My first Toastmasters speech in USA. :)
Not many people in USA know about Malaysia. So, my speech was considered "informative" to them. Though we don't really talk about weather back in Malaysia, weather is a big hit here. If you don't know what is a safe topic to talk to any strangers, you just need to talk about the weather because everyone share the same thought about the temperature and the rain.
XXX
For many years, people outside of Malaysia thought that Malaysians live on trees. So the question here, do we really live on trees? Yes, I live on a tree in Malaysia.
Our tree houses in the city are at least 50 feet tall. Usually, a few hundreds of people live inside a concrete tree together. In the middle of the trunk, there is always a pulley system, which carries us up and down of the tree because we hate sweating. As the average temperature in the country is at the high 80, our tree house is always equipped with many ceiling fans and air conditioners. Then, what happened when we are outside of the house? Our car, our workplace, our restaurants and our malls have air conditioning 247. Most of the time, Malaysians try to avoid the sun as much as possible, especially the ladies because being fair is the trend in Malaysia. For me, it is really difficult to fight against the genetic inheritance. I just have to accept the fact that I would never transform like Micheal Jackson.
Thus, no ordinary Malaysian will exclaim in joy for a sunny day like my counterpart from San Jose. His name is Antoine. Habitually, Antoine and his fellow colleagues enjoyed taking a stroll around the San Jose company compound after lunch. So, when Antoine came visiting us at Malaysia three years ago, he could not resist the so-called beautiful weather. He insisted to take a walk outdoor in the noon even though no one was too keen to accompany him. After five minutes, Antoine came through the door. The back of his shirt was soaked with sweat. He said to us, “I have never appreciated the air conditioner as much as I do now. Phew.” Later on, someone must have informed Antoine that the average humidity level of Malaysia is about 90% because I have never seen him leaving his table after lunch anymore.
Besides the high temperature and high humidity, Malaysia also has high rainfall. The average rainfall is approximately 120 inches per year. As the heavy rain occurs frequently, we always go everywhere with umbrellas at the reach of our hands. When Antoine was inside my car, he saw a few of my golf umbrellas. So, he commented, “How fun it is to live in a country that you can do golf all year long!” Right after his comment, we were dumbfounded. 4 out of the 4 Malaysians inside the car have never played golf before. Golf is an exclusive game only for the rich among the riches in Malaysia. But, Antoine did not seem to notice the silent moment. He went on saying, “For the weather here, it is essential to play golf under these umbrellas.” Then, everyone just burst out laughing for half a minute. Of course, we did explain to him the purpose of the umbrellas. We just love the huge coverage of the umbrella under the rain.
There is really no distinctive seasons in Malaysia. There are certain months in the year that we get more rainfall due to the South-west and North-east monsoons. We normally claim those periods of the year as the raining seasons. However, Malaysians never let the weather impact their life by staying prepared all the time. During one of the weekends in his visit, Antoine went for a hiking with us. None of the locals checked the weather forecast. Halfway towards the peak, the sky started pouring. Everyone just pulled out their rain ponchos, except Antoine because the weather forecast told Antoine that it should be a sunny day.