be preserved. 

Overall, I feel like both Russia and we Malaysia are kindly similar. The way we celebrate our festival, how we get along with family members and how we pass the traditions from one generation to another generations. I am proud to be a Malaysian after all.

 

While it goes to the topic that called meaning of life. It is a easy but difficult question. People rarely think about this topic seriously. But for the meaning of life, it can only to be think of when we reach to certain ages and mature enough in order to think deeply about this question. Let’s say if we ask the meaning of life to a child, they couldn’t answer to you for sure. This may probably due to they are still young enough that hasn’t experience as much as the difficulties in their lives still. After the communication, we both do think that, there must be some tenacities for each of every person with respect to the meaning of life. Different people may have their own important elements in their lives. For instances, some may choose family as their importance in their life but some may choose career as their importance. But after the conversation, we both prioritize family as our first importance in our life, as you cannot choose whom to be your family in this lifetime, the best thing in life and there are free, precious family.

It’s very exciting when you never get in contact with foreign people and get chance to Skype with Russian. It’s very nice feeling when you get to know about a person from Russia. Amazing! Firstly, lecturer brief us before having video chat with the Russian. Then, we introduce our self  and get to know each other. Sometimes our conversation didn’t go smoothly because connection lost. I felt little nervous because worried that their English slang will be different from Malaysian. We ask about their life for example, hobby and their daily routine. We also obtain their personal email since we all had different partners.

 

In discussion of life, this question is kind of “hardest and struggled”. This is because we are only able to define meaning of life personally without acknowledged by others of this perspective. Distinct people are having different goal or meaning in life. However, significant perspective of this topic is financially independent, loving family, happiness and passionate on what we are doing are the common answer for meaning of life. Family provides safe and lovely place for us to settle down and having a rest during journey. Money, as all of us knew that, we could find happiness through money. But, we couldn’t buy happiness by money as some happiness created from memories, career, study and play. Happiness are different for each person and therefore will need to find a way that we enjoy. One of the saying from my partner which is “time should pass before you realize what you really want to do in this world” really ‘sober up’ my mind. Do what you passionate about with the time are needed to explore it. 

Another prejudice that we’ve discuss is “Russian are grumpy” or “Russian cold treated every people”. They clarified that Russian are more warmer and funny with acquaintance than strangers. This has leads to consequence that foreign people thought that Russian are not friendly, aggressive and unhelpful. I think that we tend to have guard against strangers as we do not know of what strangers thinking or acting. Currently, cliché of “Russian are linked to bears” spread to all around the world as more political caricatures would commonly indicates Russia as bears. She told me that this is just more bears in their forests. Therefore, lots of cartoonists pictured Russia as bears. Discrimination do actually happen in both Russia and Malaysia but not in well-educated people. Discrimination often happen due to cultural differences among ethnicity. 

Most common stereotype that other country would conclude about Malaysia is “all Malaysian are Malays”. This stereotype had been eliminated as more people are well-educated. There are two deeds in which we must continue to practice in ourselves are friendly and smile. They’ve heard that Malaysian have a very good attitude to little children and smile always, therefore, we should preserve our impressions by keeping the good values in our heart.

After we’ve discuss this topic, we found that stereotype and prejudice may ‘built up’ or strike the country’s image. A country may famous due to the stereotype and infamous due to stereotype. Therefore, stereotype and prejudice should be eliminated to exhibit peaceful, happy and livable country. Prejudice stops on clever but spread on idiot.

It was my first experience to chat with a Russia through social network. It was exciting. My partner was Anastasia Degtiavera. I called her Anna. We chatted trough telegram apps which can be access by mobile and web. It’s quite convenient for both of us to communicate and contact each other.

The first topic we discussed together was stereotype and prejudice.  There was a blank in our mind when we heard about the topics on the spot. This topic seems to be quite strange for both of us. We managed to begin our conversation with Anna’s point of view.

For Anna, she thinks that most stereotypes are race related or ethnicity, but some exist in the realms of gender and sexuality.  For their culture, many jokes persisted based on stereotypes. For instance, a German, an american and a Russian walk into certain place, obviously they make fun of other nations and prop up Russians. According to Anna, the same scenario could be seen in the minority cultures in Russia, like the Dagestani. For example, the native Siberian peoples (they are treated like foreigners-immigrants-exotic) throughout the history. Russia expanded east-ward, and lands of Siberia and the far east were basically colonized. With Dagestan, it was a different matter, because they asked to be part of the Russian empire. Either way, even though it says in the constitution that all races and ethnicities are equal, still there persists this thinking among the Russian people.

Anna shared her experience on stereotype and prejudice when she was study abroad to American school. It happened a long time ago when she was just 7 years old. The American kids teased her and asked her to tried vodka.  A few of Russians actually like vodka, but it doesn’t show that every  Russian was born alcoholics. Russian people drink vodka only at wakes to honor the dead person's memory. It tastes foul, which Anna guess is appropriate, since Russians see death as a sad occasion.

Stereotype on gender and sexuality could be seen in women. A common Russian name ‘NATASHA’ is now used as a euphemistic synonym for prostitute. Anna said one of her friend got laughed at when she went to a summer camp in Switzerland just because of her name.

Lastly, we concluded that stereotypes are subjective and don’t reflect the majority's way of thinking. Those who practice stereotype and prejudice are born of fear of the unknown. Stereotypes appear in situations of conflict, and even after the conflicts are resolved, stereotypes stay on because people are afraid that history might repeat itself. Therefore, the entire nation's job to educate people who are close-minded and prejudiced are crucially needed.

1.             How did you decide the theme for your collaborative project?

 

It was Anna suggestion on question 8 which is 2 or 3 person who has the most influence in our own culture. She got excited when seeing the question 8. Her mind came up with 2 person for this question which is Alexander Pushkin (Russian poet who introduced a new literacy style and Vladimir Lenin (main revolutionary guy who turned things upside down in not only Russia, but indirectly in several others as well)  

 

2.             What did you enjoy most during the collaborative project process?

 

The part that I enjoyed the most is through this collaborative project, it provide a great opportunity to know the grest people with great deed.  I have to admit that I don’t know much culture of Russian and also the people there. I enjoyed every sharing moment between both of us.   

 

3.             What did you enjoy least during the collaborative project process?

 

Honestly, I enjoyed most of the sharing moment, but it will become less enjoyed when it came to homework. However, the presentation slides were done within a short time. Both of us have a great time anyway.

     

4.             How will you improve the collaboration in future links?

 

Time given to discuss on the relevant topics or questions can be lengthen and I hope that we have more time for presentation section so that every group have the chance to present and share their thought.  

We have 14 short-listed question from Anna and Nastya. We choose 2 topics for each of us that we are interested. Coincidently, we have chosen one topic that same for each of us which is mutual topic. 

2.            What did you enjoy most during the collaborative project process?

Conversation between each other during this project is the most memorable moment. We do message to each other through WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and Vkontakte (Russia’s Facebook alike). However, the most frequent used is Telegram due to the Emoji and experience are more human friendly. During conversation, we do chat almost anything along nonsense with some relates to our project though. 

3.            What did you enjoy least during the collaborative project process?

Personally, I enjoy all the time during this project. Speaking frankly, time for us to sit back and discuss is less than we could have due to different time zone. Overall, I enjoy all the time but with only one constraint which is time zone difference.

4.            How will you improve the collaboration in future links?

I’ll choose only one topic that most interested rather than 2 topics. This may lengthen time for us to have more time to discuss and prepared for presentation. With this improvement, better work or video presentation idea may be utilized for presentation instead of using common slide presentation. 

In the term of religion, Malaysia and Russia seems to be multicultural countries and have multiracial residents. It is quite similar to Malaysia that people have their freedom to choose what they want to believe in. However, there are major differences between Malaysia and Russia in term to religion they believe in. Most of the people in Malaysia practice Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christian, Taoism and so on. But in Russia most of the people practice Orthodoxy religion (widespread religion). Basically most of them are baptized and some of them think that they have some ability to control supernatural power or become superhuman. However, they do still respect religious people.

For the discussion of life, it is an easy topic but hard to bring on discuss. People may have different thought, as one of the question I ask how do you define the meaning of life. For example if you ask a 60 years old man and asking it to a 6 years old child, their answer will definitely be different. Some of them may not understand the meaning of life well enough because they haven’t experience it. Some may choose family happiness as their center meaning of life while some may choose their career. For me the meaning of life will be living the life we wish for, with our family member around us.

 

The stereotypes of Russia culture that most troubling them is that they all drink vodka all year around every day like tea or coffee, starting with the age of 5-7 years". They DON'T. Although high alcohol consumption is a problem for our society, but it's far from being that bad. Some of them have never tasted vodka and not going too. During some celebration people usually prefer cognac or wine. The way people in their culture live and behave is the best and the only right way. Understanding that there are no good or bad ways, that they are just different and all have rights to exist can be learnt, but it's hard. It's easier to create some generalised opinion or image of another culture, which often makes it seem inferior comparing to your own. 

 

Lastly, in order to break down prejudices, we both agree that learn more about different culture before judging them, try to understand them before adding strange “tag” Sometimes strange doesn’t mean bad.

2.     
2. What did you enjoy most
during the collaborative project process?

I enjoy the time with my partner during the discussion of the
project. Although some of our opinion is different, but both of us also plan to
help people with the money we get (Our topic is If I had 1 Million). It was
interesting to know the culture of another country without going there, and we
share our photo of spending our weekend leisure time at café or outdoor
activities. 



3. What did you enjoy least
during the collaborative project process?



We discuss the project and including previous discussion
topic all thru email. This is somehow inconvenience because we have to type a
lot and waiting for partner to reply. Additional issue is the time different
between both of our country. It slows down our progress of discussion.



4. How will you improve the
collaboration in future links?



I would definitely encourage video call discussion if my
partner ok with it. Because it will make delivery of ideas become easier. 

Their normally very rare do family reunion and maybe once a year on New Year. One of the festivals that are celebrated at Russia is Maslenitsa, which symbolizes greeting the spring. On this holiday everyone bakes pancakes, so children especially love this time. Their greeting people depend on how close you are with this particular person. We kiss each other on the cheek or embrace with her close friend and just say hello with other acquaintances. As for the family, she also kisses her mother on the cheek. In Russia, people are supposed to give their sits in the underground to elderly people, pregnant women and people with children but she feel that it’s always worth it. The traditional food is milk porridge, beetroot soup and crepes with different fillings.

            When comes to our life, we always have a different opinion about a meaning of life in this world but almost the same opinion of life among all people in this world. The important that we want in our life is peace. We can achieve peace by make ourselves nearer to god. For example, we do all the good deeds and help other people when there are in trouble. We should realise that spiritual is more important materialistic because materialistic is just a temporary happiness. Setting our goal and achieving your goals also plays an important part to make our life meaningful. Without our goal, our life will be empty or lost direction because we also don’t what direction should we go in our life and we also will be lost.  As I can see, there is no difference when we want to define life between Malaysian and Russian.

Furthermore, when we say about this topic, first thing that comes to our mind is all Russian love Vodka. It is because Vodka is cheaper than water. So, now I understand why Russian love Vodka than water. I think that if I am in Russia, I also will love Vodka because its gets high and also cheaper than water. The issue is not all Russian love Vodka because there are some of them who like tequila and beer. And some, believe it or not, don’t drink at all. 

Moreover, other stereotypes that I think Russian don’t like to smile or laugh. It is because for them when they’re doing smile at stranger for being polite and their also think that it is waste of time. They also feel very weird to smile at strangers. This totally opposite with the Malaysian. Normally, we will smile at other people especially foreigners. I think Malaysian is friendlier when we compared with the Russian. But if you see in their point of view, I think they have a solid reason which is acceptable because they don’t give a fake smile especially when we give a fake smile when we want to take photograph.

I think that it is very important for us to know about stereotypes and prejudice about a people or country. At least, you must know the basic, so that there won’t be any controversial or misunderstanding occur.

                Peru is our third country that we want to Skype. It is very nice that we want to chat with South American people. First of all, Dr. Azza give us the list of our partners. I will pair with Nurul Ausah and Eric to communicate with our Russian partner, Abigail. As usual, we introduce ourselves and then, followed by Russian (Brandon, Ingrid, Jose and Abigail). When we all introduce ourselves, our partner was very silent and I thought it is difficult to communicate with her. But, luckily she is a very friendly person. The lecturer also was excited with us as we showed us many photographs of Peru life and we also showed a lot of pictures of the Malaysian life.

-          First of all, we both see the list of topics. We also don’t know what to choose. After that, we choose a topic that we both agree and can give a lot of ideas regarding the topic of “How do you define success in life”. I think this is a common topic but I also want see the similarities and difference between Malaysian and Russians. Are they having same mentality with Malaysian’s?

 

2.       What did you enjoy most during the collaborative project process?

- I think the most things that I enjoyed during the collaborative project process are when I make a new friend from Russian. It is very exciting that I have never had a foreign friend. Before this, I have tried to make a contact or want to make friend with foreign people via social media, but failed twice. Another enjoying moment, when we waited for the time when will be the another Tuesday, so that we can chat with the Russians.

 

 

3.       What do you enjoy least during collaborative project?

-No reply from your partner although, you try to contact them in any way. Our first class was        cancelled and we can’t chat or Skype with Russians. 

 

4.       How will you improve the collaborative in future links?

-I could prepare earlier about the country that we want to discuss because I did my task last minute only.  It is because I didn’t get enough information from my partner, Ekaterina Volos. May be next time I must ask frequently although, they won’t reply us back at most of time. This is to ensure that I complete the assignment on time.

          This our second week communicating with Peruvians. My partner’s name is Abigail,19 years old and she is studying at University San Ignacio de Loyola. She is studying a degree in environmental engineering. In her free time, she likes to watch series of Netflix. She also loves to painting and play gymnastics. She lives at Lima, Peru. She lives with her parents because the distance between university and her house is near. She travels to university by car. She knows 3 languages which include English, Spanish and also French. Their gastronomy is very varied and their dishes change by regions. Some of traditional dishes are Ceviche, Papa a la Huancaina, aroz con pato and arroz con pollo. 

She likes countryside more compare to city because city has a lot of traffics. In the way to thank the spirits associated with the natural forces, the benefits that grants them. Offerings buried in Mother Earth include cpca leaves(for the worldwide and the son of mediators between nature and the human) variety of cereal seeds, unprocessed silver, chichi, wine, animal, fat, sweets and huairuros (red and black seeds with symbolic and magical powers). They have festival like Fiesta del Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun) in honour of the God Inti (Quechua for "sun"), one of the most venerated deities in Inca religion. Peruvians also have a lot music festivals like Atajo de Negritos Procession.

            Religion is an important thing that decides a human path to make sure that a person always in a correct path. Religion and life is the thing that relates to each other. Life is decided by path of religion. Peruvians are given a freedom to choose their own religion when there are mature ready. The official religion of Peru is Roman Catholicism. Other religions based in Peru are other Christians, Hinduism, Buddhism and many more. Although there are different religions, they respect each other equally with equal rights. Our country official religion is Islam and followed by Chinese, Indian and Christian. For us, religion comes before science when according to Islam. It is because God who created the world. So, God is beyond anything in this world. 

What is life? Life is divided into three parts past, present and future. Once one can take control of his/her present, he gets the life. If he didn’t, he not living his life. The most important thing that people searching is peace. Because if you start to live in present, you will find peace. According to my Peruvians partner, you must have a goal in your life. If not, you will have blank and will think no point of living. We must always find happiness in non-materialistic, not materialistic. It is because materialistic is just a temporary happiness. 

The most important stereotype that happens at Peru are people who living at hill is always thought badly by that people who live at ground. According to people who live at ground, people who live at hill is dirty because they put litter everywhere. Another stereotypes are all Peruvian women are lazy, lying and if there are not do plastic surgeries, then there are not pretty. But, not all Peruvian are like that. When I see my partner, Abigail Diaz I think she is very pretty although she didn’t do surgery. It shows that not all stereotypes are true and there are unique also need surgery to make them pretty. 

Normally, Peruvian also give inequality to women. Due to Peruvians society‘s prejudice, women historically have suffered discrimination from the country’s pervasive poverty and unemployment. This shows how Peruvians women are suffering. Our country’s women are very lucky and thanks to God when we compare ourselves in Malaysia to Peruvians women. Although human rights issues affect many sectors of the population, there are some violations which are gender-based, or affect women to a greater extent due to prevailing patriarchal systems. In addition, race and class may worsen women’s position in Peruvian’s society. This was a major difference between both countries.

In my point of view, I think there will be no stereotypes and if there is only one religion, race, caste, gender and God. Most of people believe that differences create uniqueness and give benefits but, I feel very sad because difference among people that they think is unique that it creates all problems and unfairness to all people in this world. Thus, I believe that I am blessed living in Malaysia as the stereotypes are not too serious as in Peru.

Thank you.

Before this link was ended unexpectedly from Gambia, I’ve learned that creates your own pathway is a good way to live the life out and do discuss with family if encountered any hard times. 

Sorry for my link partner of unfruitful conversation.

During the video meeting, I’ve learned that most people defined their success life with financial-independent, do whatever still can, and strong belief in religion to strive through in life. In our collaborative project, we agree to choose a music that reflects our culture. We think that everybody would listen to music and music greatly unites peoples. Exchange of music meaning would definitely help us to define a thing in a more ‘open’ way and agreement on others view. 

Jacky and Alia were great partner during this link conversation, great communication skills learned from them.

Thank you and safe journey in our life. Bye. 

1.       How did you decide the theme for your collaborative project?

-As we need to choose topics as past link, we need to choose again the topics. After we all do discussion, we all choose the topic “what do most people around the world want in life by their mid-30s”. It is an interesting topic because people always say their main goals only and some person won’t share their want in their goal by age of mid-30s. By this presentation, I can know my partners goal as well as my goals and see the similarities also differences between us. 

 

2.       What did you enjoy most during the collaborative project process?

-I enjoyed most is when we talk about cultures and tradition because everyone got their own culture and tradition. May be for us, certain traditions or cultures in this world is weird for us, not for the people who follow it. For example, guinea pig festival each year. On this festival in Peru, guinea pig is dressed up and cooking the guinea pig. You all must curious how the guinea pig from dress up like king or queen and cooked for meal. Next time, we all must visit to Peru to see with our bare eyes the festival. How is the meat tasted like? Sweet and hard to chew? Maybe .

 

3.       What do you enjoy least during collaborative project?

-I get very late reply from my Peruvian partner. I think that maybe they don’t take this subject very seriously. That’s why a late reply. 

 

4.       How will you improve the collaborative in future links?

-I think we need to chat frequently and make our partner notice how important is the subject and the project.

 

 

During the preparation of our collaborative project slides, we faced a few challenges that we could not overcome. Firstly, we found it difficult to get together on a group skype on a mutual time because of the time difference of both countries and poor internet connectivity due to peak hours. Also, our ideas were put to bed as the idea to record our own versions of the song as part of the project was cut short. This was due to a time constraint on both sides and the inability to construct a joint video.

However, we completed our slides with great success and performed the project to the absolute understanding of the fellow students and professors. This was indeed a great way to bid farewell to the Peruvians and we will sorely miss them and our joint links.However, Brandon and I promised to keep in touch after this class and to share with each other ourlife's story as we head for the working world ahead of us. Thank you to Madam Dr Azza for this wonderful opportunity to be able to be selected among the best to participate in this course.

Peace out.

 

Yet, I didn’t give up on it because we are provided with the contact email of our partner. So I move on and started the conversation with my partner through email, we manage to exchange whatsapp and I personally found his facebook and made friend with him. However, things doesn’t turn out as I think, when I tried to exchange our culture with him, talked about family history and religious. When I wrote a whole long pages of our culture and send it to him via messenger hoping that his reply will opened up the door of their country culture to me, unfortunately he only replied: Wow! Your culture are way more better than mine!

 

Although it didn’t turn out well as what I think, but still, I hope next year the Gambian will improve their internet connection speed and maybe show more interest in exchanging culture part.