9 Unspoken Rules that Every True Malaysian MUST Already Know

No matter how often we shout out ‘YOLO’ while breaking the little rules here and there, there’s always a set of rules that we live by, and that ladies and gentlemen is called ‘the unspoken rules of Malaysians’. These rules are embedded so deep into our Malaysian culture that we hardly have to ever mention them out loud.

So here’s the 9 unspoken rules that every Malaysian lives by! See how many of these you follow!

1.  Always leave your number when you double park

Malaysians are pretty tolerant people. It’s ok if you block my exit, but please lah! At least leave your number for me to call you so you can move your car!

And when I DO call you, make sure you answer!!

2. Do not eat in front of Muslim brothers and sisters during Ramadan

When your Muslim friends are fasting, you just don’t whip out a cakoi and yank off a huge chunk in front of them. That’s disrespectful.

Instead, you retreat to the shadows first and enjoy your snack where they can’t see you.

If anything, you can always upright ask them whether it’s okay to eat infront of them (most of the time it’s ok anyway). It’s all about courtesy guys!

3. Before going to tapao, ask everyone first whether they want something 

“Guys, anyone wants keropok lekor? I’m goin’ to tapao.”

Because we’re all nice like that right?

4. After coming back from tapao-ing, pretend to offer it to everyone, even though earlier everyone said ‘donwan’

…because when they see you walking through the door with food in your hand:

While you’re glad sharing, your heart actually aches real bad because they are taking your share, especially when it comes to food :'( WHY YOU GUYS SAY DON’T WANT JUST NOW!??

5. When friends say meet at 9pm, deep down you KNOW that they meant 9.30pm

“On the way bro, just now my car broke down but now suddenly can start dy, don’t know why.” 

It’s a typical Malaysian rule of thumb that for any time a friend sets, it always means the standard 15-30 minutes later. So you gotta adjust it yourself according to your friend’s punctuality lah!

6. The iconic Malaysian hand gesture when someone slows down for you to cross the road

Thank you boss!

7. Always offer things more than once because Malaysians will decline it the first time

The first ‘don’t want la‘ is usually because Malaysians feel paiseh aka shy, but try asking them for one more time and they will reveal their true colour.

8. You refer to elderly strangers as your relatives

…because that’s how Malaysians roll!

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know that person, we call people “uncle”, “aunty”, “pak cik”, “mak cik”, “bang”, “kak”, as we please!

Say it with the right friendly tone and you might just get away with a free ais kosong at the mamak stall!

9. When watching television, parents are the ones who call the shots, not you

…and don’t even think about reaching for the remote control, coz parents will be like:

And you’ll only make them angrier if you argue with them. They’ll only come up with typical Asian parents answer such as, “I raise you up for 20 years, and this is what I get back in return???”

While we all know the pain of being shut down from watching the TV programmes we want, at least you can be rest assured as Astro has the option to catch your favourite shows and movies on demand. What’s more, it’s FREE for all Astro subscribers with Wi-Fi connected PVR!

And since almost all of us have an Astro subscription, you better take advantage of this function now! No need pay extra for subscriptions nor get infected with virus when you illegally watch stuff online man!

With all the new movies and TV shows updated daily, you will be spoilt for choice!

The best part is, your favorite TV drama will be up within 24 hours it is released in other countries – including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Empire, The Voice and more! No more waiting or accidentally seeing spoilers on Facebook!

And I kid you not, you’ll be blessed with the superpower to decide what you want to watch, and when you want to watch it.

Having insomnia at 3.00am? Watch on demand! Lazy weekend at home? Turn on the TV to watch on demand. And you won’t have to worry that there’s nothing to watch, because you can choose from a HUGE range movies and TV shows.

Is this too much power for a person to bear? 

You know what this means right? 

You don’t have to rush through the insane traffic to get home after work just to catch your TV drama, because now you can summon a week’s worth of TV dramas and watch them in one go! You can also binge on complete boxsets of your favourite TV shows such as The Walking Dead and more. Organise the perfect binge watch marathon weekend with your friends and family!

And the news just keep getting better! Because the winner of 6 Oscar Awards, La La Land will be exclusively showing on demand from 25th April to 31st May 2017, FREE for Astro subscribers!

So guys, prep yourselves for amazing catch-up time with your favourite shows and movies! How do you get started? It’s really simple! Just pick up your Astro remote, press the “Home” button and select “On Demand” to explore!

For more info, check it out here.