Reflection of Self - Global Mindset

During one of our final meetings, we had to assess and evaluate our Global Mindset. I scored pretty high 155 out of the maximum 160. The Questionnaire consisted of four sections; Intellectual Capital, Psychological Capital (Cultural Sensitivity), Psychological Fortitude and Social Capital. I now realize that this is one of the strengths that I can bank on.

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In our final class with Dr Rosmini, we learnt that we need all three, the social capital, intellectual and psychological capital & fortitude. All three aspects can be developed by reading, or other ways to gain new knowledge such as listening to podcasts or TED talks, immersing yourself in new cultures and experiences, and develop your Emotional Quotient (EQ). 

Heritage

One our classmates, Ameh Francis mentioned that sometimes when we have inferiority complex, we might be having reverse racism. I have to say I agree, in that we shouldn't look down on ourselves, just because we are a certain race or colour, in fact we have to be proud of our heritage. The way to overcome this is to read more about history, to know your roots. For example Malays were seafarers who travelled far and wide and we even have Malay settlements as far as Cape Town to the west (Cape Malays), up north in Cambodia (Melayu Cham) and even a small community in Australia.  

Global Nomad

I started my life abroad, I was born in Australia, my family moved back to Malaysia where we moved several times in Malaysia (Terengganu, Perak and Kuala Lumpur). We then went to live in England, then Scotland. I came back and was in boarding school (MRSM). I still travelled to the UK during my semester holidays. 

Having the International Experience at home.  

Since my family came back to Malaysia, I continued my studies here even though I received scholarship offers to study abroad (US). I stayed in Malaysia an attended International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and later Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS), University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Kuala Lumpur Campus for my Masters. 

In both universities, we received an international experience as we had people from all over the world studying at our university with us. In IIUM they were mostly Muslims from various countries. I loved the food when we visit our main campus in Gombak. In my current batch in AHIBS about 40% of my batch are from PR of China, another 40% are from the Middle East, leaving us the Malaysians in the minority.  

Well, if you can't go abroad, bring them to you!

Broadening Horizons

Beijing, China. I attribute my high scored to my upbringing abroad and later on, my frequent travels for leisure. Before the pandemic, I always made sure I travelled once a year abroad. I am lucky to have had the chance to travel a lot. Travelling on a tight budget means a lot of diligent planning, travelling domestically and mainly involving the ASEAN region. We would book cheap travel packages during travel fairs months in advance such as this trip to Beijing where I visited the Great Wall of China. 

It was during a short Merdeka break holiday and we met fellow Malaysians who even brought a Jalur Gemilang to the Great Wall. It was a wonderful moment as we had Malay, Chinese and Indian together in the picture!    

Siem Reap, Cambodia. I also had the chance to go to Cambodia, we visited Angkor Wat and befriended a friendly monk. He became our translator for the play we went to as it fully in their local language. I was curious how a safron robed monk could speak such good English, it turns out he was actually a banker and was doing his masters in Finance. He was actually on a holiday break and went back to his village. 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Later, I was very fortunate to be offerenced the chance to go on a short course to Healthcare City, Dubai, UAE for work related training. The instructor was Aladin Niazmand, who was an architect and expert in health facilities, he was very nice and taugh us who was a mixed bunch of engineers, architects from various countries such as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, India, Jordan, Egypt, Ethiopia and Russia.    

It was great to meet other people from different countries and we could how people in different countries worked, we exchanged ideas and I greatly benefited from the course. It was also a good networking sessions to get to know everyone. 

Aladin handing me the Completion Certificate.