UniMAP International Students Thrilled to Attend Malay Culture and Homestay Programme

Jitra, 29 May – The Malay Culture and Homestay Programme involving 22 Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) mobility students from Walailak University, Thailand, and three UniMAP international students from Yemen, Egypt and Jordan was carried out together with the Kampung Pulau Pisang village community here recently.

The program which was organised by UniMAP Centre for International Languages (CIL) is a Malay cultural programme that incorporates UniMAP international students with the residents of Kampung Pulau Pisang.

The three-day two-night programme was intended to introduce Malay culture to international students as well as to forge ties between UniMAP and the village community.

25 students were divided among six foster families in Kampung Pulau Pisang to provide them the opportunity to experience traditional Malay food and games.

According to UniMAP CIL Director Prof Dr. Harshita Aini Haroon, the traditional activities and practices at the Malaysian village would be capable of promoting Malaysia to the international community through the sharing of photos and videos uploaded to their social media accounts.

“Various activities that were undertaken by the international UniMAP students and their foster families, such as traditional Malay pastry baking, weaving palas leaves into ketupat and sampling the ketupat they cooked with the aid of their foster families.

“Besides dining on cassava with chilli anchovies, the UniMAP international students also participated in a duck catching game and a playing ball at the rice fields. The highlights of the activities were a fishing and a tin slingshot competitions,” he said in a statement here recently.

He said that additionally these programmes not only benefits the students but would also promote Malaysian culture to the international students and help them acclimatise to the country.

“All foster families were also given donations in the form of sundry goods in conjunction with the coming of Ramadan,” he said.