Holiday? What Holiday?!

This is the time of the year when lecturers in our university return from leave and go back to the trenches to continue the long, hard struggle for the hearts and minds of the youth of Malaysia. In other words, it's the start of a new semester.

I've just had a nice long two month break during which I've been doing the work which I enjoy most - research. Nice quiet days in my lovely air-conditioned office writing articles, sipping 3-in-one coffee and feeling the swivel-chair beneath me groan ominously every time I change my seating position.

And not a student in sight!!

As well as the chance to catch up on scholarship, semester breaks in Malaysia offer numerous educational opportunities for those unfortunate (or workaholic) lecturers who haven't taken their holidays. During this recent break, I have attended workshops on a wide plethora of topics including Photoshop, Bloom's Taxonomy and How to be a Consultant. Better than sitting around in my office doing nothing anyway!! And I may have even learned something!!

And, apart from research and workshops, there are other delights to keep us hard-nosed academics busy. Firstly, meetings. Lots and lots of them. And in Malaysia, they are always accompanied by food (as are the workshops!). So the tummy starts to take on the aspect of a fair-sized hill!

As well as meetings there are other activities. For instance, the other day I was the judge in a public speaking competition among the lecturers. Being one of two native English speakers in our university, judging speaking competitions or debates is a regular gig for me. I don't mind, actually, because it is nice to be useful….

As well as all this, I'm in the Toastmasters (I think I'll say something about this in a future post) and I also look after the Debate Club, as well as editing our campus academic journal. Oh, and I sometimes go to conferences too!

So I'm not exactly making bum-prints on the sands of time during the semester breaks!!

All this inactivity gives me ample time to reflect on the culture of my host country, especially with regard to language. Malaysians, just like everyone else on this planet, like to greet each other with fixed, culture-bound expressions that don't carry much meaning, but are intended merely to maintain human relations. Linguists call this 'phatic communion' and examples might be the English obsession with talking about the weather.

Well here in Malaysia, I have encountered three common phatic expressions used by university lecturers.

The first one is used around 4 o'clock to 4.30 in the afternoon or thereafter. 4.30 pm is the traditional Malaysian Civil Service clocking-out time. It works like this - you're walking along the corridor and one of your colleagues greets you in passing with the question "going back?"

"Going back" means "are you going home?" or perhaps "aren't you going home yet"? Well, I used to interpret this as something of an insult, as my working day finishes at 6 - a throwback to my life-long Protestant Work Ethic. The Malaysian Civil Service may finish at 4.30, but this particular workaholic expatriate officer still has things to do!!

But, of course, as I have been slowly acculturated, I have learned to take this not as an insult, or as an entreaty to clock off early, but as a simple piece of phatic camaraderie. Maybe my colleagues are concerned that I'm not spending enough time with my family!

The second phatic example always occurs around lunchtime. When I don't bring sandwiches to work, I run down to the Kedai Koperasi (co-operative store) on campus to buy myself something. Usually, it's something naughty or fattening as there isn't very much nutritious stuff on offer. So I don't want to let anybody see what I'm carrying, and I scurry guiltily back to my office as quickly as I can so that I can devour my sinful prize in peace.

But inevitably, I run into one of my dear colleagues who will almost always say something like "is that your lunch?" To a Malaysian, anything short of a humongous bowl of fried rice or noodles and chicken or laksa (a local fiery prawn curry) is just not lunch.

So seeing this poor starving (overweight and sweating) orang puteh (white man) carrying a pathetic plastic bag containing one little burger and a can of sprite is just not right. So my colleagues let me know how utterly wrong this is by asking me "is that your lunch?"

At least, that's my side of the story, anyway.

Finally, then, there is one more piece of phatic frolicking which only occurs during semester breaks. And it happens anywhere, any time, whenever I bump into one of my local colleagues.

And it is this: almost everyone, without fail, will invariably ask me if I am taking leave! This has become something of a pantomime, which runs something like this:

Colleague: Not taking your leave yet?
Me: Not yet. I'm saving it up for the Hari Raya (end-of-Ramadan festival)

Or:

Colleague: Not taking your leave?
Me: No, I've got so many things to do…

So I feel like I need to explain to them why I am not on holiday, and if I do so, I might appear arrogant or showy.

But, it's OK - because one of the great things about Malaysians, no matter what race they are, is that they are very family-oriented. So there is probably a hidden, but good-natured rebuke in the above exchanges, which implies "come on, relax, spend some time with your family!"

So now the students are pouring back and classes are starting, I will probably wish I had taken some leave, or gone home at 4.30, or taken a good hearty lunch. After all, what's more important: working like a horse till you drop dead, or being with your family?

Given recent events, I think I know which one I will choose….