5 Disadvantages of living in Malaysia compared to Seoul

Compared to Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, I have selected 5 disadvantages of immigrant life in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 5 disadvantages are about cost, language, public transportation, immigration, and security. When you compare life in Malaysia with South Korea, there are many differences. Especially when comparing Seoul and Kuala Lumpur, you can immediately feel the difference in public transportation.

 

Table of Contents

1. How much salary and rent do you expect

2. How many languages do you speak

3. Need a car or use public transport?

4. Is it safe to live your family

5. Infrastructure in the neighborhood

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How much salary and rent do you expect

 

One of the reasons people immigrate to Malaysia is because of the low cost of living. When retiring from South Korea to Malaysia, it doesn't matter if you are financially wealthy, but if you look for a job in Malaysia, the local price is not cheap at all compared to the local salary.

 

Looking at the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in June 2021, Malaysia is 123.2 and South Korea is 107.39. Malaysia's price index is higher than South Korea's. Because the salary level in Malaysia is so low, the consumer price index is high despite Malaysia's low prices. Malaysia's average per capita income in May 2021 was 3,395 ringgit (about USD 724).

 

And if you rent a house located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the average monthly rent is 1,342 ringgit (about USD 286). Also, if you purchase a car, if you repay for 9 years, the amount you pay per month is 852 ringgit (about USD 182).

 

So, after deducting the monthly rent and car loan of 1,342 ringgit (about USD 286) and 852 ringgit (about USD 182) from the income of 3,395 ringgit (about USD 724), the remaining money is 1,201 ringgit (about USD 256). .

 

A Local Condo

 

You need to live on USD 250 for one month. Simple math works out to paying USD 8.3 per day. In South Korea, it is impossible to eat three meals a day with this money, but in Malaysia, it is possible. However, there are many other expenses to pay other than car gas, city parking fees, electricity, gas, and water bills. 

 

So these days, young Malaysian couples have dual incomes. In the past, Malaysia thought that a wife not working was a symbol of a well-off family, but that perception is now just a product of the past in Malaysia. In Malaysia, two-income people cover expenses with the money one of them earns, and save with the money the other earns.

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How many languages do you speak?

 

A common difficulty living abroad is communication. To communicate, you have to learn a new language other than your native language. And although Malaysia is considered an English-speaking country, its official language is Malay.

 

When buying goods or food outside the home, you will almost always have to speak Malay. Also, documents from government departments and public offices are in Malay, and even when you go to the immigration office, they speak Malay.

 

The good news is that Malay is one of the easiest languages ​​to learn. However, because of the numerous dialects of Malay, what you hear on the street is often different from what you hear in textbooks.

 

And there are many Chinese people around me. Chinese people in Malaysia use different words depending on the region. In Kuala Lumpur, Cantonese is spoken. I heard Cantonese while watching Hong Kong movies, but now I hear it every day without even knowing what it means. 

 

However, many young Chinese in Kuala Lumpur speak Mandarin instead of Cantonese. As China's economic power grows stronger, mainland Chinese culture, such as Chinese dramas, flows into Malaysia, making Mandarin more influential than Malaysia's Chinese dialects.

 

So, if you meet people in their 20s and 40s in Kuala Lumpur, one will speak Mandarin and the other will speak Cantonese. So, if you ask them, they will tell you that if Mandarin is taught in school, they will also communicate in Mandarin at home. The proportion of Chinese families speaking Mandarin is increasing.

 

Even Malay students sometimes study Chinese or attend Chinese schools. The Malay kid next door speaks Mandarin fluently.  

 

And speaking of English, Malaysia has designated English as its second official language. In particular, English is the language used in companies in Malaysia. However, English is being spoken less and less frequently in Malaysia, outside of the business world. Moreover, Malaysia has a Manglish language that is on a different level from South Korea's Konglish. Manglish is very widely used. 

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Need a car or use public transport

 

There are subways only in the capital Kuala Lumpur through whole Malaysia. Other cities like Johor Bahru and Penang do not have subways yet. In the case of Penang, there are plans to build a light rail with an above-ground section, but the light rail project has not started yet.

 

Kuala Lumpur's subway and buses are easy to get around in the city center. Taking the MRT Kajang Line from the Kajang terminus to the other terminus, Sungai Buloh , costs 6.4 ringgit (about USD 1.4) in cash.  And if you use Malaysia's TouchNGo card, which is similar to South Korea's transportation card, it costs 5.5 ringgit (about USD 1.2) for the same section. 

 

RapidKL of Kuala Lumpur

If you go from the last station, Jangji Station, to the 15th station, Bukit Bintang Station, where Kuala Lumpur city center is located, the fare is 4.30 ringgit (approximately USD 1) in cash or 3.8 ringgit (approximately USD 0.8) by touch and go.

 

Assuming you take Seoul's Line 2 for 15 stops, when going from Sindorim Station to Yeoksam Station, the fare for this section is USD 1. If you pay cash in Malaysia, the price difference between Seoul and Kuala Lumpur is USD 0.14. Of course, it is  USD 0.14 more expensive when traveling 15 stops in Seoul.

 

The problem with the Kuala Lumpur subway is its connection to buses. Subway stops outside of Kuala Lumpur's city center are mainly located on main streets. And when you get off at a subway station outside the city center, there are many people waiting for their families to pick them up in their cars.

 

There are also buses waiting at the stop, but they run at long intervals and only cover limited routes. It would be nice to run it in the form of a village bus, but all buses at subway stations are regular buses. Additionally, these buses are operated by subway operators.

 

The lack of access to trains and buses makes you consider driving a car like other Malaysians. So most Malaysians drive cars rather than public transportation.

 

Road congestion in Kuala Lumpur

 

Moreover, when you drive a car, you will experience road congestion and roads full of puddles when it rains. And as a bonus, a motorcycle. It often happens that a motorcycle hits the side mirror. 

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Is it safe to live with your family?

 

Ordinary people rate Malaysian security as being at a good level. If you compare the security in Kuala Lumpur with Seoul, of course the security is not good, but compared to other Southeast Asian countries, you can say that it is safe.

 

The incidence of crime in Malaysia was 256 cases per 100,000 people in 2019. Then, let’s compare South Korea and Malaysia using the crime index. The crime index is the number of reported crimes divided by the total population multiplied by 100,000. In terms of global crime rates, South Korea's crime index is 27.33, ranking 4th. And Malaysia's crime index is 58.55. 

 

Crime index for South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and India

 

The world average crime index is 47.86, and the top three countries are Taiwan, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. And Indonesia, the country next to Malaysia, is 40.06, the Philippines is 42.22, and India is 44.42.

 

So, why not turn our attention to violent crime? Violent crimes include murder, assault, sexual assault, rape, kidnapping, manslaughter, and manslaughter.

 

The world average for the violent crime index is 7.03, and South Korea ranks 7th with 0.7. Malaysia ranks 17th with 2.11. Indonesia is 0.5, India is 3.22, and the Philippines is 11.02.

 

Violent crime index for South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and India

 

 

In terms of crime index and violent crime index, Malaysia has a high crime index but relatively low violent crime index. For example, the Philippines has a higher crime index than Malaysia, but its violent crime index far exceeds Malaysia.

 

So, it can be said that Malaysia has more misdemeanors than violent crimes. Common crimes in Malaysia include robbery, pick-pocketing and fraud. Fraud is especially common. There are taxi meters, but you have to bargain. Also, currency exchange scams such as deducting money at currency exchange offices are frequent. They also make counterfeit cards by copying credit cards.

 

So you have to be alert at all times in Kuala Lumpur. For example, you should always be careful to carry your bag forward, not backwards. You need to be especially careful at night.

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Infrastructure in the neighborhood

 

If you live in a condo in Kuala Lumpur, you will be provided with a swimming pool, gym, jogging course, and badminton court, but if you live in an apartment or house, you will not have such amenities. In many cases, there are even no sidewalks next to the driveway. There are no sidewalks, and it's hard to find anyone walking.

 

So there are no bicycle paths or hiking courses up the local mountains. However, on weekend mornings you can see cyclists, who have to share the road with cars in their lanes. In Malaysia, it feels scary to see someone riding a bicycle in the lane.

 

And hiking courses are difficult to find. Mountaineering is not a popular sport in Malaysia. It is not that there is no hiking population at all, but it is not common.

 

So there are no hiking courses on the hills in the neighborhood where I live. The local hills are completely undeveloped, and the hills are full of wild monkeys. These groups of monkeys occasionally come down the hill late in the afternoon and take over the road. Because there is someone in the neighborhood who feeds monkeys. In Malaysia, locals feed wild monkeys as well as stray cats. 

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What do you think of it? Despite the disadvantages mentioned in Malaysia, there are of course many advantages. And original post is wirtten in July, 2021.