Cultural Diversity: An Overview

The reason why I was interested in writing a research paper on the differences between Iranian culture and Malaysian culture, stemmed from one of my experiences in the university. As a foreign student, I witnessed some of these differences, but the one, which surprised me more than the others, was the learners' behaviours in class, when lecturer came into the class. In Iran, all the students stand up when the lecturer comes into the class, but, in Malaysia, nobody stands up. One day, some of Iranian students and I sat in front row in the class. When the lecturer entered the class, all of us stand up at the same time, as we do in Iran. But, she was scared and stepped back. Her strange reaction encouraged me to do a research. The present study reflects some different cultural patterns. Since, there are many Iranian students in Malaysia, understanding these differences seem essential. The sample for this research was selected availability. Some Malaysian students were selected randomly, while they were wandering in the campus. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. Then, it was grouped in a few categories and was compared with Iranian categories. The finding was shown as a report. The results indicated that there is not a big difference between two cultures.