4. You call no one by their actual name. The waiter is a ‘boss’. Any older man or older woman is simply ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’. Because of this, you never know your friends’ parents’ names.
5. You watch TV shows from at least four foreign countries, usually including Korean dramas, Hong Kong TVB series, Venezuelan telenovelas, British comedy series, American reality TV, and Indonesian soap operas.
6. You learned to play the recorder in primary school. To this day, you are still waiting for the moment to showcase your musical ‘talent’.
7. You run on Malaysian timing. You’re never punctual and you’re always ‘on the way’. This is accepted because no other Malaysian would ever arrive on time anyway.
8. Your undying commitment to food means you’re willing travel the distance for the best eats. A 2-hour drive for your favourite asam laksa is no big deal.
9. Your undying commitment to food: Part II. You plan your meals during a different meal. Lunches are planned at breakfast, dinners at lunch, and suppers at dinners.
10. Your undying commitment to food: Part III. Local food is the national pride and you get very opinionated when it comes to The Great Debate of Malaysian food vs Singaporean food. Friendships have known to be severed because of this.
11. You’re multilingual and mix a few languages into one sentence. The infamous sentence of “Wei macha, you want to makan here or tapau?’ contains 4 languages (English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil) and even that ends up somehow involving food. 