Monday, November 3, 2008

Final Draft: Malaysians with negative attitudes…

If you are a fan of Reader’s Digest, you may have come upon one of their articles about Kuala Lumper being the 3rd rudest cities in the world. Many Malaysians have reacted to this “accusation”, saying that the result was irrelevant. Well, for me, I would have to agree with what the Reader’s Digest had claimed. Malaysians are becoming ruder. Why did I say this? It’s because I have experienced it. This is what I have experienced not long time ago.

It was finally the beginning of the school break and I was taking a bus back to my hometown. I entered the bus, took my ticket out and checked the seat number. However, the number doesn’t match so I had to wait for the bus driver to sort the problem. While waiting for the bus driver, a man climbed onto the bus. He had some problem walking. My assumption was the man probably just recovered from a stroke because he had problem to move half part of his body.

After a while, I got my seat and comfortably sat. Suddenly, I heard some fuss at the front of the bus. There were two families arguing about bus seats. One of the families was pretty upset that their seats were taken by someone else. The family that sat in their seats was the sick man’s family. To not get confuse, I will name the first family A and the later B. One of the family A member and his relative protested saying that if he gave family B their seat than everyone would take advantage of them. They insisted that family B to give them their seats.

Then, I heard a female’s voice, “Can you see that he is sick and cannot move properly. Couldn’t you be tolerate?”. But family A refused to listen to their excuses. Suddenly the daughter (family A) butt in in the argument. She was quite young probably just finished her SPM. She said that they should follow the rule and sit in their original seat.

I feel pity for the sick man. He is sick and that’s not the way to treat a sick man. Just thinking of what he felt makes me sad. Luckily, a young lady and man gave their seats to the sick man and his wife (again my assumption) just in front of the seats that they sat.

For me, it was rude of that girl to butt in the argument since she was pretty young. Plus, talking like that is unacceptable since she was talking to someone older than her. As someone younger, you have to respect the elders. My parents have raised me up to be someone who respects people who are older than you are. Even if s/he is older a year than me. Not only was I taught to respect the elderly, I was also taught to respect everyone. If someone older than you did something unacceptable, you should address him or her in an orderly manner.

I wonder why Malaysians become rude. Is it because of the environment? Social lifestyle? In my opinion, it is due to their upbringing. Children nowadays are not taught to respect their elders. Only some parents who really teach their children to respect others. Some parents are proud that they children could be outspoken. I think being outspoken is a good thing, but you have to know to whom you are talking to and the situation.

Other than that, they also think that they will not gain anything in return by being courteous. So why do we need to do it? People have become selfish these days. They only think about themselves and refuse to care for others. They also have become more materialistic. The only think about getting what they want and forget about being nice to other people. They don’t think about others as long as they could survive.

When I was young, I remember my mother used to reprimand me about my manners. She taught me to bow when walking in front of people, don’t interrupt the elders when they are talking and mind my manners when I’m outside. However, nowadays the younger generation does not practice it anymore. I watched my younger cousins and how they behaved. When they walked in front of the elders, they did not bow their head. Furthermore, when their parents are talking, they would simply interrupt the conversation. These behaviors are very rude to me. The younger generations also does not seem to be embarrassed by their rudeness.

In other words, I felt disturbed by the girl’s behavior and that is why I agree that Malaysians are rude people. Some may say that it’s a one in a million cases and it does not really give the image of Malaysians. However, if outsiders see this one in a million cases, they will immediately classify all Malaysians rude. What they see is what they know and what they do not see is something that they do not know.

3 comments:

  1. Just one common grammatical error, maybe you have not noticed this "Couldn’t you be tolerate?" I think it should be "Couldn't you be more tolerable?" Overall you have added one more point about why Malaysians are becoming ruder. In my own perspective, I think that it is because the society is changing, most of us are no longer taught to visit other people. since we are so much taught about entertainment, we tend to be self-indulged and selfish and that is why such incident in your essay has happened in our society today. we become more individualistic, well done for the final draft anyway

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. i juz wanna highlight a few things,i know u can detect wut is missing.. ;)


    He had some problem walking.

    from reading ur draft, i could not hate the young girl that butt in as much as you do because she is not potrayed bad enough, maybe u can elaborate more on d facial expression or the way she talk,

    i think it's very important 4 u to evoke readers feeling of hatred towards d young girl character bcoz on d next paragraph u r discussing bout her rude manner


    but.. i think u have done a good job, Dont sent ur draft to readers digest or else we would be no 2nd rudest cities lak

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