Cultural Learnings of Malaysia For The Make Benefit of Nations Around The World.....

Yes, yes cultural learning chapter 1!! National pride of Malaysia......Manglish!! (or mangled english to be exact):p

Malaysia is a land of paradoxes. Chinese ladies in short skirts walk the streets side by side with Malay Muslims wearing Islamic headscarf. To gaze on the ultra-modern Petronas Towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur, you could hardly imagine that this is the same country where sleepy fishing villages dot the coast.

When it comes to language, there are even more surprises in store.

English is widely used here, Malaysia being the former colony of Britain. There are three Anglophone daily newspapers in the capital, English television and radio stations. Bookshops such as the nationwide chain MPH offer many more books in English than in any other language. Yes, and even roadsigns are in English.....

In the fashionable shopping districts and the upmarket cafes, where the espresso class lounge, you can hear English spoken everywhere but what kind of English is it that Malaysians speak???

That’s the interesting part. There are those that speak English better, one suspects, than half of England. Then, of course, there are some who cannot speak the language at all. However, most Malaysians are somewhere in between. They speak a corrupted form of English, often referred to as “Manglish”—Malaysian English or perhaps Mangled English?

Let me give you some examples. In Manglish, when someone has gone out of town, he is said to be “outstation.” There, a mobile phone is known as a handphone rather than cellphone.

Malaysians call slippers what the British call sandals, and during sales, in the shops, there are plenty of signs announcing, “Buy one, free one.”

If you want a glass of water, you ask for “skyjuice”

Manglish grammar has its own unique set of rules. For example, the use of already, “He go home already”

Then, there is the famous “can or not?” as in, “You borrow to me five dollars, can or not?”.

Another important aspect of Manglish is the use of “lah.”

“Lah” does not have any actual meaning, but Malaysians like to pepper their sentences with it. But i think it is more of Malay influence:

“Why you so like that, lah?”

“No lah.”

“So I told him lah that he cannot go lah.”

Malaysians scored a victory a couple of years ago when “lah” was introduced into the official Oxford English Dictionary. They were slightly less happy to see that the entry listed its usage as Singaporean English.

You see, Singapore, has its own version of English, known as Singlish, which is very similar to the Malaysian variety.

English is only one of the many languages that a visitor will hear in Malaysia. There is Bahasa Malaysia, also known as Bahasa Melayu or simply Bahasa, as well as a number of Chinese dialects including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew. You’ll also hear several Indian languages such as Tamil and Punjabi.

Malaysians have a habit of mixing two or more of these languages together when they speak, sometimes even in one sentence. So, don’t be surprised if you hear sentences like these:

“Aiyo, the lif is rosak already! Mari-lah, we use the stairs one.”

This translates to: “Oh no! The elevator is out of order. Come, let’s use the stairs.”

Note the words "Aiyo","lif", "rosak" and "mari-lah"..... are actually Malay.

English has particularly affected Bahasa Malaysia in the form of loan words.

For example, “makhlumat,” which means information, is not used often anymore. Instead, the loan word, “informasi” is gaining in popularity.

There is “bas” for bus, “rileks” or “rilek” for relax, and “restoran” for restaurant.

English loan words are especially common in technology and science. Therefore, you’ll hear the words “teknologi” and “sains.”


These loan words are very popular with the younger “generasi.”(generation)

Bahasa has many different words for “I” and “you”, but Malaysians still find room for these English words in their speech.

In this way, “I love you” can be expressed as “I sayang you”, and one might also ask, “You sayang I?”

Note that "sayang" is also a Malay word meaning love

Tourists need not worry too much, though. Although they may hear some pretty strange things while they are here, like how my bf frowned when he overheard some strange phrases, a good command of English is enough to ensure that they will not be in a situation where they are stuck with no way to communicate.

In fact, tourist are likely to be charmed by the unique way the language has evolved here (yes, my bf even took the trouble to learn Manglish from me wahahaha). It is quite likely that they’ll pick up a bit of the local lingo while they are here and if they choose to stay on a little while longer, they are sure to wake up one day to find themselves speaking Manglish.

Last week, I attended a Deepavali open house(my colleague's Indian) and met this British guy who has gotten married to a Malay lady and raising 4 kids and the weird thing is, he speaks 100% Manglish!! If it wasn't that he told me he came from the UK, I wouldnt have guessed(though of course, he looks different from me). But he sounded totally Malaysian.

English has been in Malaysia since the colonial days, although Manglish is a relatively new development.

Recently, there has been much lament in the Malaysian media about the decline in the standard of English in the country. There have been government campaigns and Science and Mathematics in schools will now be taught in English.

Although the government, unlike Singapore, has not yet taken an official stand against non-standard usage, one gets the feeling that Malaysians will not give up their Manglish that easily lah.

Why?? Because It is our identity as Malaysians.......lah...... still need to ask ah??