I think it's the living environment in Malaysia generally rather than the education system specifically. Generally "street smarts" is inversely related with family income levels. The homeless kids in Mumbai or Jakarta have a helluva lot of "street smarts". They definitely went to the "school of hard knocks".

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Added on March 17, 2010, 9:22 pmI think you will find that Malaysian kids (especially those not living in dialect dominant towns like Ipoh or Penang) are becoming more like Singaporean kids. They tend to gravitate towards speaking Mandarin exclusively.

My dad spoke 6 or 7 Chinese dialects, in addition to English and BM of course. Me, I only managed to pick up Cantonese because that was what my parents spoke at home and my friends at school. My nephews today don't speak Cantonese (although they understand it), only English and BM. The couple of my nephews who go to Chinese schools speak Mandarin to their mum (also Chinese ed), and English to their dad and me. None of my father's descendants have picked up any of his dialects.

It's a sad situation, but irreversible as Mandarin steadily chokes off dialects.

This post has been edited by seantang: Mar 17 2010, 09:22 PM

That's the good thing? You sure have a warped sense of achievement.

When you have kids, I suggest not even sending them to school. Just drop them off in the jungle with some pampers and a penknife, and they will come back to you 18 years later as strong as Tarzan and as smart as Einstein. Apparently, from your logic, the less nurturing that children get - the better they will turn out.

Seriously, I'm still don't see how this is better than actually getting a decent education in a proper schooling system.

I went to a pretty good school in Malaysia. My teachers were generally well trained and relatively dedicated, I only went to tuition in Form 3-5, and for 3 subjects only. I never experienced any "nothing could kill u, just makes u stronger" situation in school... but I really don't think I have any shortcomings when handling any nasty situations - compared to people whose schooldays were "more independent of school".

This post has been edited by seantang: Mar 18 2010, 12:14 AM

Ooooo.... them's fighting words

Chess gal's right. Concentrate on your studies. If you do really, really well in your degree... you can consider London or New York rather than Singapore, if your first love is banking.

Recommend what?

Personality - definitely.

Language ie. communication skills - of course.

Extra curricular activities - .... hmmm, not really. Not when I assess a candidate anyway. The only exception is when you did something really spectacular or at a national (at least state) level. And you have to show that your exceptional ECA was not at the cost of your academic results eg. you were a state badminton player but you still scored a first class in your degree.

Not the other way around ie. you got a pass degree with low GPA but you had very impressive ECAs. All that tells me is that you don't know what your priorities are.

A lot of it is gut feel. There's only so much you can glean from a 30 minute or 1 hour interview. And you can expect the candidate to be on his best behaviour.

But we usually do panel interviews as well as multiple stage interviews with people of different functions/nationalities and varied levels of seniority. Everybody's feedback is collected and we usually arrive at a pretty good consensus of a candidate's personality. Special consideration is given to the hiring manager's assessment of personal rapport ie. whether he can work with the individual or not. Last thing you want is to hire an obvious personality clash.

And every interviewer will have his own little pet peeves and preferences, and how he interprets those factors as "personality and character". My personal deal-breaker during an interview is timidness or an unwillingness to stand up for yourself.

What do you mean job recommendation?

Do you want people to suggest suitable jobs (career advice) or recommend vacancies?

First lesson of asking for help/advice... be specific about what you want and provide details. You should learn from tennisgal.

Nope, never been asked this question. Never heard of anyone else being asked this question too.

There have been millions of Malaysians working in Singapore over the years. You are certainly not the first, and definitely not the first one the Singaporean interviewers have interviewed.

Really... Malaysians working in Singapore are not such a big mystery. I have to meet any Singaporeans who don't know why Malaysians work there (or other nationalities for that matter).

This post has been edited by seantang: Mar 22 2010, 01:05 PM

No, no declaration necessary.

The receiving bank on the Malaysian side has a Bank Negara form they need to complete for funds transfers above RM100K into Malaysia. The last time I did it, the Malaysian bank called to ask about the purpose of my transfer. I said it was for my parents living expenses because I like to be a good son one big chunk at a time. The bank officer was satisfied with that and assured me it was for statistical purposes only.

No.

No. Foreign sourced income is not taxed in Malaysian when it is repatriated into Malaysia.

As above, if you can show the balance is due to foreign funds, you should have no problem.

And having said that, I've never actually seen anyone being questioned about their bank account balances. Most of the time when it happens, the tax dept is already investigating that person based on a tip-off, other redflags etc. As far as I know, nobody monitors your bank account balances.

If you feel you must accept the bond, you should ask the firm to put into the contract a guaranteed salary increase of... let's say 10% each year and 1 or 2 months guaranteed bonus (on top of the 13 month salary), for 3 years as long as you remain under bond.

Therefore, if they still want to employ you, but don't want to give you a 10% increment - they must release you from the bond.

Otherwise, they can force you work 6 months at 2000 and 2.5 years at 2200, with no bonus. This is like indentured labour.

This post has been edited by seantang: Mar 22 2010, 09:35 PM

$99 a month is a lot to spend on a phone bill. I used to spend $24 per month with 160 free IDD minutes (Starhub Powercall with 30% corp individual discount).

Seriously, I don't understand limiting yourself to $10 a day on food but spending $99 on a phone bill. Perhaps call less, eat better.

Cheaper than where?

Best Japanese food I've had is at Kuriya. First time I've ever had fugu. It's not cheap though, so it's best if the company's paying for it.

Kuriya Penthouse, Orchard Central

Looking for a job can be very stressful. So, get enough sleep and drink more water.

Depends whether people like your designs,.. no?

Looks like the rental market must be heating up. Even my super lenient landlord called me up to increase my rental by 20% starting from next month. Having said that, my rental has remained the same for the last 3 years.

1300. AMK.

Of course not house lah. 2 bedroom hdb.

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Added on March 25, 2010, 8:50 am
I don't get to buy HDB... so it's a moot point. It's still much cheaper than servicing a 500,000 to 1,000,000 loan for a private condo.

This post has been edited by seantang: Mar 25 2010, 08:51 AM