In this blog, We are going to share our regular knowledge exchange session about “Studying and living in Malaysia” by Thi Han Soe.
We do knowledge exchange sessions for our openfor.co/fellowship community members regularly. We did the following knowledge exchange session On Sep 25th 2021, 6:30-7:30PM JST time. Check out for event details in this ink.
This blog covers the following topics :
Speaker, Thi Han Soe Profile
Places he lived in
About His university
About Malaysia
Why we should study in Malaysia
Climate and food in Malaysia
Festivals and holidays in Malaysia
FAQ from Webinar Attendees
Please check out for more details in the following video or in the following blog.
1. Speaker, Thi Han Soe Profile
An engineering student studying in Malaysia for his bachelor’s degree
Been living as a nomad for a few years also resided in local landmark cities
Worked as General Secretary of Association of International Students at Petronas University of Technology
Working as a Planning intern at Openfor.co
2. Places He Lived in
He has lived in a few foreign countries like India and China for more than three years in each, he has also traveled to a lot of foreign places like Canada, and even in Myanmar, he has lived in a few different towns including Yangon, Mandalay and small town which is Malai located in rural region.
3. About His University
He’s now studying at the University of Technology Peteronas which is located in Peninsular Malaysia. The university is actually owned by Petronas which is one of the Fortune 500 companies. It is a National Oil and Gas Company of Malaysia. The university is currently the number one first private university in Malaysia. And their campus is considered as the most beautiful campus in East Asia. They offer mainly engineering and business courses, engineering courses. It varies from so many different specific majors such as geophysics, or applied Chemistry, applied physics and geology to petroleum engineering, etc.
4. About Malaysia
It has become an education hub in Southeast Asia, because the government has been investing so much money in their education sector. Before that, in Southeast Asia, when we talk about education, destination, usually Singapore pops up in your mind. But the Malaysian education industry is also developing very fast. And I believe in a few years it might be on the same level or it might even be exceeding the current educational level of Singapore. In Malaysia, they have their own well known brand universities because when he thinks about Singapore, they have their famous universities, such as a Singapore national university or the MTU and maybe the SIM or something like that. Then in Malaysia, they have their own brands, such as University of Malaya, which is also in the top 50 universities worldwide.In this year, he listed a few universities, a few Malaysian universities, and all of them are within the top 500 universities world ranking in the US. We also have some international university branches in Malaysia such as Carsten Deer from Australia and the University of Nottingham from the UK.
5. Why We Should Study in Malaysia
No language barrier
The main reason will be the no language barrier. He believes that when one decides to study abroad, he/she has a certain specific proficiency in English so apart from that you don't need to learn any other language for example if you are going to study in Korea, you might have to invest maybe like six months, eight months to study basic Korean but then to move to Malaysia you don't really need to study any other language. And don’t worry ! Malaysians use broken English so they will not laugh at your broken English either.
Culture diversity
It is not much different from Myanmar. We have similar food, similar dresses and similar mindset. So there's actually not that much culture shock when we came here but then again, Malaysia is also a very diverse community, a diverse community with so many local ethnic groups. As well as Malaysia becoming the hub for all others so many foreign nationalities for example If you travel to Kuala Lumpur, you will see so many people from Central Asia, from France. And you will also find a lot of people from different Asian countries. So, it has a very diverse ethnicity and culture at the same time, you don't really feel that much cultural shock.
Living expenses in Malaysia
Living expenses are extremely cheap in Malaysia. Even if you live and study in Kuala Lumpur, the living expenses are half price cheaper than studying in Singapore. And if you choose a university, like where he is studying right now, it is extremely cheap, like for one semester, he might just have to pay something like 150 USD. So it is really cheap. Yes, because of living expenses, he spends less money in Malaysia right now than when he was studying in Mandalay. So it's really cheap, and food are also really cheap.,
Requirements to attend Malaysia universities
So usually, when you're going to study in the US, or UK, it's kind of complicated because they don't really want to accept the Myanmar matriculation system. But in Malaysia, the good thing is mostly all their universities have their own foundation program. And you can easily get accepted into their foundation program for one year. And after that, after that you can be enrolled in their undergraduate program. When he came to Malaysia, he also started from the foundation year.
Close distance
The distance is Malaysia really close to Myanmar which is really good because not at the current situation in Myanmar but during normal times, even the return ticket from Malaysia to Myanmar only cost around like 100 USD if you buy early.
Job opportunities
The job opportunities are also very good because a lot of his seniors who graduated from his university are working in Malaysia right now. So compared to like Singapore, where they're very populated and it's really kind of hard to get a job in Singapore. But in Malaysia, you can easily get a job. If you're choosing a university, it's better to choose a trend, a university that is practicing the trimester system. For example, in his university right now, they're using a trimester system which means you have really less pressure on you for example, right now he has like three hours of class time a day, sometimes it's five hours of class time a day. So the maximum is five hours. Sometimes it's just like two hours, three hours. You don't really need to spend much time attending lectures, you can use most of your time doing your own stuff watching Netflix or anything else.
5. Climate and food in Malaysia
The climate in Malaysia has tropical weather which is like throughout the whole year. There is rain and if it is not raining, it's quite hot. The temperature is around 21 to 32 degrees Celsius. So when you're planning to study in Malaysia, you make sure you pack up clothes and also the umbrella.
The food in Malaysia is also very famous because it has very diverse styles of cooking. Like we have Indian, Chinese, Malay, Arabic, Western food is quite popular here. So when you go around Malaysia you will find restaurants of different cultures and different nationalities.
6. Festivals and Holidays in Malaysia
Since it is a country with diversity, ethnicity and cultural beliefs. They celebrate so many festivals such as Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Wesak, Thaipusam and accordingly we have so many holidays in Malaysia like twice as much as most of the countries in SouthEast Asia. HariRaya is quite a famous festival in Malaysia which is for the Musilims and it is for the Eid festival.
7. FAQ from Webinar Attendees
Q1 : What are the average expenses of living in Malaysia?
Ans : The basic necessities for food and other stuff are not very expensive in Malaysia, only slightly different from Myanmar. You can spend about 9000mmks or 5$ per day for a decent rice and curry food plan. If you are planning to stay for a long term, you have an option to rent an apartment where you can share with your friends, so the expenses of living are quite cheap too.
Q2 : Why are the University(ies) in Malaysia named “Universiti” end with “SITI”?
Ans : Malaysia has adopted English words into their own language. For example, University is “Universiti” and Technology is “Teknologi” in Malaysian.
Q3 : Is it hard to get into International Universities in Malaysia?
Ans : The chances of getting into International Universities are harder than private universities in Malaysia. Example : Monash University, Curtin University.
Q4 : Why did you choose Malaysia?
Ans : Malaysia is very similar to Myanmar in Environment, Culture and Diversity. The living expenses are also low and there are loads of job opportunities.
Q5 : Do you have any trouble with the climate of Malaysia?
Ans : Malaysia has tropical weather. The temperature is from 21 to 32 Celsius. There are only two seasons, the dry season and rainy season. It is convenient to live in Malaysia.
Q6 : How is dating life in Malaysia?
Ans : Malaysians are mostly muslims who are very conservative, and the couples aren’t really allowed to have physical contact in public areas. Otherwise, people will look down on them.
Feel Free to Comment if you have any questions!
If you have any questions about Internships and Work Experiences in Malaysia as an international student, or if you are curious about the application procedure at Malaysia schools and universities, feel free to comment below. We will try to reply to your questions by asking as much as possible. If you have any webinar title you like to hear from, comment below too.
We only open this knowledge exchange session to our openfor.co/fellowship fellowship members for their interest titles by inviting relevant speakers. If you like to join our openfor.co/fellowship community, please check out our social Media Openfor.co/fellowship social media pages Facebook , Linkedin and youtube.
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