Can't Malaysians speak or type proper English?

Question

I was dumbfounded recently running through Malaysian websites and forum groups with Malaysian participants. It is a nightmare trying to comprehend what they are trying to get across through their short cuts and slangs which honestly, only Malaysians understand.

On the other hand, meeting another Malaysian is a pleasant thing with their friendliness and so forth but I often find that their lack of proper English is a poverty in their culturally rich nation.

I had learnt all my life that Malaysian English is supposed to be British English but this is embarrasing for the Malaysian education system and society as general for their lack of improvement in their language.

All I hear of these days are corrupted English slangs and horrible spellings. What and how do Malaysians is going to move on this centuary with such disgrace in their language?

Go read a Malaysian blog, read the comments on Yahoo Answers. Malaysians give the darnest English. What is made up of their words and numbers, I wonder... What's with that slang and thinking its so cool?

English is the 'second language' of Malaysians. However I am surprised that even countries like Thailand is not an English speaking nation, they seem to have better English than a former British colony.

This is not an attack or insult to Malaysians, I respectfully invite you for your views and those non Malaysians alike to participate. I hope most of you could understand what I am trying to get across here.

And by the way, how are they going to improve themselves when they can't even accept constructive criticisms?

Often do I find their angry responses boring and same old 'if you don't love Malaysia, get out' attitude.

Mind me, I mentioned PROPER English. Not PERFECT ENGLISH. See? Those who are not answering me are just too defensive! Come on, Malaysians, open up -LAH. I suppose you wouldn't want your kids to start speaking like R2D2 to you in the future? Most people are typing in these kind of spellings and words so uncomprehensible! Malaysians LOVE to complain but what are they trying to achieve? What are they actually doing to themselves? I am in a sorry state for this beautiful country. Its not the LANGUAGE that matters, its how to GET ACROSS with other people. I suppose you would agree with me on this :-)

Answer 1

GOOD JOB, BEAR! YOU'VE JUST ASKED THE QUESTION OF ALL TIME... I have always wondered this and never imagined someone would eventually come up with this topic!

I guess the rest of the answerers were not answering you at all. Most of them were too concerned about their stupid egoistic pride about being "tidak apa" and refuse to admit this widespread problem. You are right, it isn't about speaking PERFECT English, it is just PROPER English that needs to be spoken/written.

Ask any employer these days, what is the BIGGEST problem with interviewing Malaysians? ENGLISH! Its the attitude of Malaysians of not being BOTHERED enough to improve and making it worse, being so PROUD of their corrupted language!

No wonder why KL is ranked as the THIRD RUDEST city in the world... look at the response of some of the answerers, they are just too plain ignorant about Bear's question. He asked about how Malaysians are going to improve/how Malaysians are going to go on this century (excuse that 'a' willya?)??? What did they say? They are adding fuel to the fire and showing how stupid and arrogant they are (you know for yourself who you are), denying this very fact.

Like what Dave says, it is horrible and frustrating especially in restaurants. To add to that, you really need to scramble your intelligence in order to understand things like:
wut2do? <--- Now I know what do you mean by R2D2
wast ist/dis1 <--- Is it German?

On comments, etc...:
"haha! wat toking u? since when chin peng will yuan wang ppl one wor? she so good to kang jia li sha" <--- Heck, what the hell is this???

Come on, its not the end of Malaysian English. You guys have a great culture and tradition, but English is English. Its fine to have slangs but I guess you guys are forgetting the main issue, its about communication --- COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION!!!

I too, don't think it is a problem for people to speak in slangs. Do you think that Aussies are easily understood by the Europeans? And please don't be stupid to ask or compare Malaysians with other countries. This is such a typical Malaysian problem. The very moment someone criticise them, they start diverting attention to other countries.

IF ONLY... Malaysians can truly learn from other countries, I guess there would be better progress, but unfortunately, many Malaysians are too 'contented' and happy for being in such a state.

For people who are too interested in correcting other's English, let me make a point --- NOBODY CARES ABOUT GRAMMAR ANYMORE THESE DAYS, especially Malaysians who probably don't give two *hoots*.

Ever wondered why Thailand is becoming so much accomodating to tourists eventhough they don't have the 'World Largest Everything' hoo-haa? Its because they are moving with time, and they learn to be innovative and improvise, unlike defensive Malaysians who only know how to talk, criticise and DO NOTHING (as far as I can remember, this wasn't the true Malaysian spirit. Today, everybody is so afraid to stand up for their own rights or even willing to call themselves 'Malaysian' anymore, it is more to being 'Chinese, Malay, Indian' over and over. Who the hell said Malaysia belongs to only these three races? I bet Malaysia is ever more racist these days. Probably this is one factor why Malaysians REFUSE to do any good to themselves as Malaysians).

I'm afraid there is more to be done if Malaysians are ever going to improve themselves. The answers and comments are just reflecting on how stupid these idiots are, when someone such as bear is trying to highlight.

Answer 2

Most Malaysians will attempt to speak English - not British English, which is a disgusting expression, full marks to them.
The Malaysian education system lost its way with language tuition from the late 60s, preferring that everyone be taught Bahasa Melayu, in itself an estimable goal, Unfortunately, the rest of the World,with the possible exception of France, viewed English as the international language, and Malaysia fell by the wayside.
Sometime in the late 90s Malaysia woke up to their error and is trying to do somehing about it, again full marks.
One of the problems is that malaysians tend to do direct translation, from english idiom to malay and vice versa, this causes confusion as the 2 languages are not really compatible. Further problems are old fashioned slang, and the the tendency to drop the last syllable, the last 2 again caused by the 30 year gap in teaching.
I applaud malaysians for trying.

Answer 3

English is not our first language, so it’s NORMAL if we make mistakes here and there. Why this has turn out to be an issue for u? I bet u might be either lazy or uneducated (or both) as u constructed grammatically incorrect sentences in English like “Why do Malaysians do not speak good English” and “…why I can't speak Malaysian, do is not what I'm asking”. Didn’t you notice any grammatical error or incorrect sentence structure in those sentences that u’ve made? How pathetic… I’m just a cleaner but I can construct better English sentences than u do. So do other cleaners in Malaysia. It shows that your level is far lower than a cleaner in Malaysia. Shame on u. BTW, what is your job, huh? A cleaner in US or what?

Answer 4

I'm a Malaysian,self taught in English (I preferred learning on my own). Throughout my years I've had met many people who do terribly in English,it's not because they do not want to,but as a matter of fact they see English at this point unnecessary and aren't used to it. My father lived in Australia for 5 years,one of my family members who speaks finest,purest Australian accent and very good at it. He taught me how to speak in an exceptional way,unlike typical Malaysian's English. I've tried out English books,really awful. English is often translated to Malay which is so wrong to learn from.

And oh,not all of them. My teachers here are quite decent.

Answer 5

I think that as a Malaysian, I should clear this out for you. We Malaysians have a near 90% of English knowledge rate. We also have a lot of 'bumiputra's, they are the original race living in Malaysia and they still live in the jungles. Most of them have started going to school even though they almost can't afford. I think that most Malaysians speak good and understandable English, perhaps you've read some blogs that weren't been carefully written as we don't always type in full correct spelling and grammar. To make things short, Malaysians speak English and some only know English and a bit of Malay. English is actually a main language for most people nowadays in Malaysia. I have shared my opinion and I fully hope you have gained more understanding towards our nation. :)

Answer 6

Wow. You have a lot of nerve. You comment on us not speaking and typing proper English. Did you read what YOU typed in the first place?
What and how do Malaysians is? Hahahaha.
Centuary? Like really?
Go check with your English teacher first before you start passing out remarks.

We accept all criticisms only with proper spelling and grammar. Thank you!

Answer 7

I have been to all over the world. Especially English speaking country. Until now i still cant find a country that produce a good English speaking citizens. Most speaking English country they just like Malaysian,they have dialect or slang too. Even if you are professional. Sometimes we do make mistake on grammars or nouns but we do understand each other. Its not the grammar or nouns the problems coz we are not being tested while making any conversations. Even on writing blog, they just being them self, as you are, maybe you are in a educations sections, that's why you really watch out yr language and your spellings. Look at other language blog too, or just here, its enough i think, some dint even spell out right too. In British they have slang too, doesn't mean we followed British English we have to speak like British people. I hated to think about that. Its MALAYSIAN ENGLISH... OK.

Answer 8

I’m Filipino, I’ve been to Malaysia last year and have the chance to spoke with Malaysians from different walk of life (taxi drivers, sales lady, IT expert at Cyberjaya). Although your English is not that perfect especially on spelling and grammar, but I think your doing good. It is great if you could master the language but you have to remember that even the Americans & British don’t have a perfect English.

Answer 9

I think that you are being a little bit harsh on the Malaysian people of today. Just have a look around any other 'Yahoo Answer' section (Polls & surveys, for example) and the written English there is absolutely appalling and most of them are American/British.

("wat u fink i shld do b4 i krazy" was one I read the other day)

French is the official second language taught in UK schools, but I bet you after leaving school at least 90% of all Brits couldn't write a complete sentence down in French let alone hold a conversation in French.

English is a living, breathing forever changing and evolving language, no matter how much we dislike that fact it cannot be stopped.

Just imagine if the English written and spoken today was banned and we all had to speak and write in Shakespeare's English, "Wouldth thou understandth one's poser"?

Answer 10

hey, even americans and englishmen have their own slang. u blame malaysians for their slang, say, "don't play-play ah", but do malaysians blame them for pronouncing 'kacang' as 'kaceng'?

and u have to remember that the main races in malaysia are malays, chinese and indians. not english.

can u blame americans for not be able to speak spanish or french right? for God's sake, those aren't their languages!

if u r blaming malaysians for not speaking malay right, then i can understand (though chinese, indians and other races cannot be put into fault as malay is not exactly their mother tongue)

or maybe, how about some forgiveness? it's not exactly a sin, right? only annoying to some people. have a nice day. it's a good question, though.

and for malaysians, maybe it's time we improve our english. this guy has a point, u know.

Answer 11

I'm a Malaysian myself. I must clarify that English is NOT the 2nd language for most of us as we started with our mother tongue, pick up Malay & English during our schooling days. So, as you can see, English is the 3rd or maybe 4th language for Malaysians.
As for forum groups, the short cuts & slangs used is the influence of Americans & Englishmen style of abbreviations in typing sms adapted in our culture.