The Art of Welcoming

Hospitality is the art of making people feel at home, especially when they are far from home. Hospitality has become a major industry in many countries. In more recent times, home-stay has become a popular way of visiting a country and getting to know the people and culture of the country.

When travelling abroad, I have always enjoyed getting a glimpse of how locals live. Sometimes this is difficult due to language barriers, but new ways of communicating through apps are starting to overcome barriers. But the best way to overcome language barriers is still to learn languages.

I have been teaching English to hospitality students for some years now. They are a pleasure to teach. I always tell my students that the best way to learn a language is to practise speaking at every opportunity.

This summer as in other years, my students had the opportunity to welcome foreign visitors to West Malaysia though they are from Sabah in East Malaysia. The culture in East Malaysia has its own unique features which are different from the culture in West Malaysia, but the differences make Malaysian culture richer as a whole.

The students organised a Malaysian night for visitors from many countries, including Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and Vietnam. They prepared a festive meal and gave a presentation on interesting places to visit, festivals, popular local dishes, traditional sports and games. They also taught useful phrases in Malay and some Malay slang. The cultural evening ended with an introduction to traditional dances and songs. The aim was to create an enjoyable cultural evening and to give their guests a taste of the Malaysian welcome. They succeeded!

Learning culture through food is one of the most enjoyable ways. Food has a way of bringing people together and creating lasting memories. We wanted to share some of the memories in this blog post.