Social Customs

Social Customs

There are many races and religions in Malaysia. Every race or religions have their own beliefs and customs to 

follow. All of the Malaysians are able to live together in a harmony multicultural living environment as they 

want to achieve peace and unity by respecting each others' beliefs and customs. 

Although handshakes are generally enough for both men and women, some of the Muslim ladies may also 

agree with using nodding head and smiling as a greeting with a gentleman. For Muslims, the way to greet with 

each others is "Salam" and it has the same meaning with a handshake. A younger person usually offers the 

"Salam" by taking hold of the hands of the elder people. Then, that's usually followed by a verbal greeting 

"Assalamualaikum", which means that 'peace be upon you'. For a non-Muslim, they should know that in 

Islam, physical contact between the opposite sex is not allowed. So, when a non-Muslim is offering a 

handshake to a member of the opposite sex which is Muslim, he/she should not be frightened if the 

handshake is not accepted. For Chinese, they are always calling their family names by adding Mr., Mrs., or 

Miss and then a handshake and a "hello" or "hi" are suitable to be used when you are greeting to each others.

How Malay greet with each other

How Chinese greet with each other 

How Indian greet with each other

Shoes are not allowed if you want to enter someone's house, mosque or temples. So, we must remove our 

shoes first before we are going to enter a Malaysian's house, mosque, Indian temple or a Buddhist temple. 

Besides that, ladies are advised to wear long sleeves and loose pants or long skirts when entering mosques 

and temples. Also, we need to call people politely first before we visit a home. For example, when we want 

to enter a people's house, we need to ask for permission politely first.

Mosque

Chinese Temple

Indian Temple

In Malaysia, right hand is always used when eating with one's hand or when giving or receiving objects. Also,

the left hand isn't used because most of the Malaysians are using their left hand to clean their lower body

after they finish using the toilet.

In addition, the business card is always exchanged with each other and should be giving or receiving with 

both of our hands at all the times. It is because that if we receive something with both hands, it will show that 

we respect the people. Next, we have to read the business card first and understand what is the job or 

position of the people, then only we keep it inside our pocket. It will show we are paying fully respectful to 

the people so that the people will respect us too. Besides that, we should never give alcohol drinks to

Muslims because alcohol drinks are prohibited and not allowed in the Muslim religion. So, toasting is not

famous in Malaysia because Malaysia has a large Muslim population, those cannot having an alcohol drink.

So, we can only see people toasting when someone is organizing a party. Also, we should never give clock,

watches, knives or white flowers to a Chinese person because the white flowers signify to death in Chinese

culture, so are the clocks, knives and watches, there are the words those are related to death.