learning the language

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As a prospective MM2homer I was wondering how many of you who have established yourselves in Malaysia have learnt or are learning to speak Bahasa Malay beyond a 'survival level'? How important/helpful would it be?

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Hi PK,

I went to nightschool here to learn Hokkien. I am not fluent but I know bits and pieces, enough to make my life in Penang much more enjoyable. and a bit cheaper.

Old ladies in coffee shops smile at my attempted conversation , small children and dogs just expect me to speak Chinese anyway

I should really get to grips with the national language soon though.

Bob

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hi,

I've been learning basic Malaysian and getting no-where fast due to lethargy. I plan to improve things once I get off the new sofa which needs at least another 6 months to break in.   

So, for now its simple words and a smile which seems to solve most things. Today I paid another 6 months road tax. A "good afternoon" in Malay, a "thank-you" in Malay, and that was that.

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QJ, I thought you already learnt Malay?  I bought a little book in KL airport this month and intend to get stuck into it once the boring monsoon season starts here in Thailand.  I like languages though not terribly good at them unfortunately.

Something to make you Malay speakers chuckle.  I was on map reading duty in Georgetown earlier this month and kept seeing this road which was not on the map, and it seemed to be a bloody long road - Jalan Sehala.  It took a while for the penny to drop that it meant One Way Street 

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Very important words I've learned...

Bayar: to pay or "bill please"
Tak payah: no need

Tak payah bayar...   

While the word discount is understood in the spoken malay, another useful word is percuma for free.

Now we can go shopping with a few useful words.

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Hi Papaya,

I never did learn Malay, bought the book, then bought a bigger book but Tidak Apah (cant be bothered)

A couple of useful phrases in Hokkien which make everyone laugh,

Boh Bakkiah, Bey Quah - No glasses cant see
Boh Bee, Boh Saw - No flavour no taste (when faced with poor food)

And one word that is invaluable on Batu Ferringhi,

Chow Bee - smells bad

Here endeth the first lesson

Bob

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Malay is a really easy language, especially comparing to English (I learned English as a second language).  I was a Peace Corps volunteer living in a Malay kampong near Ipoh in the early 70's.  Even though I was fluent in Malay, the Malaysians (outside of my village) were not impressed.  They thought I was Chinese    I actually got into troubles for knowing only Malay and not Chinese while looking like a Chinese  OTOH, the locals heaped praises upon my White skinned Peace Corps friends whenever they opened their mouth to say "Selamat pagi!"  Of course, the locals were even more impressed when my Peace Corps friends proceeded to converse with them in Malay.  It'll be nice to be back to Malaysia and speak Bahasa Malaysia again.

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Very important words I've learned...

Bayar: to pay or "bill please"
Tak payah: no need

Tak payah bayar...   

While the word discount is understood in the spoken malay, another useful word is percuma for free.

Now we can go shopping with a few useful words.

May I take it that Tak is short for Tidak?  I've noticed a Malaysian friend says "Tak" which I thought was "Not" but it's not in my little book.

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"Tak" is the short form of "tidak."  It's like "don't" is the contraction of "do not" in English.  For example, instead of saying "Tidak apa" (It's all right, it's nothing, don't worry"),  it's more common to say "Tak apa"  in everyday conversations.  BTW, "Tak apa" is a very common and good phrase to use.  A good response to use when someone apologizes, "Sorry we don't have that item, food is not ready yet, etc..." is to say "Terima kasih; tak apa lah!"  ("Thank you; it's all right lah!").  I have no translation for "lah"    This type of courteous exchange will put you in good standing with Malaysians.

Hey Scott, do I have enough posts to PM yet? 

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I've been learning mandarin (slowly!) for a while, partly out of interest and partly because this is the language my wife's family in My speak (in the general mix of languages they seem to communicate in). But I was wondering about the extent of the practical benefits of learning Malaysian (which I would imnagine will take some effort) as opposed to picking bits up as you go along.

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Just to clear this up a bit. There is no Malaysian language as such. There is the national language which is Bahasa (Malay) and many other languages in use. All children learn Bahasa at school and keep it up to a greater or lesser extent during their lives.

I think that Mandarin would be a great language to choose however not so people speak it in their daily lives, at the moment you could think of it as a minority language although growing at quite a pace.

The lingua franca in any particular areas depends on the local population. Apart from Bahasa I think KL is mainly Cantonese, Penang is Hokkien, Kedah is Teochew and Hakka. I am not sure about JB but I think mainly Cantonese.

Apart from Bahasa the most widely spoken language would be English.

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Just to clarify, linguistically speaking... "Bahasa" means "language."  The official language of Malaysia is "Bahasa Malaysia" (literally translated as "Malaysian Language") which happens to be "Malay," the mother tongue of one ethnic group of what used to be "Malaya."  As noted by others, there are many other languages spoken in West Malaysia (the many Chinese "dialects,"  Tamil...).  In East Malaysia, Iban and Kadazan are more common.  Since everyone must learn "Bahasa Malaysia" (and it is the official language), a Malaysian would know Malay, but a native Malay speaker generally does not speak another language beside English.   

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"Tak" is the short form of "tidak."  It's like "don't" is the contraction of "do not" in English.  For example, instead of saying "Tidak apa" (It's all right, it's nothing, don't worry"),  it's more common to say "Tak apa"  in everyday conversations.  BTW, "Tak apa" is a very common and good phrase to use.  A good response to use when someone apologizes, "Sorry we don't have that item, food is not ready yet, etc..." is to say "Terima kasih; tak apa lah!"  ("Thank you; it's all right lah!").  I have no translation for "lah"    This type of courteous exchange will put you in good standing with Malaysians.

Hey Scott, do I have enough posts to PM yet? 

That's great - thanks.  So.... Tak Apa.... okay I've got that.  It's a bit like saying Mai Bpen Rai here in Thailand.  I've got a bundle of useful little phrases here like "There's something wrong with....." "It's not working" 

You should be able to post now.  Feel free to test on me - I'll be online On and Off this afternoon.  Just try clicking the bubble under my number of posts.

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I think that Mandarin would be a great language to choose however not so people speak it in their daily lives, at the moment you could think of it as a minority language although growing at quite a pace.

How close is Mandarin to Hokkien, QJ?  I mean, if you muttered a few phrases in Hokkien to a Mandarin speaker, would they understand you?

I'm definitely going to get stuck into Bahasa Malay at some point (monsoon time probably).  Just as a hobby and I think it might be useful within mainland Malaysia if we go travelling.  I might tackle some Hokkien after Bahasa, if I'm still on this planet by then 

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If you speak proper Hokkien (Taiwanese version) to a mandarin speaker they would recognise some bits but generally not the real sense of what you are saying. If you spoke Penang Hokkien which is to China what Geordie is to English then hardly anyone would understand what you are on about. Penang Hokkien is Bahasa Pasir (market language) and is mixed with some Malay, English, Hakka etc etc Having said that people travel from all over asia to marvel at the strange Hokkien dialect spoken here.

Bob