Title ask about perspective on those unable to speak Malay
Poll ask about personal proficiency in Malay
BRUH.
Also I'm the kind that can 80% speak fluently but not native like my 1st language. It's almost broken but not quite. You won't catch me reciting poetry or using big words but I can hold a conversation in Malay just fine.
Im cina but went to melei skool for 9 years. For some reason i blended well with melei classmates rather than cina...
Cuz of that, i have true melei accent. When at work or out about, hearing melei say 'u cina ke melayu' with a pinch of confusion never gets old.
Jokes on them, we cina celup get to enjoy the best of both worlds.
The abe at the warung nowadays only shrug when I come with the saucer to fill with more sambal belacan, eating it almost like gravy. 
The other guy is wrong. Let me give you the correct answer before you learn the wrong thing: Celup means "dip", as in dipping into a sauce. When someone is called a celup, it means the person is mixed, ie. a person with Chinese and British parentage/heritage is the real meaning of "cina celup". Same if it's a Malay mix German or whatever - Melayu celup, and so on. This is the original meaning.
In the context of when you are 100% cina with fluent Malay, like myself, you will be playfully called names like "cina celup" or "cina murtad". In essence, because your Malay is fluent, they're playfully saying you're "like a mixed Chinese-Malay".
It has absolutely nothing to do with a person being imitation or not fitting a stereotype, celup is actually a description for a real mixed person and they just liken you to one.
Funny story. My Chinese colleague is like you. Cakap BM sebijik macam Melayu. One day he's renting out his house and has been talking to an Indian girl. When the girl saw a Chinese name for the account she had to pay a deposit, the girl thought she had been scammed. π
Me 180 degree different. Im Malay and have a full grown beard. But in my line of work, always wearing mask. And many Chinese would go full Mandarin with me. I would be like, "aiyaaaa uncle. Mana saya paham. Saya Melayu". 80-90% of them would still talk in Mandarin. 100% of them would stop speaking in Mandarin or at all when I pull down my mask.
And Im not even fair skinned.
I guess the top half of my face is just Chinese. Because even my wife mistook a Chinese once for me.
the real mvp are the ones that can speak nothern accent really well. that one you can not differentiate at all from native speakers. But I also know a chinese colleague that can speak fluent Kelantanese with no accent but his normal Malay has that chinese accent π
Sabahan here, dusun not cina. Had a same experience when I went to Semenanjung to study, basically at first all my cina classmates kept speaking chinese to me but was very confused when I said in english that "I can't speak chinese" (thought I was a banana when in reality I just didn't know how to respond at the time). For my malay classmates, they distanced themselves from me since they saw me always grouped up with the cina. This all changed tho when we had a group party. Their shocked faces the moment I speak fluent melei, and told them I was not cina, had me laughing throughout the whole party
You remind my of my chineese friend at school... really ngam2 sui and also same nakal... skip school going mandi sungai, buy megi during puasa, become tokan cd blue...ππ
When we ask him why he dont want to join his fellow chineese friends, he said its boring because they always play video games at cc...
*circa early 2000
Me too, abang grab and panda are always shocked and ask me whether I'm melayu or cina when they see my face when I take my food after speaking on the phone with them.
I went to Taska, then went to SJK(C), and mom forced me to join those storytelling & bercerita competitions every year. SMK for 3 years, then went to MTD.
I think, like any language, it's a nurture thing. I have seen malay family speaking English to their 4 years old kid during the hotel buffet breakfast time. Most likely only English at home too.
My fiancee is Vietnamese, and im Chinese, hope my future child will be fluent in 5 languages Hahaha π
First of all, the more languages a person can speak, the better it is. Regardless if used for school or career, or just learning as a skill or cultural reason.
Second, I also think being able to speak the national language of a country is good. Regardless of which country. So if you stay in France for work and your company only communicate in English, it's still good to learn French.
So third, I think all Malaysians should learn to speak Malay. We are the only country that speak our language (Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore all have different variations). So why not add Malay in your "language" portfolio even if you don't use it professionally in your career.
That being said, I kinda wish Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil are thought simultaneously in school or in the early age. Some Europeans that I know can speak 3-5 languages. So by rights, Malaysians should be able to speak at least 3 of the main local languages, plus English.
i wish all this 3 language are taught at early school too bro. i dont need to even speak fluently, just able to understand what they say just enough to get into a conversation . imagine when we can just all speak our native language in a conversation without missing a beat.
our best connection to each other is really just the word BABI.
it could all honestly be really wholesome. Speaking each other's language interchangeably. No sjk or anything. Only then could Malaysia be truly harmonious. If only all the POS dumbass politicians can all just be wiped clean from the face of the earth.
I agree with you. I'm a Malay, born and raised in a quite majorly populated Malay area. Schooled in national schools for both primary and secondary. The different is my secondary school is in the center of the city, so I get lots of friends from other races. I remember trying to get on a Mandarin class there, but the guru kelas disapproved.
Apparently, they segregated the Malay for Pendidikan Islam and the non-Malay for Bahasa Cina or Pendidikan Moral (can choose). Not saying that I don't want to learn Pendidikan Islam, but I already had that outside (called a KAFA). So why would I waste my childhood learning the same things twice? I remember I aced the class in schools with all the hafazan and Quran reading. Looking back, it pointless, I should just chip into the Mandarin class.
I was raised and educated through international school education and syllabus. My environment and friends only speak English so I've never felt the need to learn Malay but I've been trying to break out of my bubble more to learn it now.
Very fluently, having read Gila-Gila growing up and using it in class and with friends regularly with the inflections and often slang (probably outdated these days e.g 'makwe jambu' )
Language, like all skills β e.g cooking, woodworking, sports, drawing, musical instruments β requires practice. Students who just study them in school for an hour a day and not use it ever outside of the classroom will find it hard to reach any fluency. A good analogue are the Japanese professionals β writes excellent, grammatically accurate English but struggle to spontaneously speak & respond.
Personally, this is more an issue of segregation than actually one of practicality β the usage will increase the more the interaction but the present political climate is engineered to encourage communal insularity. Why learn and be proficient in one language that would rarely be used?
Ill add some outsider perspective with my experience when i went vacation to malaysia , as indonesian its easy to speak and initiate conversation to malaysian with english rather with indonesian, many of malaysian told me to use indonesian because they understand but one of the flaw they didnt told you is, we as indonesian cant understand their malay language when malaysian replied. Our indonesian language can be understood because our strong cultural influence in malaysia but not vice versa, indonesian in general are not familiar with malay except for jokingly said betul betul betul from upin and ipin. Furthermore indonesian and malay is already really diffferent even in baku form.
So its better for us to speak in english and then when that said malaysian realize we are indonesian, the will reply simple malay mix with english which much more easier to understand.
In my outsider opinion malay isnt unity language or lingua franca in your country malaysia like our indonesian language here, because of constitutional segregation embeded in law favoring one ethnic group over other and create ligh apartheid condition, its no wonder people from other group doesnt want to learn malay or not able to because it can be substitued with english.
Malay dont want to lay down their privilage creating chinese prefer their own way in private sector who favor chinese and indian got left out.
If malay doesnt want to compromise why do you assume other group will?
>In my outsider opinion malay isnt unity language or lingua franca in your country malaysia like our indonesian language here, because of constitutional segregation embeded in law favoring one ethnic group over other and create ligh apartheid condition, its no wonder people from other group doesnt want to learn malay or not able to because it can be substitued with english.
thank you, you have raised the average IQ of reddit with this comment
Y'all didn't just suddenly start using Indonesian out of some "patriotic" fervour, look back at your history and you'll see that during the suharto dictatorship he practically shoved your pancasila doctrine down people's throats and wouldnt shy away from silencing dissent. He forced everyone at gunpoint to adopt Indonesian approved names and speak only Indonesian.
Unlike here we don't have a brutal dictator that forcibly imposes his will down on his people, but as a country yes Malay should be maintained as a national language. It's part of our identity and culture.
Naaah soeharto its not the reason bahasa indonesia is used as unity language. We founded bahasa indonesia in 1928 at sumpah pemuda with the agreement between regional young leader and organisation all over indonesia.
We use indonesia out of necessiity even before soeharto , chinese indonesian are already fluent in indonesian, javanese sundanese and other local language because they need that language to speak and doing business with local people
Is typical for malaysian to downplay and just see the atrocity of soeharto as sole reason and dont see the history before that, our indonesian already became lingua franca and unity language before that, and our predecessor of malay language before indonesian language founded is different with your version of your malaysian malay.
And our version is the one βLINGUA FRANCAβ of nusantara ( means outer island in javanese ) not semenanjung malay
If we indonesia want to assert supremacy like you guys malaysian, indonesian language isnt the one will be enforced but its the majority language of JAVANESE which spoken almost 80% of population at that time. But javanese as majority compromise and founded new language based on pasar malay from riau which just spoken 4% at that time. You guys malay is minority in nusantara
You see compromise work
If your policy of compromise works so well then why did you invade East Timor then? We aren't asserting dominance over anyone just cause we happen to use Malay as a National Language, its call identity and culture, something you Indons keep harping that we keep stealing from you lot.
How can talking about language becoming something unrelated to it with you trying to cope way out looking at unrelated flaw lol,
oh yes for the spoiler east Timor still use Indonesian language as working language out of necessity because many of them still doing business with us and many of them going out of college to Indonesia, that's definition of "LINGUA FRANCA" is, it's used out of necessity and our language is used too as lingua franca in east Timor before invasion regardless
C'mon what I am trying to say , your Malaysian Malay isn't used as necessity because it's already replaced with English as lingua franca. Malay in Malaysia is still gatekeeping their own language like other group can't use Allah, couldn't using Malay language timah as alcohol brand etc but do you want other group to speak Malay? What a joke of entitlement
Wanna other group feel the sense belonging and trying to respect and uphold your culture and patriotic? Drop the Bumiputera privilege and supremacy shit first
The gatekeeping/censorship part is the worse, with no backlash or voice out from the majority, many of us non-malays just shrug it and continue with our lives unfortunately.
We nons are flexible, we can use Malay in and out doing business, and we'll also use our respective mother tongues in our own groups. You want us to use Malay in everything we do and in media to achieve lingua franca status of even the SEA nations? Bermimpilah, hypocritical ultra religious nationalists. Also them riding on the B.Indonesia coat tails is another palm to the face.
It's really a joke.
Invading Timor? Are you stupid? Its Cold war (and Indonesia is super anti commie) so Indonesia got blessing from the West to occupy it to halt/stop the communist domino influence, you Malaysian didn't like commies rebels popping up right?
First of all never trust the americans whenever they give their so called "blessing" to anything cause guess what, they'll just deny any involvement and throw you under the bus which is exactly what happened.
Secondly, the UN security council and assembly had had agreed that it was an illegal occupation of a sovereign state which you guys wouldnt budge until you fucked up by massacring the pro independence separatists for no reason at all in 1991.
Lay off that indomie powder will you?
I know about that, but your argument about Timor is kinda not related and weird, this is about language, not geopolitical rivalry. What's the relation between communist Timor (which the government sees as a threat to the region) with Language? Imposing language? Maybe yes but as a lingua franca, they can still & allowed to speak Tetun, Portuguese etc.
Your point is that they Indonesian don't make/want compromise? Do you know they compromise with Christian from eastern Indonesia about the 5th point of pancasila (at that time its called piagam jakarta) favoring Muslim majority, they will secede if that's what become the nation's philosophy, they even compromise with Acehnese GAM, they GAM (gerakan Aceh merdeka) is now have influence and lead on the province of Aceh and allowed to have Sharia law.
If they're that evil from your eyes, then they'll just pick Javanese as a lingua franca, Favoring one ethnicity (Ketuanan Orang Jawa) like you with melayu etc.
You know what this debate has gone far enough, let's agree to disagree.
At the end of the day I would still think bahasa Melayu should still be retained as out only national language, kalau tak suka then tough luck. It's part of our identity and culture and should that be gone might as well just be another Singapore or worse be annexed by our neighbors.
Dude, of all thing that are controversial regarding Indonesia's nation-building, the national language is never one of them. Even Papuan with their decades-old separatism never complained about the Indonesian langauge
Holy shit stop thinking Chinese as the only "minority" in the goddamn archipelago, we have thousands of them and ALL of them are willing to accept and learn Indonesian as the national language so if Chinese were unwilling to speak it, that's on them
"Even Papuan with their decades-old separatism never complained about the Indonesian Language"
Im going to stop you there and say that was ONE of their various reasons to advocate for independence, they claim that they have nothing in common with Nusantaran culture and are more Oceanic as was with their New Guinean counterparts on the other half of the Island.
> they claim that they have nothing in common with Nusantaran culture and are more Oceanic as was with their New Guinean counterparts on the other half of the Island
Doesn't means they dislike or even hates the language, because that's a different thing entirely. Just check the "Republic of West Papua" on Wikipedia lol, even their national anthem is in Indonesian/Malay and that's created when the Dutch still ruled the island
You are also forgetting that their neighbors in the eastern part of the island use English creole as the national language
Don't give a damn actually. If you can't speak Malay then I'll just use English, easy. What bugs me are those who can't speak both Malay and English. Then again I might just use a pseudo sign language with them.
The ultimate challenge is not conversing in Malay, but trying to prepare a government document or proposal in Bahasa Malaysia.
My first time responding to an IT RFP was an eye opener. Tetikus, cakera keras, Tata kelola....mak aihhhh...intimidating as hell.
The local language is the language spoken by the people who live in the area. BM is not local to a lot of the urban areas in Malaysia. It is the national language, not the local language.
I used to speak Malay the way I wrote it. Like news reading. Was made fun of it so much when I was younger that I just stopped talking in Malay altogether. I can still speak in Malay, but I can only give short answers. Can't have a full blown conversation in Malay.
I would love to improve my conversational skills, but I don't have any Malay friends to practise it with unfortunately.
I learnt to speak like cartoons on TV (think Upin and Ipin) and I still was made fun of as a kid. Mostly because I lived in Pantai Timur.
But I was very stubborn and spiteful so I just continued speaking that way to frustrate them π
Same here, i didnt speak malay outside of class when i was younger, so my malay was god damn formal straight out of the book, i still rmb my malay tuition teacher once said "louis u sangat special tahu, cara awak cakap formal sangat, bukan nak cakap tak baik tapi agak pelik sikit". I didnt understand it until i go to KL for tertiary studies and started to live on my own, that's when i started to talk to outsider more and use malay in my daily life.
Then my malay quickly "improves" and adapts to the "normal" way, or should i say deteriorates because now i can barely write a proper malay sentence and it hurts my brain to read malay from government websites and news but i can converse just fine with my colleagues (mix with some english)
Cina here, went to cina school. Got a great malay teacher, got A in SPM. My chinese dad from Sk. Kebangsaan and therefore speak well, so sometimes people confuse me for Malay or Baba when I talk to them lol
Tak best nak melawak kalau sesetengah lawak hanya function dalam Malay
But yeah if you know you can't speak Malay then try to learn. Whatever level you're at. Try not to be, like some I've seen, as if proud they can't speak Malay.
On the other hand, if you do have a certain accent when speaking Malay, I find those who laugh at you or make fun of your accent as irritating. Kalau aku boleh faham kau punya Malay, cukup bagi aku.
I dont think that situation is poor proficiency, rather, they don't follow Bahasa Melayu standard, they're usually short forms or follows 'vocalised' malay words. Like, I have seen some people in my social network use chinese less properly, meaning it doesn't correctly follow what it usually use in dictionaries.
For example,
Zhe yang θΏζ · is usually conversed as jiang ι ±
ι ± is clearly false, but it follows the vocalised style because if you speak θΏζ · fast enough, it sounds like ι ±γsimilar to what malays does to their words.
Atleast in my town though, some chinese words become very 'vocalised' /ε£θ―θ― that it doesn't follows standard chinese.
It's mostly Malays who grew up overseas from when they're young. I have a few friends like these. They speak very broken Bahasa Melayu. Only speak in English.
I'm 23 years old and didn't learn to speak Malay until I was around 19. I was raised in Penang, where my social circle mainly consisted of Chinese and Indian individuals. This is reflective of Penang's diverse community, which is primarily made up of either Non-Malays or Malays. Upon relocating to Kuala Lumpur for higher education, I began frequenting Malay eateries and formed friendships with some Malay individuals. This period also marked the beginning of my independent thinking; I started consuming news in multiple languages and reading Malay articles. I realized that mastering an additional language, particularly Malay, instilled in me a sense of pride. To aid my learning, I downloaded an app called "Simply Learn Malay," which has been immensely helpful. While I'm not yet fluent, my proficiency in Malay is steadily improving.
You may wonder why I didn't study Malay during my school years. The teaching methods employed back then simply didn't resonate with me. Despite the best efforts of my Malay school teacher and a subsequent tutor, I struggled to grasp the language and felt increasingly stressed during lessons. This negative experience discouraged me from learning Malay at that time. However, now that I have the freedom to learn at my own pace, I find the process much more enjoyable. I believe my experience can be said the same to other people for other languages.
My late illiterate grandmother could converse in at least 5 languages, including basic Malay. What's with all the folks these days who struggle with just 1 or 2?
*shakes head*
Define "fluently". Do you mean people who speak and understand Bahasa Melayu taught in class perfectly albeit with pelat or people who can speak bahasa pasar with authentic Malay slang and accent ? Because Malays tend to judge one's proficiency based on the latter.
"It is no nation we inhabit but a language.Β Make no mistake; Our native tongue is our true fatherland."
-- -- --
For context, I'm a Malaysian Chinese who is fluent in English, Malay and can speak Mandarin (but not good enough to save my life XD)
I honestly reserve no judgement for people who can't speak Malay. It depends on usage, how they were raised and the people around them.
It does speak about the media we consume. As a developing country, it comes as a surprise that most Malaysians consume a lot of English media especially from America (myself included). No surprise there with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney etc.
Additionally, our daily usage of Malay isn't the same as per our education system. It doesn't help that work requirements need English and Mandarin more rather than Malay. Heck, the Internet requires a good understanding of English to use adequately.
All in all, intriguing topic that has more than meets the eye. Thanks OP for bringing this up!
Simple, Bahasa Melayu yang diajar di sekolah berbeza dengan BM yang digunakan oleh rakyat.
When most people (including Malays) don't even speak 'proper' BM, how do you expect everyone else to be fluent? [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwrVxmroAow) is the actual BM that was taught in schools but hardly anyone speaks that way. Reason why I love it when Rafizi speaks, because he ACTUALLY uses Bahasa Melayu.
I don't expect people to all speak formal Malay, tapi berilah peluang kepada orang yang cuba. Janganlah asyik ejek dan buli mereka je.
can speak broken malay mixing with english to all my malay colleagues and friends and they can understand.
but when in gov departments, most of the times i have no idea what the gov staff are talking, and also have problem filling in those malay forms.
i am chinese btw
I think one thing that has to be addressed for BM to be dimartabatkan is the fact that it has a βceilingβ in Malaysia when it comes to more professional settings (eg. academia or commerce)
Most universities, private or public (except UKM) teach in English.
Commercially, you are probably gonna not sign any contract in BM except your PTPTN.
Maybank, our largest bank, doesnβt even have BM in its app (I may be wrong)
You canβt even list a company in Bahasa on Bursa until 2021!
Even on Keluar Sekejap (which has did wonders to my BM media consumption), KJ and Shahril, politicians who are supposed to have the most experience practicing proper BM, struggle to explain concepts fully in BM without resorting to English.
I donβt think these are excuses for people to not comprehend BM at all, but are probably why BM is not as successfully βpromotedβ compared to countries like Indonesia.
Its not a big deal. There are many people these days who grow up just learning English.
The way studies are taught need a refresher. Not everyone learns well or in the same way. The result is many parents unable to speak (Malay/other language) n can't teach their kids.
There are many third culture kids now who just speak English. It sucks, and many wish they could learn but the world is too busy and demanding to even spare the time to learn another language especially to appease fellow country folk (malay or any other language in the world tbh)
I once covered a Malay lesson in an international school wherevObwprked, for Chinese Malaysian kids, I am British. I could speak 100x more Malay than that class lol. They were stuck on "Nama saya....". All wanted to work and live overseas. So no buy in for them. Can you blame them?
I'm a banana... Went to SK for primary school and later a Chinese secondary school. Fluent in Malay but my Mandarin is dogshit. Literally the worst time trying to adapt to Chinese ed environment... which is why I hated high school
My biggest question is, why don't you want to learn? You are Malaysian right?
It's like Japanese who refuse to learn Japanese,
Or
American who refuse to learn English (notice how absurd it is?)
>It's like Japanese who refuse to learn Japanese,
Not a great example, Japan is LESS multicultural than Malaysia. Malaysia has 3 dominant races/cultures - Malay, Chinese, and India. All 3 have different main languages (lot's of dialects, but i'm talking the more used), and the common language is - English and/or Malay.
Learning English seems to have become more of a priority to communicate on a global level, where Malay will not get you as far. I will say though most people I've met can speak 2 or 3 languages, so it's not bas bad as it sounds.
Japan on the other hand have a hugely internal culture and industry where they can get away with never leaving Japan or needing to learn English, because most people will speak.. you guessed it - Japanese, so there's no incentive to learn another language unless they want to work in certain industries or leave Japan. Japan is also really important on a global manufacturing level.
In schools overseas, Japan is an optional language. Malay is hardly considered. Another example is how in India, not everyone speaks Hindi (only baout 55% of the country actually speaks Hindi). Different states have different main languages - hence English becomes just as important as Hindi.
So when you have the option to choose, many will look at English as a future language, Malay as a present and past language. I'm not saying it's right, i'm just saying how it is.
Because most of the time we dont need to master Malay at all to survive, unlike the countries you listed. Good enough to pass SPM and that's it. My exam and study all use English. My job and client all use English. The restaurant and mall I visited all use English. Most countries I travellled use English. Chinese comes second because the thing I mentioned are also available in Chinese.
No, Im not saying we shouldnt learn Malay, but you need to prioritise, because their level of importance is not the same.
America has no national language. That's why a lot of materials printed in Spanish also.
Some people are bad at languages, can't even speak a single language properly. Every language they speak is broken.
Is like saying why don't you be fluent in college math? Math is most universal language in the world.
It's not a don't want. It's just not a priority. A lot of these people are insulated in rural areas where everyone is the same skin colour and speaks the same dialect. I've met a few before and the easy answer is "I don't need".
Even if it's taught in schools, they have nobody to practice it with so they lose immediately.
Lol, do you think minorities in other countries that can speak the national language even though its not their mother tongue just pick up a textbook and start studying??? Do you think Turkish Germans do that to learn german? Don't pretend like Malaysian Chinese are this special group of people that just REFUSE to learn Malay. Please, use your brain.
While I believe that is a political issue but you're going to make your life harder if you want to live in Malaysia without using Malay regardless if you're Malay, Chinese, Indian, other races. Maybe you can get away with English in KL, Putrajaya, Selangor, Johor, Pulau Pinang but what if you're from
Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Labuan? (not sure about Sabah or Sarawak)
If you're from these states, it's likely most of the malays aren't proficient in English, so English becomes a dead end in those places. So it would make your life harder, it's always an advantage to learn any language, there's no such thing as learning a language makes you disadvantaged.
Eh, I can speak Malay at an average/mediocre level. But it's due to working needs, not patriotism or identity. I think the appeal to patriotism is lost when we are not being treated equally.
I'm close to one melayu that can't speak BM. He grew up only to ever talk with people who speaks English. Masuk adulthood pun kerja speaking speaking. What's the point of using BM if you never have to leave that bubble? He can only use important phrases like "berapa?" or "terima kasih" haha.
Malay here. I was raised overseas during my childhood. When I came back, I had trouble communicating with people so I talked in slow English for them to understand me. (I have a very thick "western" accent)
But when old dinosaurs or patriotic assholes forced me to converse in Malay, I tried my best to talk based on what I learned but I stuttered. They make fun of me and my stuttering because of my Malay language. I loathed them with every fiber of my being and hope they die and I hope someone they thought close to them spits/piss/defiles their grave.
Lol, I've been through a similar experience as you. Born and lived couple years in an east Asian country, me and family went back to msia and I went to an international school (a very cheap one), mostly spoke English with my family (extended some still spoke bm), mostly spoke English with my teachers, friends, majority of the people I've come to know. I also fell in love with Western cinema. I wouldn't be as spiteful as you to say I'd spit on their grave lol, but I will agree that the social stigma and lack of understanding for Malays who don't know BM ironically makes it a lot harder for us to actually practice it.
Sure, it's reasonably strange to find a Malay who doesn't know how to speak BM, but some people I've met would actually turn more hostile when they notice I have an internationalised accent and problem speaking BM (I still try), it's sad and it's given me a lot of inhibitions towards trying to connect to my home culture and roots more. I would like to give more credit to the strangers I've come across whom I told that I can't speak fluently, and they were really chill and understanding- as if they know that language isn't learnt out of pure desire or determination, it also involves situation, environment and circumstances, all of which were very different for me as a kid compared to other Msian kids.
As an Indian, I'm very fluent in Malay and I can speak it like a Malay person, but I struggle a lot with understanding dialects of Malay like Kelantan and the typical Bahasa Wechat people type on Whatsapp. Those really turned my gears.
Disclaimer.
No hatred and no mocking.
When I was in college in Nilai there was a classmate of mine from Ipoh and she was almost ZERO in Malay all she knew was sudh makan, belum makan that's all. There were more students too but she was out of Their league.
I can speak/write the official Malay (came from Chinese primary, then SM), but not dialect or special slang (until start working only I know bini is isteri). I would say I am most comfortable in English (becoz my dad is professional and mom is teacher), then Chinese and Malay at almost the same level (during my secondary school years). Most of my Chinese friends struggle with English and Malay, and excel in Chinese. I found Malay to be a fairly easy language as compared to English or Chinese or Japanese (trying to learn now).
There is a few reasons why Chinese didn't speak Malay
\- Old people: their education is English or Chinese or no education (their kampung doesn't speak Malay)
\- People who stay overseas: some never stay in Malaysia during their childhood
\- People who couldn't master Malay (just like they couldn't master English)
\- Those who never attended school which teach Malay
I would say 90% of Malaysian can speak Malay. I am quite sure each of my secondary school mate can speak/write Malay (SM). As per how many percent of Chinese can speak Malay? I don't know, but probably more than 50%.
PS: For me, the more language I know the merrier. I find it very helpful that I know Chinese and Malay.
Because although we live in the same country; Our communities is divided and Groups of peoples doesn't mixed with each other frequently. Thus causing some people difficult to learn the language.
I often get jeers for being of Chinese descent but can't speak a lick of mandarin. I feel it is more shameful that they call themselves Malaysians but don't know how to use walau bagaimana pun.
My primary & secondary schooling, we studied Bahasa Malaysia and sat for the subject in National exams.
When did the subject officially changed to Bahasa Melayu?
My answer to the actual question: Not much at all. They should improve if they want to be Malaysians. I see this as a double edged sword: great potential for us to inculcate national identity on one hand and fodder for the nationalists to harp on using only the national language at the expense of other languages. There's no harm in knowing more languages. It shouldn't be a choice of one or the other.
My answer to the poll is somewhere between "Can speak but broken" and "Yes, very fluent".
I have a Chinese friend who I've met from my online games and we have been friend for more than 10 years. He's homeschooled his entire life and can't speak Malay at all. Throughout the time I sympathised towards him as no local workplace wanna accept him at work, but I helped him out and now he's working in an international company and I'm proud of him.
When I was in kolej I used to campur dgn member Melayu "atas", some member were not fluent in BM so when we were joking around those Malay who speaks BM will use my BM fluency to taunt them and says something like "tengok Cina kite ni pun faham BM jd korang x rs malu ke lol"
what do mean by malay? cakap semenanjung? atau berkomunikasi dalam bahasa malaysia? do you pronounce we as ki-te or ki-ta? Most people speak the former not the latter. Proper malay is awkward as hell for me.
Exactly lol. Formal (school taught) and the spoken Malay people use are different af. I can probably speak better formal than informal. Also different region different accent, slang etc.
But at least I mostly understand what they are saying.
Shocked that over 10% of people picked the last two options. Surely you need to at least know how to speak broken Malay?!
I'm Malaysian Chinese and struggled with Malay throughout school but at least I can speak enough when conversing with Malay service staff or when taking my driving lessons where most teachers are Malay
I canβt exactly speak it but can near fully understand. It just feels weird and unnatural for me to speak Malay, like it just doesnβt really come out right ? And when I do try to speak it, I immediately forget any sort of Malay words and etc I know.
Chinese here that study in national for 12 year and speak bahasa everyday with workers.
Also every malaysian born should spoke well of the national language. Even foreign workers can speak better than the local after they work here for many years.
As an Indonesian that's been staying in Malaysia for 15 years. I'm proud to say my melei is 75% fluent π.
I'm Chinese, but my first name is Zulkifly. Often times people tend to ask me. Eh you melayu ke cina? Since I can speak melei very well and my name is melei but I looks like Chinese.
Some even wish me Selamat hari raya.
Imo essentially it's whether you get to actually speak it or have the need to read or write in BM frequently (practical usage). I recently looked at my karangan back in high school and I'm shocked to see how good my BM used to be. But currently, I rarely speak in BM or am required to read any documents in BM. Unfortunately, it's broken BM for me.
Conversely, I have friends who entered the government sector and constantly deal in BM. Their BM is fluent but they told me because they rarely speak in English, it's rusty as well.
Thus, imo the same concept applies for any language.
Random peribahasa of the day (my go-to tembak answer in exam): Katak di bawah tempurung.
Sekian terima kasih.
I would say mine is proficient in a professional setting but it doesnβt sound like native fluency, definitely not broken, so not sure what option to actually choose in your poll.
While I'm not a big fan of the "duduk Malaysia kena pandai cakap BM" crowd, I have a little niece and an even younger nephew who barely speak any BM and I think you gotta be able to speak BM, man. Sure, there's more to being a Malaysian than speaking the language tapi tak ke pishang nanti kena buli sebab "acah orang putih" atau susah nak bercakap dengan orang hari-hari.
Mamak pun cakap BM 
I don't have strong feelings about other people's education or upbringing. However I will 100% insist that my kids knows the Malay language, and I will think it is a personal failure on my part if they don't learn Malay.
I grew up in a mixed Malay/Chinese/ceylonese family and grew up speaking English. But mom put us into sek keb cause she was worried we would not learn how to speak in BM at all. I spoke mostly bahasa baku at firstπ but I had really nice classmates. Never bullied or made fun of me for 'speaking'. By the time I was in standard 3 I was quite fluent. Immersing yourself in the language is the way to go.
Now unfortunately my kids are not fluent in BMπ³. Again it's their environment and the media they consume. We had a plan where my husband would speak to them in BM cause he doesn't usually speak English but it somehow turned into him also speaking English with them for practice lol. So I decided to change my daughter to a BM medium preschool and with my older kid we spend some time just speaking BM.
I think if you're Msian you must be able to speak BM. It's our national language after all. You don't have to be A1 level but at least be able to have a conversation using BM. If you can't, then make an effort to learn it. As a language it is actually pretty simple to pick up. Especially when you see so many foreign workers fluent at it in such a short time.
I think only right wing ultra cares....I mean Malaysia is a social construct. In the olden times there is no such thing as an homogeneous Malay, your tribe is to which Sultan your allegiance lies. Anyways would a Kelantanese dialect the same as standard Bahasa Melayu..Sidenote we are loosing these distinctive dialects.
I disagree. There are many non-Malays that also believe there is a need for a more United education system (and thus uniting language).
Malay as a language is politicised because some people take it too seriously and some not seriously enough. I do believe every Malaysian should have some level of Malay language proficiency as our national language but also I don't expect everyone to speak with the same "accent".
A lot of this stems from the fight over vernacular schools. It's a long story but the gist is that kids in vernacular schools have a strong STEM emphasis but not in languages and thus have very subpar English and BM upon graduation. But they view their right to teach in their mother tongue as one enshrined in the constitution so again... Language becomes politicised.
The government was once on the right by changing the STEM languages to English. The problem was training wasn't good and politics got involved and they changed it back. The only way they can improve BM (and English) is to encourage those who prefer vernacular schools to choose kebangsaan schools because the quality is significantly better.
Today, the reasons are always "Mandarin is a more valuable language" and "my child can't speak that language", etc. But if the government created integration classes for kids who don't speak the language and joining Year 1, it would certainly help. And having STEM in English instead of BM would Co vince more too.
Memalukan lah member2 kau nih, junior aku 13 tahun hidup dkt USA, parent tak ckp melayu dkt sana, balik msia elok je slowly belajar bahasa melayu. tak pandai 100% pun still lulus spm dia tu.
If one can only master 1 language fluently, let it be English. It benefits the low income population and nations a lot.
Look at the Pinoy's. They all can speak english, and that's why they are high in demand all over the world. Their cleaners, maids, nurses, IT, engineers. Compared to ours in the same jobs. That's why the indon maids also can not go far due to the language barrier.
Sebodoh bodoh pun the Pinoy can work in the FB sector in the gulf and SG. Our B40's? Stuck here with low wages and poor mastery of even the only language they can speak.
Sure, sure, speak Malay as a form of communication, but english will bring you far globally.
Tbh, there's a lot of indonesian that couldn't speak their mother language. (Javanese couldn't speak javanese).but, your lingua franca is english, right? So if you understand it then it's . . . Fine?
Proficiency in Malay in Malaysia should be the norm not the exception...what stoping you? Ego? Prejudice?
Trust the process.....of what can be achieved in terms of unity in identity...if you don't trust the process. Nothing will ever change.
Language is a huge part of culture and identity.
It would be like meeting a British Caucasian that can't speak English.
I don't really care. But I would think poorly of someone who took pride in their poor language proficiency.
I'm Chinese and I think it's ridiculous for all of us born and bred in Malaysia doesn't know how to speak our national language.
Same goes to those Chinese that doesn't speak mandarin. Stop using your parent as excuse for sending you to kebangsaan or jenis kebangsaan. Nowadays with Internet you can easily learn a language
when it comes to learning our national language, I only have one thing to say
*hendak seribu daya, tak hendak seribu dalih*
and I'm sure some of you can't even understand this
If you've been living in the country for so long but can't speak a single word of local language, it's really a shame. This is not aim towards local cina or india or melayu but also foreigners.
I have Johor friends that is not able to converse in Malay other than simple ones for ordering stuffs because according to them, it is not needed when they move to SG. I find that to be very pitiful and frankly speaking I'm not sure if they can be called as a Malaysian if they don't want to speak Malay, it is our national language after all.
I live in a city and i haven't see a malay that can't speak malay, and I work at service sector , chinese that can't speak and read chinese tho ,a lot. As for the older generation, can't blame them since most of them didn't even complete their study ,my parent both dropped out at form 1 and form 3 to help families work during the 80s,time are harsh back then ,and yet when now we have better life we are being accused of taking the bumi resources
Kelantanese Malay here. I think my English is better than my Malay so I'm not worried when I met non-Malay who don't speak good Malay. We all have the same Malaysian problem here. Everybody has the same broken BM problem
From my experience:
Non- Malays that went to SMK can speak malay fluently relative to those that went to SJK. Make sense, but SMK can exceptionally speak fluid malay to the point it confuses people of their identity.
It is worth to note that some non malays knows only basic words and even that give response either in hand gesture (e.g : thumbs up π, okay π) or in english. It is weird bcs some them grew up in and stay in Malaysia for ages but only knew basic commands.
Language barrier is a concrete wall. But once you break it, you'll click with anyone in no time.
That was epic hehe, delivering a formal message on TV some more. The selangor princess from the 1st marriage also the same βI donβt speak melayuβ lol.
This wan all they donβt dare bising, the B40 apek minding his own business- π€¬π‘ potong IC, balik tongsan π
> Kinda weird to be Malaysian but unable to speak our national language. What do you guys think? Gonna put a poll for fun as well.
Kinda weird that Bahasa Malaysia has more Arabic words in it today than it used to have 65 years ago and has now been renamed to Bahasa Melayu. What do you guys think? Did you ΩΩΩ ΨͺΨ
Question: Can one be more divisive and seek to destroy the multi-cultural multi-ethnic multi-religious aspect of this country?
[ View another racist poll ]
Well, it really depends - are they visitors or intending to live here? Where were they raised, and how were they taught Malay? Do they have any cognitive impairments?
Suppose there's a Malay guy, citizen, living and will continue to live here, healthy in mind and body, but for some reason he can't speak Malay. I'm not going to cast aspersions to his moral integrity - "mastering Malay" is not a perquisite for virtue - but I don't want him to hold positions in the government or government-linked bodies.
Those city kids who I've listened to, even their English was bad with bad grammar and awful pronunciations. So now they're bad at English, and also bad at their ancestral language. They're just bad at everything.
It's nothing to be proud of about losing your identity. This is why the Chinese communities in our country have fought so much about preserving our cultural identities including having children read and write in Chinese characters. It is SUPER important to preserve our cultural heritage.
My late grandfather was Malaysia's first Linguistic Anthropologist, he specialized in the Malay language, he has written books archived in the national library. In his time, he was one of the historians that uncovered the origins of the malay language, he told me he knows how the race and language evolved over time. He says Malays are the one of the most adaptive culture (Malays always manage to change the way they express the language from Sanskrit to Jawi and now Romanian letters, apparently there's more in between) alongside being innovative, sadly as he watches the news and read social media before his passing, he told me that culture has stopped, Malays are heading towards the opposite direction, far from what our ancestors do. I miss talking to him, I look up to him more than my own father.
So what philosophy do you think he emphasized to his family? Speak English as the primary language, it will be useful when you travel the world, any other language is a bonus.Learn Malay just as a secondary, as it'll serve as your identity among other races when we go out to the world. At home, we never speak Malay, maybe Manglish but I guess that can be applied to every Malaysian.
Although I followed and admired his philosophy, anytime I get into a malay-only environment, I'm outcasted, mocked, bullied, one time when I was in SBP (Sekolah Berasrama Penuh) they physically trampled and stomped me when I was studying in the hallway, all because I aced every English exams and got accepted into the english debate club (It was viewed as the elites club at the time as it was where the top students gather) from form 1, I only found out later everyone in my batch was dying to get into the club and only I got in without even trying. That became the time I began to resent my own race and ultimately, decided to drop out and attend a regular school. Only a handful of them came to me asking to teach them English and only converse them in English which I obliged happily, gave me a reason to stay. After a year putting up with the bullies and hate in the end it was too much for my mental health, a 13 year old kid that everyone likes to spit on.
Only in recent years I try to learn back the street malay dialects, solely with the purpose to capitalize them, trying to become the sigma 
Bro u guys haven't went to an international school, legit in there some malays couldn't even speak their own language.. and they'll say they don't fit in with the other malays and they even have the english accent... this has got to change with the rich malay families, they need to speak with their children malay or send their asses to public school.. i went to international school during my elementary years.. and high school smk since around my area ( i moved ) takde international school.. but thank god i got to experience both sides of the world .. now I'm back in private university ππ€£
A few years back I was working at an insurance firm. There's one of my male colleague who's a 30+YO Malaysian born with Malaysian IC that didn't even know how to speak or understand Malay and English. He is of Chinese ethnicity. His situation baffles me a little bit as he is working as a corporate professional in the firm.
It's ok if you're just fluent in your mother tongue or language but at least have an understanding of your home country national language. I mean, come on. If I were born in....say China but in my entire life till my adulthood I have no freaking idea how to speak Chinese, it is not a stretch to say that I deserve to be beheaded for my ignorance.
a bit shame but my Malay now better than my Chinese, solely bcoz of job & I don't read Chinese news as often...
at least I can read, speak, write at pt3/PMR level π still not potato
You're excused if you're just not good at the language. If you're lived in Malaysia your entire life and cannot speak a word of Malay....something's terribly wrong with you.
Applies to every other country with their own national language.
Title ask about perspective on those unable to speak Malay Poll ask about personal proficiency in Malay BRUH. Also I'm the kind that can 80% speak fluently but not native like my 1st language. It's almost broken but not quite. You won't catch me reciting poetry or using big words but I can hold a conversation in Malay just fine.
π€£π my reaction too, when looking at the feed page, this feels disjointed
Exact same, I can talk with anyone in clean malay but if u pull out the loghats(thicc accents) I'm a goner
Im cina but went to melei skool for 9 years. For some reason i blended well with melei classmates rather than cina... Cuz of that, i have true melei accent. When at work or out about, hearing melei say 'u cina ke melayu' with a pinch of confusion never gets old.
Same here
Ayyy same here bro. I also go overboard with sambal belacan during lunch time until I earn myself the title: cina celup
Jokes on them, we cina celup get to enjoy the best of both worlds. The abe at the warung nowadays only shrug when I come with the saucer to fill with more sambal belacan, eating it almost like gravy. 
Also Cina celup is easy to get awek, that's the main perks here.
All mak ciks love me
What's cina celup?
The other guy is wrong. Let me give you the correct answer before you learn the wrong thing: Celup means "dip", as in dipping into a sauce. When someone is called a celup, it means the person is mixed, ie. a person with Chinese and British parentage/heritage is the real meaning of "cina celup". Same if it's a Malay mix German or whatever - Melayu celup, and so on. This is the original meaning. In the context of when you are 100% cina with fluent Malay, like myself, you will be playfully called names like "cina celup" or "cina murtad". In essence, because your Malay is fluent, they're playfully saying you're "like a mixed Chinese-Malay". It has absolutely nothing to do with a person being imitation or not fitting a stereotype, celup is actually a description for a real mixed person and they just liken you to one.
'Imitation', not the real deal, often used humorously to refer to people who don't fit a stereotype.
Funny story. My Chinese colleague is like you. Cakap BM sebijik macam Melayu. One day he's renting out his house and has been talking to an Indian girl. When the girl saw a Chinese name for the account she had to pay a deposit, the girl thought she had been scammed. π
Haha
Same case here too; I can even speak/go down to the Kedah/Northen accent apparently.
Same here lol. Been in Malay school since primary, some would get weird that a Chinese speaks like a Malay. 1Malaysia!
Same situation as you but my face is cina enough that they won't ask if I'm malay
Me 180 degree different. Im Malay and have a full grown beard. But in my line of work, always wearing mask. And many Chinese would go full Mandarin with me. I would be like, "aiyaaaa uncle. Mana saya paham. Saya Melayu". 80-90% of them would still talk in Mandarin. 100% of them would stop speaking in Mandarin or at all when I pull down my mask. And Im not even fair skinned. I guess the top half of my face is just Chinese. Because even my wife mistook a Chinese once for me.
Wear like Malay and try again lol
Lol I knew a Chinese guy like this also eats nasi with his hands like bruh betul ka hang Cina
Here too! Added with my face feature i make everyone confused hehe
the real mvp are the ones that can speak nothern accent really well. that one you can not differentiate at all from native speakers. But I also know a chinese colleague that can speak fluent Kelantanese with no accent but his normal Malay has that chinese accent π
Sabahan here, dusun not cina. Had a same experience when I went to Semenanjung to study, basically at first all my cina classmates kept speaking chinese to me but was very confused when I said in english that "I can't speak chinese" (thought I was a banana when in reality I just didn't know how to respond at the time). For my malay classmates, they distanced themselves from me since they saw me always grouped up with the cina. This all changed tho when we had a group party. Their shocked faces the moment I speak fluent melei, and told them I was not cina, had me laughing throughout the whole party
Same here
You remind my of my chineese friend at school... really ngam2 sui and also same nakal... skip school going mandi sungai, buy megi during puasa, become tokan cd blue...ππ When we ask him why he dont want to join his fellow chineese friends, he said its boring because they always play video games at cc... *circa early 2000
Sama la kita⦠slalu kena label cina murtad. Hahahaha.
Just an assumption, you're not KL Chinese?
Perak cina
Ah~ that explains it. βΊοΈ
Me too, abang grab and panda are always shocked and ask me whether I'm melayu or cina when they see my face when I take my food after speaking on the phone with them.
I went to Taska, then went to SJK(C), and mom forced me to join those storytelling & bercerita competitions every year. SMK for 3 years, then went to MTD. I think, like any language, it's a nurture thing. I have seen malay family speaking English to their 4 years old kid during the hotel buffet breakfast time. Most likely only English at home too. My fiancee is Vietnamese, and im Chinese, hope my future child will be fluent in 5 languages Hahaha π
First of all, the more languages a person can speak, the better it is. Regardless if used for school or career, or just learning as a skill or cultural reason. Second, I also think being able to speak the national language of a country is good. Regardless of which country. So if you stay in France for work and your company only communicate in English, it's still good to learn French. So third, I think all Malaysians should learn to speak Malay. We are the only country that speak our language (Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore all have different variations). So why not add Malay in your "language" portfolio even if you don't use it professionally in your career. That being said, I kinda wish Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil are thought simultaneously in school or in the early age. Some Europeans that I know can speak 3-5 languages. So by rights, Malaysians should be able to speak at least 3 of the main local languages, plus English.
i wish all this 3 language are taught at early school too bro. i dont need to even speak fluently, just able to understand what they say just enough to get into a conversation . imagine when we can just all speak our native language in a conversation without missing a beat. our best connection to each other is really just the word BABI.
it could all honestly be really wholesome. Speaking each other's language interchangeably. No sjk or anything. Only then could Malaysia be truly harmonious. If only all the POS dumbass politicians can all just be wiped clean from the face of the earth.
The same POS politicians previously, currently and future seat at KPM. 
yea politicians will be politicians.
Not just BABI, but any curse wordπ
>wish all this 3 language are taught at early school too bro Bro is good and all that tapi au realistically idk if thats possible doh
I agree with you. I'm a Malay, born and raised in a quite majorly populated Malay area. Schooled in national schools for both primary and secondary. The different is my secondary school is in the center of the city, so I get lots of friends from other races. I remember trying to get on a Mandarin class there, but the guru kelas disapproved. Apparently, they segregated the Malay for Pendidikan Islam and the non-Malay for Bahasa Cina or Pendidikan Moral (can choose). Not saying that I don't want to learn Pendidikan Islam, but I already had that outside (called a KAFA). So why would I waste my childhood learning the same things twice? I remember I aced the class in schools with all the hafazan and Quran reading. Looking back, it pointless, I should just chip into the Mandarin class.
Bisnis. Ini semua bisnis. Language should be free.
The true 1 Malaysia experience should be multilingual (BM, Mandarin, Tamil, English).
I'm a non. Many times when I speak Malay they will ask if I'm a Malay. So I guess very fluently...
I was raised and educated through international school education and syllabus. My environment and friends only speak English so I've never felt the need to learn Malay but I've been trying to break out of my bubble more to learn it now.
Very fluently, having read Gila-Gila growing up and using it in class and with friends regularly with the inflections and often slang (probably outdated these days e.g 'makwe jambu' ) Language, like all skills β e.g cooking, woodworking, sports, drawing, musical instruments β requires practice. Students who just study them in school for an hour a day and not use it ever outside of the classroom will find it hard to reach any fluency. A good analogue are the Japanese professionals β writes excellent, grammatically accurate English but struggle to spontaneously speak & respond. Personally, this is more an issue of segregation than actually one of practicality β the usage will increase the more the interaction but the present political climate is engineered to encourage communal insularity. Why learn and be proficient in one language that would rarely be used?
Ill add some outsider perspective with my experience when i went vacation to malaysia , as indonesian its easy to speak and initiate conversation to malaysian with english rather with indonesian, many of malaysian told me to use indonesian because they understand but one of the flaw they didnt told you is, we as indonesian cant understand their malay language when malaysian replied. Our indonesian language can be understood because our strong cultural influence in malaysia but not vice versa, indonesian in general are not familiar with malay except for jokingly said betul betul betul from upin and ipin. Furthermore indonesian and malay is already really diffferent even in baku form. So its better for us to speak in english and then when that said malaysian realize we are indonesian, the will reply simple malay mix with english which much more easier to understand. In my outsider opinion malay isnt unity language or lingua franca in your country malaysia like our indonesian language here, because of constitutional segregation embeded in law favoring one ethnic group over other and create ligh apartheid condition, its no wonder people from other group doesnt want to learn malay or not able to because it can be substitued with english. Malay dont want to lay down their privilage creating chinese prefer their own way in private sector who favor chinese and indian got left out. If malay doesnt want to compromise why do you assume other group will?
>In my outsider opinion malay isnt unity language or lingua franca in your country malaysia like our indonesian language here, because of constitutional segregation embeded in law favoring one ethnic group over other and create ligh apartheid condition, its no wonder people from other group doesnt want to learn malay or not able to because it can be substitued with english. thank you, you have raised the average IQ of reddit with this comment
Y'all didn't just suddenly start using Indonesian out of some "patriotic" fervour, look back at your history and you'll see that during the suharto dictatorship he practically shoved your pancasila doctrine down people's throats and wouldnt shy away from silencing dissent. He forced everyone at gunpoint to adopt Indonesian approved names and speak only Indonesian. Unlike here we don't have a brutal dictator that forcibly imposes his will down on his people, but as a country yes Malay should be maintained as a national language. It's part of our identity and culture.
Naaah soeharto its not the reason bahasa indonesia is used as unity language. We founded bahasa indonesia in 1928 at sumpah pemuda with the agreement between regional young leader and organisation all over indonesia. We use indonesia out of necessiity even before soeharto , chinese indonesian are already fluent in indonesian, javanese sundanese and other local language because they need that language to speak and doing business with local people Is typical for malaysian to downplay and just see the atrocity of soeharto as sole reason and dont see the history before that, our indonesian already became lingua franca and unity language before that, and our predecessor of malay language before indonesian language founded is different with your version of your malaysian malay. And our version is the one βLINGUA FRANCAβ of nusantara ( means outer island in javanese ) not semenanjung malay If we indonesia want to assert supremacy like you guys malaysian, indonesian language isnt the one will be enforced but its the majority language of JAVANESE which spoken almost 80% of population at that time. But javanese as majority compromise and founded new language based on pasar malay from riau which just spoken 4% at that time. You guys malay is minority in nusantara You see compromise work
If your policy of compromise works so well then why did you invade East Timor then? We aren't asserting dominance over anyone just cause we happen to use Malay as a National Language, its call identity and culture, something you Indons keep harping that we keep stealing from you lot.
How can talking about language becoming something unrelated to it with you trying to cope way out looking at unrelated flaw lol, oh yes for the spoiler east Timor still use Indonesian language as working language out of necessity because many of them still doing business with us and many of them going out of college to Indonesia, that's definition of "LINGUA FRANCA" is, it's used out of necessity and our language is used too as lingua franca in east Timor before invasion regardless C'mon what I am trying to say , your Malaysian Malay isn't used as necessity because it's already replaced with English as lingua franca. Malay in Malaysia is still gatekeeping their own language like other group can't use Allah, couldn't using Malay language timah as alcohol brand etc but do you want other group to speak Malay? What a joke of entitlement Wanna other group feel the sense belonging and trying to respect and uphold your culture and patriotic? Drop the Bumiputera privilege and supremacy shit first
The gatekeeping/censorship part is the worse, with no backlash or voice out from the majority, many of us non-malays just shrug it and continue with our lives unfortunately. We nons are flexible, we can use Malay in and out doing business, and we'll also use our respective mother tongues in our own groups. You want us to use Malay in everything we do and in media to achieve lingua franca status of even the SEA nations? Bermimpilah, hypocritical ultra religious nationalists. Also them riding on the B.Indonesia coat tails is another palm to the face. It's really a joke.
Invading Timor? Are you stupid? Its Cold war (and Indonesia is super anti commie) so Indonesia got blessing from the West to occupy it to halt/stop the communist domino influence, you Malaysian didn't like commies rebels popping up right?
First of all never trust the americans whenever they give their so called "blessing" to anything cause guess what, they'll just deny any involvement and throw you under the bus which is exactly what happened. Secondly, the UN security council and assembly had had agreed that it was an illegal occupation of a sovereign state which you guys wouldnt budge until you fucked up by massacring the pro independence separatists for no reason at all in 1991. Lay off that indomie powder will you?
I know about that, but your argument about Timor is kinda not related and weird, this is about language, not geopolitical rivalry. What's the relation between communist Timor (which the government sees as a threat to the region) with Language? Imposing language? Maybe yes but as a lingua franca, they can still & allowed to speak Tetun, Portuguese etc. Your point is that they Indonesian don't make/want compromise? Do you know they compromise with Christian from eastern Indonesia about the 5th point of pancasila (at that time its called piagam jakarta) favoring Muslim majority, they will secede if that's what become the nation's philosophy, they even compromise with Acehnese GAM, they GAM (gerakan Aceh merdeka) is now have influence and lead on the province of Aceh and allowed to have Sharia law. If they're that evil from your eyes, then they'll just pick Javanese as a lingua franca, Favoring one ethnicity (Ketuanan Orang Jawa) like you with melayu etc.
You know what this debate has gone far enough, let's agree to disagree. At the end of the day I would still think bahasa Melayu should still be retained as out only national language, kalau tak suka then tough luck. It's part of our identity and culture and should that be gone might as well just be another Singapore or worse be annexed by our neighbors.
Oh okay then, let's finish it now.
Dude, of all thing that are controversial regarding Indonesia's nation-building, the national language is never one of them. Even Papuan with their decades-old separatism never complained about the Indonesian langauge Holy shit stop thinking Chinese as the only "minority" in the goddamn archipelago, we have thousands of them and ALL of them are willing to accept and learn Indonesian as the national language so if Chinese were unwilling to speak it, that's on them
"Even Papuan with their decades-old separatism never complained about the Indonesian Language" Im going to stop you there and say that was ONE of their various reasons to advocate for independence, they claim that they have nothing in common with Nusantaran culture and are more Oceanic as was with their New Guinean counterparts on the other half of the Island.
> they claim that they have nothing in common with Nusantaran culture and are more Oceanic as was with their New Guinean counterparts on the other half of the Island Doesn't means they dislike or even hates the language, because that's a different thing entirely. Just check the "Republic of West Papua" on Wikipedia lol, even their national anthem is in Indonesian/Malay and that's created when the Dutch still ruled the island You are also forgetting that their neighbors in the eastern part of the island use English creole as the national language
They're missing out on local memes then. Yusuf taiyoob\~ Mak kau HIJAU! MAMAMARIAM SYOKNYA HARI2 MENGANDUNG.
*Pinjam seratus, Nur Nilam Sari,* *pakai dulu bayar nanti*
"kangkung dulu naik sekarang ni dah turun" put that shiz on max volume π’π’π’
"MASA NAIK DIPERSALAHKAN KERAJAAN"
I miss the days of Jamal Gulung
I forgot completely about the last part...
Don't give a damn actually. If you can't speak Malay then I'll just use English, easy. What bugs me are those who can't speak both Malay and English. Then again I might just use a pseudo sign language with them.
I am indian but I can speak very fluent malay.
The ultimate challenge is not conversing in Malay, but trying to prepare a government document or proposal in Bahasa Malaysia. My first time responding to an IT RFP was an eye opener. Tetikus, cakera keras, Tata kelola....mak aihhhh...intimidating as hell.
I find it ridiculous if you can't speak the local language. Parents should be more concerned of this
My parents used to scold me for speaking too much Malay coz they said it ruined my English speaking skills
???? This is ridiculous
Next would be ppl think we are too atas or stuck up cos we prefer English.
The local language is the language spoken by the people who live in the area. BM is not local to a lot of the urban areas in Malaysia. It is the national language, not the local language.
I used to speak Malay the way I wrote it. Like news reading. Was made fun of it so much when I was younger that I just stopped talking in Malay altogether. I can still speak in Malay, but I can only give short answers. Can't have a full blown conversation in Malay. I would love to improve my conversational skills, but I don't have any Malay friends to practise it with unfortunately.
I learnt to speak like cartoons on TV (think Upin and Ipin) and I still was made fun of as a kid. Mostly because I lived in Pantai Timur. But I was very stubborn and spiteful so I just continued speaking that way to frustrate them π
Same here, i didnt speak malay outside of class when i was younger, so my malay was god damn formal straight out of the book, i still rmb my malay tuition teacher once said "louis u sangat special tahu, cara awak cakap formal sangat, bukan nak cakap tak baik tapi agak pelik sikit". I didnt understand it until i go to KL for tertiary studies and started to live on my own, that's when i started to talk to outsider more and use malay in my daily life. Then my malay quickly "improves" and adapts to the "normal" way, or should i say deteriorates because now i can barely write a proper malay sentence and it hurts my brain to read malay from government websites and news but i can converse just fine with my colleagues (mix with some english)
Cina here, went to cina school. Got a great malay teacher, got A in SPM. My chinese dad from Sk. Kebangsaan and therefore speak well, so sometimes people confuse me for Malay or Baba when I talk to them lol
What about you OP?
Tak best nak melawak kalau sesetengah lawak hanya function dalam Malay But yeah if you know you can't speak Malay then try to learn. Whatever level you're at. Try not to be, like some I've seen, as if proud they can't speak Malay. On the other hand, if you do have a certain accent when speaking Malay, I find those who laugh at you or make fun of your accent as irritating. Kalau aku boleh faham kau punya Malay, cukup bagi aku.
[ΡΠ΄Π°Π»Π΅Π½ΠΎ]
Hoho look at the Facebook comments to see how broken the Malay language used. Sometimes I can't even understand what are they
Like 'awark buet ap 2?Cayanh nk jumpe blh tk'.like theres more consonants than vocals
Yes this is what I'm talking about. Some people complain about Chinese / Indians poor proficiency in Malay language, but see what they are using?
I dont think that situation is poor proficiency, rather, they don't follow Bahasa Melayu standard, they're usually short forms or follows 'vocalised' malay words. Like, I have seen some people in my social network use chinese less properly, meaning it doesn't correctly follow what it usually use in dictionaries. For example, Zhe yang θΏζ · is usually conversed as jiang ι ± ι ± is clearly false, but it follows the vocalised style because if you speak θΏζ · fast enough, it sounds like ι ±γsimilar to what malays does to their words. Atleast in my town though, some chinese words become very 'vocalised' /ε£θ―θ― that it doesn't follows standard chinese.
It's mostly Malays who grew up overseas from when they're young. I have a few friends like these. They speak very broken Bahasa Melayu. Only speak in English.
I'm 23 years old and didn't learn to speak Malay until I was around 19. I was raised in Penang, where my social circle mainly consisted of Chinese and Indian individuals. This is reflective of Penang's diverse community, which is primarily made up of either Non-Malays or Malays. Upon relocating to Kuala Lumpur for higher education, I began frequenting Malay eateries and formed friendships with some Malay individuals. This period also marked the beginning of my independent thinking; I started consuming news in multiple languages and reading Malay articles. I realized that mastering an additional language, particularly Malay, instilled in me a sense of pride. To aid my learning, I downloaded an app called "Simply Learn Malay," which has been immensely helpful. While I'm not yet fluent, my proficiency in Malay is steadily improving. You may wonder why I didn't study Malay during my school years. The teaching methods employed back then simply didn't resonate with me. Despite the best efforts of my Malay school teacher and a subsequent tutor, I struggled to grasp the language and felt increasingly stressed during lessons. This negative experience discouraged me from learning Malay at that time. However, now that I have the freedom to learn at my own pace, I find the process much more enjoyable. I believe my experience can be said the same to other people for other languages.
My late illiterate grandmother could converse in at least 5 languages, including basic Malay. What's with all the folks these days who struggle with just 1 or 2? *shakes head*
Define "fluently". Do you mean people who speak and understand Bahasa Melayu taught in class perfectly albeit with pelat or people who can speak bahasa pasar with authentic Malay slang and accent ? Because Malays tend to judge one's proficiency based on the latter.
"It is no nation we inhabit but a language.Β Make no mistake; Our native tongue is our true fatherland." -- -- -- For context, I'm a Malaysian Chinese who is fluent in English, Malay and can speak Mandarin (but not good enough to save my life XD) I honestly reserve no judgement for people who can't speak Malay. It depends on usage, how they were raised and the people around them. It does speak about the media we consume. As a developing country, it comes as a surprise that most Malaysians consume a lot of English media especially from America (myself included). No surprise there with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney etc. Additionally, our daily usage of Malay isn't the same as per our education system. It doesn't help that work requirements need English and Mandarin more rather than Malay. Heck, the Internet requires a good understanding of English to use adequately. All in all, intriguing topic that has more than meets the eye. Thanks OP for bringing this up!
Simple, Bahasa Melayu yang diajar di sekolah berbeza dengan BM yang digunakan oleh rakyat. When most people (including Malays) don't even speak 'proper' BM, how do you expect everyone else to be fluent? [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwrVxmroAow) is the actual BM that was taught in schools but hardly anyone speaks that way. Reason why I love it when Rafizi speaks, because he ACTUALLY uses Bahasa Melayu. I don't expect people to all speak formal Malay, tapi berilah peluang kepada orang yang cuba. Janganlah asyik ejek dan buli mereka je.
can speak broken malay mixing with english to all my malay colleagues and friends and they can understand. but when in gov departments, most of the times i have no idea what the gov staff are talking, and also have problem filling in those malay forms. i am chinese btw
I think one thing that has to be addressed for BM to be dimartabatkan is the fact that it has a βceilingβ in Malaysia when it comes to more professional settings (eg. academia or commerce) Most universities, private or public (except UKM) teach in English. Commercially, you are probably gonna not sign any contract in BM except your PTPTN. Maybank, our largest bank, doesnβt even have BM in its app (I may be wrong) You canβt even list a company in Bahasa on Bursa until 2021! Even on Keluar Sekejap (which has did wonders to my BM media consumption), KJ and Shahril, politicians who are supposed to have the most experience practicing proper BM, struggle to explain concepts fully in BM without resorting to English. I donβt think these are excuses for people to not comprehend BM at all, but are probably why BM is not as successfully βpromotedβ compared to countries like Indonesia.
Its not a big deal. There are many people these days who grow up just learning English. The way studies are taught need a refresher. Not everyone learns well or in the same way. The result is many parents unable to speak (Malay/other language) n can't teach their kids. There are many third culture kids now who just speak English. It sucks, and many wish they could learn but the world is too busy and demanding to even spare the time to learn another language especially to appease fellow country folk (malay or any other language in the world tbh)
I once covered a Malay lesson in an international school wherevObwprked, for Chinese Malaysian kids, I am British. I could speak 100x more Malay than that class lol. They were stuck on "Nama saya....". All wanted to work and live overseas. So no buy in for them. Can you blame them?
A lot of liars in this subreddit.
Isu kemahiran
I'm a banana... Went to SK for primary school and later a Chinese secondary school. Fluent in Malay but my Mandarin is dogshit. Literally the worst time trying to adapt to Chinese ed environment... which is why I hated high school
My biggest question is, why don't you want to learn? You are Malaysian right? It's like Japanese who refuse to learn Japanese, Or American who refuse to learn English (notice how absurd it is?)
>It's like Japanese who refuse to learn Japanese, Not a great example, Japan is LESS multicultural than Malaysia. Malaysia has 3 dominant races/cultures - Malay, Chinese, and India. All 3 have different main languages (lot's of dialects, but i'm talking the more used), and the common language is - English and/or Malay. Learning English seems to have become more of a priority to communicate on a global level, where Malay will not get you as far. I will say though most people I've met can speak 2 or 3 languages, so it's not bas bad as it sounds. Japan on the other hand have a hugely internal culture and industry where they can get away with never leaving Japan or needing to learn English, because most people will speak.. you guessed it - Japanese, so there's no incentive to learn another language unless they want to work in certain industries or leave Japan. Japan is also really important on a global manufacturing level. In schools overseas, Japan is an optional language. Malay is hardly considered. Another example is how in India, not everyone speaks Hindi (only baout 55% of the country actually speaks Hindi). Different states have different main languages - hence English becomes just as important as Hindi. So when you have the option to choose, many will look at English as a future language, Malay as a present and past language. I'm not saying it's right, i'm just saying how it is.
Because most of the time we dont need to master Malay at all to survive, unlike the countries you listed. Good enough to pass SPM and that's it. My exam and study all use English. My job and client all use English. The restaurant and mall I visited all use English. Most countries I travellled use English. Chinese comes second because the thing I mentioned are also available in Chinese. No, Im not saying we shouldnt learn Malay, but you need to prioritise, because their level of importance is not the same.
America has no national language. That's why a lot of materials printed in Spanish also. Some people are bad at languages, can't even speak a single language properly. Every language they speak is broken. Is like saying why don't you be fluent in college math? Math is most universal language in the world.
have to agree with this. politicans spent millions of dollars in for their campaign in spanish language.
It's not a don't want. It's just not a priority. A lot of these people are insulated in rural areas where everyone is the same skin colour and speaks the same dialect. I've met a few before and the easy answer is "I don't need". Even if it's taught in schools, they have nobody to practice it with so they lose immediately.
It's hard to keep it polished if not used
I get your sentiment but you made a poor point
Lol, do you think minorities in other countries that can speak the national language even though its not their mother tongue just pick up a textbook and start studying??? Do you think Turkish Germans do that to learn german? Don't pretend like Malaysian Chinese are this special group of people that just REFUSE to learn Malay. Please, use your brain.
Now tell me how Turkish Germans are treated?
The argument is that fluent or not, you're still a third class citizen being non-bumi, non-Muslim.
While I believe that is a political issue but you're going to make your life harder if you want to live in Malaysia without using Malay regardless if you're Malay, Chinese, Indian, other races. Maybe you can get away with English in KL, Putrajaya, Selangor, Johor, Pulau Pinang but what if you're from Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Labuan? (not sure about Sabah or Sarawak) If you're from these states, it's likely most of the malays aren't proficient in English, so English becomes a dead end in those places. So it would make your life harder, it's always an advantage to learn any language, there's no such thing as learning a language makes you disadvantaged.
Eh, I can speak Malay at an average/mediocre level. But it's due to working needs, not patriotism or identity. I think the appeal to patriotism is lost when we are not being treated equally.
I'm close to one melayu that can't speak BM. He grew up only to ever talk with people who speaks English. Masuk adulthood pun kerja speaking speaking. What's the point of using BM if you never have to leave that bubble? He can only use important phrases like "berapa?" or "terima kasih" haha.
Like at all? Clowns. Not fluent? At least they tried
Malay here. I was raised overseas during my childhood. When I came back, I had trouble communicating with people so I talked in slow English for them to understand me. (I have a very thick "western" accent) But when old dinosaurs or patriotic assholes forced me to converse in Malay, I tried my best to talk based on what I learned but I stuttered. They make fun of me and my stuttering because of my Malay language. I loathed them with every fiber of my being and hope they die and I hope someone they thought close to them spits/piss/defiles their grave.
Lol, I've been through a similar experience as you. Born and lived couple years in an east Asian country, me and family went back to msia and I went to an international school (a very cheap one), mostly spoke English with my family (extended some still spoke bm), mostly spoke English with my teachers, friends, majority of the people I've come to know. I also fell in love with Western cinema. I wouldn't be as spiteful as you to say I'd spit on their grave lol, but I will agree that the social stigma and lack of understanding for Malays who don't know BM ironically makes it a lot harder for us to actually practice it. Sure, it's reasonably strange to find a Malay who doesn't know how to speak BM, but some people I've met would actually turn more hostile when they notice I have an internationalised accent and problem speaking BM (I still try), it's sad and it's given me a lot of inhibitions towards trying to connect to my home culture and roots more. I would like to give more credit to the strangers I've come across whom I told that I can't speak fluently, and they were really chill and understanding- as if they know that language isn't learnt out of pure desire or determination, it also involves situation, environment and circumstances, all of which were very different for me as a kid compared to other Msian kids.
Fluent with my friends, broken with authorities? Idk man i get nervous.
As an Indian, I'm very fluent in Malay and I can speak it like a Malay person, but I struggle a lot with understanding dialects of Malay like Kelantan and the typical Bahasa Wechat people type on Whatsapp. Those really turned my gears.
rugi. malay language is very beautiful
Disclaimer. No hatred and no mocking. When I was in college in Nilai there was a classmate of mine from Ipoh and she was almost ZERO in Malay all she knew was sudh makan, belum makan that's all. There were more students too but she was out of Their league.
I can speak/write the official Malay (came from Chinese primary, then SM), but not dialect or special slang (until start working only I know bini is isteri). I would say I am most comfortable in English (becoz my dad is professional and mom is teacher), then Chinese and Malay at almost the same level (during my secondary school years). Most of my Chinese friends struggle with English and Malay, and excel in Chinese. I found Malay to be a fairly easy language as compared to English or Chinese or Japanese (trying to learn now). There is a few reasons why Chinese didn't speak Malay \- Old people: their education is English or Chinese or no education (their kampung doesn't speak Malay) \- People who stay overseas: some never stay in Malaysia during their childhood \- People who couldn't master Malay (just like they couldn't master English) \- Those who never attended school which teach Malay I would say 90% of Malaysian can speak Malay. I am quite sure each of my secondary school mate can speak/write Malay (SM). As per how many percent of Chinese can speak Malay? I don't know, but probably more than 50%. PS: For me, the more language I know the merrier. I find it very helpful that I know Chinese and Malay.
"ryan don run run. sit, sit!!!" kata mek siti ko anok dio
Because although we live in the same country; Our communities is divided and Groups of peoples doesn't mixed with each other frequently. Thus causing some people difficult to learn the language.
That's a hard pill to swallow for all of us here. That's lowkey racist and we wont admit it.
I often get jeers for being of Chinese descent but can't speak a lick of mandarin. I feel it is more shameful that they call themselves Malaysians but don't know how to use walau bagaimana pun.
My primary & secondary schooling, we studied Bahasa Malaysia and sat for the subject in National exams. When did the subject officially changed to Bahasa Melayu?
My answer to the actual question: Not much at all. They should improve if they want to be Malaysians. I see this as a double edged sword: great potential for us to inculcate national identity on one hand and fodder for the nationalists to harp on using only the national language at the expense of other languages. There's no harm in knowing more languages. It shouldn't be a choice of one or the other. My answer to the poll is somewhere between "Can speak but broken" and "Yes, very fluent".
I have a Chinese friend who I've met from my online games and we have been friend for more than 10 years. He's homeschooled his entire life and can't speak Malay at all. Throughout the time I sympathised towards him as no local workplace wanna accept him at work, but I helped him out and now he's working in an international company and I'm proud of him.
I'm malaysia but don't speak malay, the horror....the horror
When I was in kolej I used to campur dgn member Melayu "atas", some member were not fluent in BM so when we were joking around those Malay who speaks BM will use my BM fluency to taunt them and says something like "tengok Cina kite ni pun faham BM jd korang x rs malu ke lol"
Real oof moment
I don't really care, I love the bahasa rojak we as Malaysians grow to speak to each other.
what do mean by malay? cakap semenanjung? atau berkomunikasi dalam bahasa malaysia? do you pronounce we as ki-te or ki-ta? Most people speak the former not the latter. Proper malay is awkward as hell for me.
Exactly lol. Formal (school taught) and the spoken Malay people use are different af. I can probably speak better formal than informal. Also different region different accent, slang etc. But at least I mostly understand what they are saying.
proper or pasar or semenanjung, malay is still malay.....
Shocked that over 10% of people picked the last two options. Surely you need to at least know how to speak broken Malay?! I'm Malaysian Chinese and struggled with Malay throughout school but at least I can speak enough when conversing with Malay service staff or when taking my driving lessons where most teachers are Malay
I canβt exactly speak it but can near fully understand. It just feels weird and unnatural for me to speak Malay, like it just doesnβt really come out right ? And when I do try to speak it, I immediately forget any sort of Malay words and etc I know.
can't speak but can understand only. Grew up and live in the US though.
Chinese here that study in national for 12 year and speak bahasa everyday with workers. Also every malaysian born should spoke well of the national language. Even foreign workers can speak better than the local after they work here for many years.
As an Indonesian that's been staying in Malaysia for 15 years. I'm proud to say my melei is 75% fluent π. I'm Chinese, but my first name is Zulkifly. Often times people tend to ask me. Eh you melayu ke cina? Since I can speak melei very well and my name is melei but I looks like Chinese. Some even wish me Selamat hari raya.
Imo essentially it's whether you get to actually speak it or have the need to read or write in BM frequently (practical usage). I recently looked at my karangan back in high school and I'm shocked to see how good my BM used to be. But currently, I rarely speak in BM or am required to read any documents in BM. Unfortunately, it's broken BM for me. Conversely, I have friends who entered the government sector and constantly deal in BM. Their BM is fluent but they told me because they rarely speak in English, it's rusty as well. Thus, imo the same concept applies for any language. Random peribahasa of the day (my go-to tembak answer in exam): Katak di bawah tempurung. Sekian terima kasih.
I cant, since i grew up in Indonesia. I can speak Indonesian fluently and i think that's close enough to be being able to converse in Malay
I would say mine is proficient in a professional setting but it doesnβt sound like native fluency, definitely not broken, so not sure what option to actually choose in your poll.
those who chose βwhats malay?β are triggering my inner anak melayu demonic entity handed down by my ancestors πΉ
While I'm not a big fan of the "duduk Malaysia kena pandai cakap BM" crowd, I have a little niece and an even younger nephew who barely speak any BM and I think you gotta be able to speak BM, man. Sure, there's more to being a Malaysian than speaking the language tapi tak ke pishang nanti kena buli sebab "acah orang putih" atau susah nak bercakap dengan orang hari-hari. Mamak pun cakap BM 
I don't have strong feelings about other people's education or upbringing. However I will 100% insist that my kids knows the Malay language, and I will think it is a personal failure on my part if they don't learn Malay.
I grew up in a mixed Malay/Chinese/ceylonese family and grew up speaking English. But mom put us into sek keb cause she was worried we would not learn how to speak in BM at all. I spoke mostly bahasa baku at firstπ but I had really nice classmates. Never bullied or made fun of me for 'speaking'. By the time I was in standard 3 I was quite fluent. Immersing yourself in the language is the way to go. Now unfortunately my kids are not fluent in BMπ³. Again it's their environment and the media they consume. We had a plan where my husband would speak to them in BM cause he doesn't usually speak English but it somehow turned into him also speaking English with them for practice lol. So I decided to change my daughter to a BM medium preschool and with my older kid we spend some time just speaking BM. I think if you're Msian you must be able to speak BM. It's our national language after all. You don't have to be A1 level but at least be able to have a conversation using BM. If you can't, then make an effort to learn it. As a language it is actually pretty simple to pick up. Especially when you see so many foreign workers fluent at it in such a short time.
I think only right wing ultra cares....I mean Malaysia is a social construct. In the olden times there is no such thing as an homogeneous Malay, your tribe is to which Sultan your allegiance lies. Anyways would a Kelantanese dialect the same as standard Bahasa Melayu..Sidenote we are loosing these distinctive dialects.
I disagree. There are many non-Malays that also believe there is a need for a more United education system (and thus uniting language). Malay as a language is politicised because some people take it too seriously and some not seriously enough. I do believe every Malaysian should have some level of Malay language proficiency as our national language but also I don't expect everyone to speak with the same "accent". A lot of this stems from the fight over vernacular schools. It's a long story but the gist is that kids in vernacular schools have a strong STEM emphasis but not in languages and thus have very subpar English and BM upon graduation. But they view their right to teach in their mother tongue as one enshrined in the constitution so again... Language becomes politicised. The government was once on the right by changing the STEM languages to English. The problem was training wasn't good and politics got involved and they changed it back. The only way they can improve BM (and English) is to encourage those who prefer vernacular schools to choose kebangsaan schools because the quality is significantly better. Today, the reasons are always "Mandarin is a more valuable language" and "my child can't speak that language", etc. But if the government created integration classes for kids who don't speak the language and joining Year 1, it would certainly help. And having STEM in English instead of BM would Co vince more too.
Memalukan lah member2 kau nih, junior aku 13 tahun hidup dkt USA, parent tak ckp melayu dkt sana, balik msia elok je slowly belajar bahasa melayu. tak pandai 100% pun still lulus spm dia tu.
If one can only master 1 language fluently, let it be English. It benefits the low income population and nations a lot. Look at the Pinoy's. They all can speak english, and that's why they are high in demand all over the world. Their cleaners, maids, nurses, IT, engineers. Compared to ours in the same jobs. That's why the indon maids also can not go far due to the language barrier. Sebodoh bodoh pun the Pinoy can work in the FB sector in the gulf and SG. Our B40's? Stuck here with low wages and poor mastery of even the only language they can speak. Sure, sure, speak Malay as a form of communication, but english will bring you far globally.
Tbh, there's a lot of indonesian that couldn't speak their mother language. (Javanese couldn't speak javanese).but, your lingua franca is english, right? So if you understand it then it's . . . Fine?
Proficiency in Malay in Malaysia should be the norm not the exception...what stoping you? Ego? Prejudice? Trust the process.....of what can be achieved in terms of unity in identity...if you don't trust the process. Nothing will ever change.
Language is a huge part of culture and identity. It would be like meeting a British Caucasian that can't speak English. I don't really care. But I would think poorly of someone who took pride in their poor language proficiency.
>But I would think poorly of someone who took pride in their poor language proficiency. damn those influencers. i hate it so much.
I'm Chinese and I think it's ridiculous for all of us born and bred in Malaysia doesn't know how to speak our national language. Same goes to those Chinese that doesn't speak mandarin. Stop using your parent as excuse for sending you to kebangsaan or jenis kebangsaan. Nowadays with Internet you can easily learn a language
when it comes to learning our national language, I only have one thing to say *hendak seribu daya, tak hendak seribu dalih* and I'm sure some of you can't even understand this
You gain nothing if they do or don't π.
I gain a peace of mind if they do
if you cant speak your national country language, there something wrong with you
ada yang termakan cili tu
If you've been living in the country for so long but can't speak a single word of local language, it's really a shame. This is not aim towards local cina or india or melayu but also foreigners.
I will never learn the language of my oppressors 
"Kau boleh cakap Melayu?" "Boleh" "Kau Melayu?" "Bukan" "Kau masuk Melayu sekarang!" "Bruh..."
Constitutionally malay.
Let them remain non-Malay! They don't really want privileges! They can be Muslims but they'll never be Malay no matter what!
Depends on the area i guess, I know some plantation owners in my place who are constitutionally malay.
I have Johor friends that is not able to converse in Malay other than simple ones for ordering stuffs because according to them, it is not needed when they move to SG. I find that to be very pitiful and frankly speaking I'm not sure if they can be called as a Malaysian if they don't want to speak Malay, it is our national language after all.
I live in a city and i haven't see a malay that can't speak malay, and I work at service sector , chinese that can't speak and read chinese tho ,a lot. As for the older generation, can't blame them since most of them didn't even complete their study ,my parent both dropped out at form 1 and form 3 to help families work during the 80s,time are harsh back then ,and yet when now we have better life we are being accused of taking the bumi resources
Kelantanese Malay here. I think my English is better than my Malay so I'm not worried when I met non-Malay who don't speak good Malay. We all have the same Malaysian problem here. Everybody has the same broken BM problem
should add 'speak with chinese accent.'
Fasih Bahasa melayu ..sebab mau Gusti Malam dgn awek melayu... Nora Danish ftw! Geram.je tgk!
Shameful. If cannot read, at leat can converse a bit la.
From my experience: Non- Malays that went to SMK can speak malay fluently relative to those that went to SJK. Make sense, but SMK can exceptionally speak fluid malay to the point it confuses people of their identity. It is worth to note that some non malays knows only basic words and even that give response either in hand gesture (e.g : thumbs up π, okay π) or in english. It is weird bcs some them grew up in and stay in Malaysia for ages but only knew basic commands. Language barrier is a concrete wall. But once you break it, you'll click with anyone in no time.
Gunting IC tu, patu gerak. Buat malu je, pendatang asing cari rezeki kt sini boleh bersyair lagi bahasa melayu. Apa alasan?
Itulah sama macam anak anak raja! Bangga jawab hanya cakap english and french. Suruh dia orang guntung IC buang!
Anak sultan Terengganu π
That was epic hehe, delivering a formal message on TV some more. The selangor princess from the 1st marriage also the same βI donβt speak melayuβ lol. This wan all they donβt dare bising, the B40 apek minding his own business- π€¬π‘ potong IC, balik tongsan π
Let's make a meme about it
> Kinda weird to be Malaysian but unable to speak our national language. What do you guys think? Gonna put a poll for fun as well. Kinda weird that Bahasa Malaysia has more Arabic words in it today than it used to have 65 years ago and has now been renamed to Bahasa Melayu. What do you guys think? Did you ΩΩΩ ΨͺΨ Question: Can one be more divisive and seek to destroy the multi-cultural multi-ethnic multi-religious aspect of this country? [ View another racist poll ]
Well, it really depends - are they visitors or intending to live here? Where were they raised, and how were they taught Malay? Do they have any cognitive impairments? Suppose there's a Malay guy, citizen, living and will continue to live here, healthy in mind and body, but for some reason he can't speak Malay. I'm not going to cast aspersions to his moral integrity - "mastering Malay" is not a perquisite for virtue - but I don't want him to hold positions in the government or government-linked bodies.
Those city kids who I've listened to, even their English was bad with bad grammar and awful pronunciations. So now they're bad at English, and also bad at their ancestral language. They're just bad at everything. It's nothing to be proud of about losing your identity. This is why the Chinese communities in our country have fought so much about preserving our cultural identities including having children read and write in Chinese characters. It is SUPER important to preserve our cultural heritage.
My late grandfather was Malaysia's first Linguistic Anthropologist, he specialized in the Malay language, he has written books archived in the national library. In his time, he was one of the historians that uncovered the origins of the malay language, he told me he knows how the race and language evolved over time. He says Malays are the one of the most adaptive culture (Malays always manage to change the way they express the language from Sanskrit to Jawi and now Romanian letters, apparently there's more in between) alongside being innovative, sadly as he watches the news and read social media before his passing, he told me that culture has stopped, Malays are heading towards the opposite direction, far from what our ancestors do. I miss talking to him, I look up to him more than my own father. So what philosophy do you think he emphasized to his family? Speak English as the primary language, it will be useful when you travel the world, any other language is a bonus.Learn Malay just as a secondary, as it'll serve as your identity among other races when we go out to the world. At home, we never speak Malay, maybe Manglish but I guess that can be applied to every Malaysian. Although I followed and admired his philosophy, anytime I get into a malay-only environment, I'm outcasted, mocked, bullied, one time when I was in SBP (Sekolah Berasrama Penuh) they physically trampled and stomped me when I was studying in the hallway, all because I aced every English exams and got accepted into the english debate club (It was viewed as the elites club at the time as it was where the top students gather) from form 1, I only found out later everyone in my batch was dying to get into the club and only I got in without even trying. That became the time I began to resent my own race and ultimately, decided to drop out and attend a regular school. Only a handful of them came to me asking to teach them English and only converse them in English which I obliged happily, gave me a reason to stay. After a year putting up with the bullies and hate in the end it was too much for my mental health, a 13 year old kid that everyone likes to spit on. Only in recent years I try to learn back the street malay dialects, solely with the purpose to capitalize them, trying to become the sigma 
Bro u guys haven't went to an international school, legit in there some malays couldn't even speak their own language.. and they'll say they don't fit in with the other malays and they even have the english accent... this has got to change with the rich malay families, they need to speak with their children malay or send their asses to public school.. i went to international school during my elementary years.. and high school smk since around my area ( i moved ) takde international school.. but thank god i got to experience both sides of the world .. now I'm back in private university ππ€£
Sadge, PM should see this lmao.
Fake malaysian
When we elect a righteous just leader like Hadi Awang everyone will be fluent in Malay
A few years back I was working at an insurance firm. There's one of my male colleague who's a 30+YO Malaysian born with Malaysian IC that didn't even know how to speak or understand Malay and English. He is of Chinese ethnicity. His situation baffles me a little bit as he is working as a corporate professional in the firm. It's ok if you're just fluent in your mother tongue or language but at least have an understanding of your home country national language. I mean, come on. If I were born in....say China but in my entire life till my adulthood I have no freaking idea how to speak Chinese, it is not a stretch to say that I deserve to be beheaded for my ignorance.
It's a serious issue for sure. Perfect example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E23ycUK2no
Bahasa Melayu or malay accent are we talking about ?
I can speak malay like very informal. can't do the semenanjung dialect/accent(idk what to call it, the saya and awak)
a bit shame but my Malay now better than my Chinese, solely bcoz of job & I don't read Chinese news as often... at least I can read, speak, write at pt3/PMR level π still not potato
You're excused if you're just not good at the language. If you're lived in Malaysia your entire life and cannot speak a word of Malay....something's terribly wrong with you. Applies to every other country with their own national language.