I observed a conversation between my father and his friends
when I went to watch their football friendly match. When my father entered the
conversation, they greeted each other with handshakes and “How are you”s.
Everyone had a cigarette in their hands and my father joined in.
I noticed that they use hand gestures often. For example,
when one of them talked about picking up the others, he pointed to different
directions to represent the different locations he drove to. Another would
point in the direction he arrived from which made the rest divert their
attention to the pointed location. Often, the hand they use to point was the
hand which held their cigarette. After pointing or talking, they would smoke
almost immediately.
Another thing I noticed was that they were very loud. They
would raise their voices to emphasise certain words. When they talked about the
weather, my father would raise his voice slightly. For the sentence “It rained
heavily in Bukit Panjang,” he placed emphasis on the word “heavily” to stress
that it rained cats-and-dogs.
When one of them were talking, I observed that the others
had a relaxed posture as they listened. They would lean towards one side as
they placed more pressure on one foot. If they were not smoking at that moment,
they would place their hands behind their backs or in their pockets. They
maintained good eye contact unless if they were looking out for their friends
who had yet to arrive.
In my opinion, their positive behaviour may be due to having
known each other for a long time. They would tease each other and laugh it off.
The gesture of shaking hands when they meet may be influenced by culture. It is
a norm for Malays to greet each other by shaking hands.
