According to Scollon, "When people communicate they often don't say what they mean and don't mean what they say"
The quote above is very related with Malay cultures. Since we were young our parents taught us to never accept anything from anyone. We mean in a good way, ahha. For example when we were small we followed our mother to their friend's house, they are going to offer drinks
to their guests. And as a guest, when they offered our mother a drink, our mother will refuse it in the first place. And when they insisted to still get a drink for us, by then our mother will accept the offer. So can you relate with the quote
Basically in Malay cultures, we are not going to ask for a drink when we go to someone's house even that time we are very thirsty. This is because of the culture we were born in. Interesting isn't it?
In western culture, if they offer us something and we refuse to take it. They won't asking it again but different with Malay culture, when someone offers us something, we refuse to accept it, they will keep asking it over again until we say yes. We know this is a politeness we have to show to the people. Thus, for us when people communicate they often don't say what they mean and don't mean what they say has positive and negative side. But from the example we gave, We think that's positive act. Heee we love our culture 
Thank you.
Authors : Weeya & Hana
Assalam Weeya & Hana!
ReplyDeleteWe believe it is not only refusing drinks, but also any kind of food, generally. The Malay saying, 'malu-malu kucing' (as shy as a cat) describes this situation best, don't you think? Another close example we could think of is when you see a friend munching on something delicious your mouth starts watering. But, unless that friend offers you the food, you are determined to keep quiet and suffer internally. Of course, this depends on the closeness with that friend, too. :)