According to the Malaysian Constitution, Malay or Bahasa Malaysia is the national language and every Malaysian is highly encouraged to learn it. In reality, mastery of that language varies from community to community as national schools use it as the medium of instruction while Chinese and Indian vernacular schools only teach it as a language subject. Nevertheless Malay is the official language, and all government related affairs, legal and parliamentary proceedings, and official statements are conducted in this language.
Malaysian Standard English is unofficially the second language in Malaysia due to its historical and current global importance. English is taught in every school, but method of teaching English does not make the students proficient speakers of the language; grammar is not studied in depth in the syllabus.
In the early 20th century, the Chinese in the country mostly speak dialects from different regions in China where they immigrated from e.g. the Hakka, Hokkien, and Cantonese etc. Most Malaysian Chinese children go to Mandarin-medium primary schools but most of them make the switch to Malay-medium secondary school because Chinese-medium secondary schools are not free apparently. As such, the use of Mandarin is growing as the unifying language for the majority of Malaysian Chinese.
The Indian community comprise hugely of ethnic Tamils and other South Indians while the rest of the Malaysian Indian community are from North India. So the almost de facto official language of Indians in Malaysia is Tamil.
The indigenous communities in East Malaysia have their own ethnic languages. And it’s worth mentioning that since Malaysia is the heartland of the Malay peoples, the Malay language itself has many dialects and creoles which formed regionally within the large expanse of the Malay Archipelago.
When communities converge and intermingle, like in other cosmopolitan countries, you see a variety of language by-products, the first being foreign word adoption. Each language, especially their colloquial forms, finds itself using words from another even in modern times. The Malay language for instance is enriched with a lot of English (the last colonial power in Malaysia) words for words like patriotisme, demokrasi and polis and other borrowed words include samseng (gangster) from Chinese, kedai (shop) from Tamil.
Another phenomenon that pops up in a melting pot such as Malaysia is the emergence of creoles. One notable but almost extinct creole is the Baba Malay that is based on Malay but is heavily influenced by Chinese Hokkien dialect. Bizarre as it sounds there is another Portuguese based creole called Kristang that has persevered for over 600 years since the Portuguese last conquered Malacca.
We all hope that our children do their best in school, but the reality is that many will never get those A’s and B’s you wish for. They may not be adept at languages but have exposure to many, and mastering even one language may be too much to ask for. What’s happening is that when constructing sentences, written or spoken, words that come to mind are not necessarily from the same language. Colloquialisms, coffee shop chats, chatroom banter is represented by a mishmash of local languages or bahasa rojak as we like to call it.
Manglish or Malaysian English (sounds like Mangled English doesn’t it) sounds a lot like Singlish if you’ve heard of it. It can be considered a creole itself with English as its base but with many local slang words, and borrowed words from Chinese, Malay and Tamil. It even has its own augmented grammar. But depending on whom you talk to and their backgrounds, Manglish can be more skewed towards Malay, Chinese or Tamil. It’s terrifying that for some Malaysian, all the English they know is actually Manglish.
What may seem like a colourful country is in fact a black spot for nation building. There remain pockets of racially divided communities that do not speak Malay, the national language nor English. I see this especially in West Malaysia, where tempers flare even today, 50 years after independence, over misunderstandings and cultural differences. The situation today continues to drive communities apart with newspaper, television and social media all catering to each community’s wants.
The Malay language doesn’t seem to be a good integrator for the Malaysian society because simply it’s too closely intertwined with Malay culture and Islam. The custodian of the language is a body called Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka, and their bias shows. In fact, from 1986 to 2007 the official language was changed to Bahasa Melayu or the Malay Language as opposed to the more inclusive Bahasa Malaysia name. The Cabinet realised that The Malay language belongs to Malaysians of all races and not just the Malays.
We should make comparisons with a few neighbours. In Thailand, the Thai language is imposed on all citizens. However, in majority ethnic Malay regions of southern Thailand, wars are waged to keep their Malayness. A land with as many ethnic groups as they have islands, Indonesia is united by the common language Bahasa Indonesia which is the only language taught in schools. Singapore, which seceded from Malaysia decades ago, uses English to unite their people. English is a neutral language, and not affiliated to any ethnic community. In other Asian countries minorities either blend into the majority like Vietnam and Phillipines, or are united by a true national language as in Indonesia.
Back in Malaysia, how can other communities embrace the national language without all its cultural attachments? They can’t right now. For most of us non-Malays, the national language will always be a second language mainly reserved for official use and dealings with Malay friends. A good example is that when a typical non-Malay speaks Malay, it sounds awkward because the speaker hardly uses it. But to be a truly Malaysian language, all communities must share it, advance it and cherish it. That’s not happening right now. Forging a new future united for this nation is like tracing a path through a socio-political minefield. How this would be tackled by the government, we have to wait and see.
Malaysian Standard English is unofficially the second language in Malaysia due to its historical and current global importance. English is taught in every school, but method of teaching English does not make the students proficient speakers of the language; grammar is not studied in depth in the syllabus.
In the early 20th century, the Chinese in the country mostly speak dialects from different regions in China where they immigrated from e.g. the Hakka, Hokkien, and Cantonese etc. Most Malaysian Chinese children go to Mandarin-medium primary schools but most of them make the switch to Malay-medium secondary school because Chinese-medium secondary schools are not free apparently. As such, the use of Mandarin is growing as the unifying language for the majority of Malaysian Chinese.
The Indian community comprise hugely of ethnic Tamils and other South Indians while the rest of the Malaysian Indian community are from North India. So the almost de facto official language of Indians in Malaysia is Tamil.
The indigenous communities in East Malaysia have their own ethnic languages. And it’s worth mentioning that since Malaysia is the heartland of the Malay peoples, the Malay language itself has many dialects and creoles which formed regionally within the large expanse of the Malay Archipelago.
When communities converge and intermingle, like in other cosmopolitan countries, you see a variety of language by-products, the first being foreign word adoption. Each language, especially their colloquial forms, finds itself using words from another even in modern times. The Malay language for instance is enriched with a lot of English (the last colonial power in Malaysia) words for words like patriotisme, demokrasi and polis and other borrowed words include samseng (gangster) from Chinese, kedai (shop) from Tamil.
Another phenomenon that pops up in a melting pot such as Malaysia is the emergence of creoles. One notable but almost extinct creole is the Baba Malay that is based on Malay but is heavily influenced by Chinese Hokkien dialect. Bizarre as it sounds there is another Portuguese based creole called Kristang that has persevered for over 600 years since the Portuguese last conquered Malacca.
We all hope that our children do their best in school, but the reality is that many will never get those A’s and B’s you wish for. They may not be adept at languages but have exposure to many, and mastering even one language may be too much to ask for. What’s happening is that when constructing sentences, written or spoken, words that come to mind are not necessarily from the same language. Colloquialisms, coffee shop chats, chatroom banter is represented by a mishmash of local languages or bahasa rojak as we like to call it.
Manglish or Malaysian English (sounds like Mangled English doesn’t it) sounds a lot like Singlish if you’ve heard of it. It can be considered a creole itself with English as its base but with many local slang words, and borrowed words from Chinese, Malay and Tamil. It even has its own augmented grammar. But depending on whom you talk to and their backgrounds, Manglish can be more skewed towards Malay, Chinese or Tamil. It’s terrifying that for some Malaysian, all the English they know is actually Manglish.
What may seem like a colourful country is in fact a black spot for nation building. There remain pockets of racially divided communities that do not speak Malay, the national language nor English. I see this especially in West Malaysia, where tempers flare even today, 50 years after independence, over misunderstandings and cultural differences. The situation today continues to drive communities apart with newspaper, television and social media all catering to each community’s wants.
The Malay language doesn’t seem to be a good integrator for the Malaysian society because simply it’s too closely intertwined with Malay culture and Islam. The custodian of the language is a body called Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka, and their bias shows. In fact, from 1986 to 2007 the official language was changed to Bahasa Melayu or the Malay Language as opposed to the more inclusive Bahasa Malaysia name. The Cabinet realised that The Malay language belongs to Malaysians of all races and not just the Malays.
We should make comparisons with a few neighbours. In Thailand, the Thai language is imposed on all citizens. However, in majority ethnic Malay regions of southern Thailand, wars are waged to keep their Malayness. A land with as many ethnic groups as they have islands, Indonesia is united by the common language Bahasa Indonesia which is the only language taught in schools. Singapore, which seceded from Malaysia decades ago, uses English to unite their people. English is a neutral language, and not affiliated to any ethnic community. In other Asian countries minorities either blend into the majority like Vietnam and Phillipines, or are united by a true national language as in Indonesia.
Back in Malaysia, how can other communities embrace the national language without all its cultural attachments? They can’t right now. For most of us non-Malays, the national language will always be a second language mainly reserved for official use and dealings with Malay friends. A good example is that when a typical non-Malay speaks Malay, it sounds awkward because the speaker hardly uses it. But to be a truly Malaysian language, all communities must share it, advance it and cherish it. That’s not happening right now. Forging a new future united for this nation is like tracing a path through a socio-political minefield. How this would be tackled by the government, we have to wait and see.
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