Other Expats

Who's Zainab Olamiji? Why did she go from studying medicine to being a business development manager? Are jobs and careers the same thing? Or just how different are they? Did our parents care about their jobs or their careers? You'd have to listen to find out.

Our guest on this episode is Abubakar Bala, a research assistant at a university in Malaysia where he's been working on artificial intelligence and machine prediction/predictive maintenance. He's also trying to take the same model into healthcare in predict/classify diseases, specifically cancer. He talks about his experience studying/living in Malaysia compared with Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and some of the things he has learned being outside his country.

Kingsley Chiedu Chiemeke is our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast. Kingsley is an academic researcher at a university in Kuala Lumpur as well as a business analyst at his self-started consulting firm, KC Systems.

Henry Angala, a tech expert in  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast.

Our guest on this episode is Mbeke Waseme, a management coach, international education consultant, photographer, yoga instructor, and writer. Her books include "Make the changes, feel the joy" and "How to work and live abroad successfully." We discuss her experiences being a Black expat in Malaysia and being Jamaican in Ghana, where she currently resides.

Stanley Obi is our guest on this episode. Stanley is a serial entrepreneur based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ngonidzashe Jokomo is our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast. Ngonidzashe is a knowledge specialist at a leading online trading platform in Kuala Lumpur and runs the fashion and printing label mhazilife.

In this episode, our guest is Chisomo Sakala, a customer service specialist at a leading call center in Kuala Lumpur and founder/content creator at A Younger Voice. We talk about being a Black woman and an expat; the good, the bad, and the not-so-nice of living in Malaysia; and more. Follow A Younger Voice on Instagram and catch/join live episodes of the discussions every Sunday at 9.00 PM Malaysian Time. The discussions are open to everyone and lively and always welcome new and distinctive thoughts and ideas.

Danny Madzura, our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast, talks about getting lost in Cuba and speaking Spanish, the career advantage of being multilingual, being a black expat in a pandemic, and more.

Visit the Other Expats website to get £100 off your next Melanin Travels Magic tour deposit! Our first episode in 2021 features Christina Belloge, a multilingual paid media/digital marketing consultant, travel enthusiast, and director of Melanin Travels Magic. Christina has been an expat for 14 years, living in London, Amsterdam, and Dusseldorf. Melanin Travels Magic is a black-owned travel agency aimed at helping the Black diaspora facilitate their discovery of other Black nations (African and/or Caribbean) via travel experiences. Melanin Travels Magic was recently accepted into the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Fadzisai Matewa is our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast. Fadzisai is Zimbabwean, has lived in Malaysia for several years, and is a market development specialist with a multinational software company in Kuala Lumpur.

Ralph Mpofu is our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast. Ralph is a community builder, strategist, and changemaker, passionate about connecting the dots for impact and sustainable development.

Our guest on this episode is a graduate of biotechnology from UCSI University in Cheras in Malaysia, currently pursuing a Master's degree. Jacinta Nalweyiso shares her experience living in Malaysia for four years, and her interests, including singing and stop-motion videos, which are really, really cool! Visit otherexpats.com for links to some of her projects.

Our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast is Carl Kapapiro, co-founder of SNCT Marketing. He spent 12 years in Malaysia, where he earned his Bachelor's degree in business studies from the University of East London and proceeded to pursue his career in sales and marketing. He is currently based in Uganda, where he is continuing his life as an expat while establishing the nation's premier digital marketing agency.

Our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast, Emmanuel Chisom Okwu talks about his experience starting the International Student Council while at the Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University to change the perception of Malaysians about foreign students, transitioning from student to working, what he enjoys most living in Malaysia, visiting Sabah, and a lot of other stuff you'll hear when you press play.

"When you travel in a country, the first thing you should do is try to understand and adapt to the culture..." says our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast—Dadje Valere, French-speaking Camerounian, and instrument and control engineer who has been in Malaysia since 2009. Dadje talks about how he integrates into society, from being active in the university's students union and the international students' community to developing and pushing policies that allow foreigners to be heard in the campus environment.

Whei Meng, CEO of Malaysian-based startup, Speedhome.com, is our guest on this episode of the Other Expats podcast. We haven't featured a lot of non-other expats, but one of our goals is to provide useful resources for living in Malaysia. Speedhome.com is one of those useful resources. In addition, Whei Meng's Speedhome.com is fighting (or, at least, trying to) what many other expats have encountered in Malaysia: discrimination when looking to rent a property. It's either "the owner doesn't want foreigners" (general) or the more specific, "the owner doesn't want Africans/Nigerians." Whei Meng believes that the homeowners are not necessarily racist, they're just protecting their properties. From what? Ahhh you'll have to listen to find out. Here's a link to the podcast. Also available on whatever platform you get your podcasts from.

Stuff we talked about: 1.32 - Who's Halima Attahiru? 2.35 - Living here for nine years, how different is it from living in Nigeria? 3.54 - The food wasn't anything to write home about because it had too much sugar. If you're an expat in Malaysia, did you have any issues transitioning or eating Malaysian food? 5.25 - In Malaysia, you don't water for free in restaurants. You have to pay for water separately *shock* 6.07 - Experience as an African woman living in Malaysia? 7.35 - What does Halima do when she's not working? Tip: cooks, takes online classes. 8.10 - Loves cooking African food. Where she lives in Malaysia has a lot of African convenience stores — expensive but available. 9.50 - What's one thing every expat should try when they're in Malaysia? 10.57 - She works with the airline so she gets to do a lot of traveling within and around Malaysia. 11.44 - Most and least favorite things about living in Malaysia? The public holidays! And the transportation system. 15.17 - Who are her crowd in Malaysia; Africans, locals or more of an international group? 17.24 - What's most different about living abroad?

Initially recorded in 2017, we share a lot of cringeworthy stuff (that you should probably skip) about the dating scene for POCs in Malaysia.  Shams, Ahlam, and Faithful also talk about and compare the 'high stakes' of dating in Saudi Arabia to the more open dating environment in Kuala Lumpur and the swiping culture in Kuala Lumpur. Also highlighted: the toxicity of expected gender roles.

Rumbidzai Lyn Kasinamunda is from Zimbabwe and is a customer experience and senior IT adviser based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia What we talked about... Companies that make you go through the entire job application process with multiple assessments, then filter you out based on a call they make to you. Do HR executives even look at the candidate resumes at all? Would you prefer to be informed by HR that the company is not looking for foreigners, only looking for locals or you think being in the dark is better? The experience hasn't been all bad, though. Between 2015 and 2018, she was based in Cyberjaya, and going to work was a major highlight of her time. ** Regarding people being deported, the interview was done in June 2019. I'm not sure what the situation is now. There's the story of Jeff who — like the MBA student who died in police custody recently — spent a week in police custody even though he had valid work documents. If you're a foreigner in Malaysia, do you have local friends? Do you think that you should have friends who are Malaysian? She talks about the Black woman's experience in Malaysia. Black women tend to stick to their people, "the dating pool is limited. But for Black men, the dating pool is wider."