When they talk to you (especially foreigners), they will usually ask if you are from Singapore. They can tell from the slang.

Then you just clarify you are from Malaysia (give cities' description like KL, Penang etc. is also fine)

Nothing negative about "country of origin", some foreigners may think you come from China as well haha.

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It's not half eaten... I mean buffet spread, very large buffet for events like conference, talks etc. There will be separate utensils for participants of those events and separate serving spoons for each tray of food. So there is no contact between your utensils and other people's utensils.

Of course for smaller events bentos will be provided instead of buffet.

You don't have to keep the food for months. My 43L refrigerator (which I turn into a freezer, since the food will spoil easily, I turn freeze the food so that it can last for weeks) can store about 22 boxes of food (plastic container of 600-800 ml each). With 2 boxes of food a day, my inventory can last about 10-11 days.

I follow the FIFO (first-in-first-out) inventory management principle to manage my food. Always eat the oldest dated food first, then clean the food container and use it to store new food (if available). The new food stored is then eaten last.

Here are some photos of my "freezer":

https://imgur.com/a/JzN4Xve

Well, I can only tell you what I’ve heard secondhand, since my Master degrees were from (1) NUS and not NTU and (2) at Masters level, I ain’t got time for extracurricular activities since I was also working full time at the hospital…

So, hearsay, some say, anyhow say, the biggest K is to be found in the FASS (Arts and Social Sciences)… that’s probably where you’ll have the right ratio of genders too.

All the best bro, and happy hunting.

It’s a common enough question and an often enough icebreaker to be asked the “where are you from” question.

I didn’t experience it when I was studying in Australia because I assimilated so well (it helped that my residential hall had only 3 Asian boys) and I sounded like a local after 2 weeks, apart from certain less commonly used words which I learnt quickly enough.

Funnily, that became my established English accent and I got questioned multiple times when I was studying and taking my specialist exams in the UK. The examiners couldn’t comprehend why this decidedly Asian looking boy would have such a strong Sydney accent. Same thing when I did my fellowship there - and I used it to to my advantage to break the ice and make new friends.

An interesting anecdote on this aspect - my wife and I were on Safari in Kruger National Park and we took a detour to the Zimbabwe/Zambia border to ride the ultralight planes over Mosi Oa Tunya (Victoria Falls). We were there with my classmate and his family, who flew in from Sydney via Singapore, and we were having a chat while waiting our turn to go on the ultralight.

There were these 2 Australians in front of us in the line and one of them turned around to face me and greeted me with a “Good Day, mate, fellow Aussie here. Can’t help but overhear your accent. Inner West Sydney eh?” I suppressed a chuckle and said “Good ear, mate, good ear” and he seemed really chuffed with himself, telling his friend that not only could he distinguish an Australian accent, he could pinpoint it down to the suburb (apparently he lives in the suburb next to mine).

After they got on the ultralights, my wife and I, together with my classmate and his family, burst out laughing.

So yeah, accents can be a great icebreaker.