So what about Bahasa Malaysia?

Question

I came across some Questions here in Yahoo, saying that in Malaysia the national langguage (Bahasa Malaysia) is seldom being used in communicating whereas to English. For me it's true if you're expecting Malaysian to speak fluent BM as if with none grammartical errors an so on. Malaysians instead normally used bahasa rojak. Since most of non Malays in Malaysia aren't fluent in bahasa rojak or slangs, that is why they tend to communicate in English. But still, not English-English but more to Manglish. True?

the english langguage too loans words from other langguages, Arabic, Tamil blah blah...
Bahasa rojak is like similiar to African-American rappers. Dont you think?

Answer 1

i used to understand bahasa malaysia way back when they were much simpler then.. But nowadays there are so many new words. I first heard the word 'teruja' 2 years ago and i found myself asking what 'teruja' means. Recently i went to takaful nasional website, i found myself lost coz the options are all in malay and i dont understand these new words. Call me old and outdated, but I am a Malay and i dont understand the new malay words. What irony is that? If i could score BM back in my younger days, i dont think i could do the same again, i think bahasa malaysia are getting difficult to follow as somebody in dewan pustaka are getting busy adding new vocabulary deemed suitable and people like me are always behind trying to catch up. Yes i understand Malay Language as in general, but there are still some certain new words i still didnt know existed and it pisses me off big time.

Answer 2

i would have to say that, i am guilty as charged. I am a Malaysian and to be honest, my Malay is much worse than my English. But, then comes another problem when all Malaysians are good in BM.

The outside world will say that we are incompetent and that we are not international enough being all proud of our language and not learning good English.

And, another thing would be that I think that my Malay is good enough to survive especially when Malay is only spoken in mostly the South East Asia region.

All and all, i am proud to be Malaysian, and i feel that we do not need to be superb in Malay as long as i know enough and i know where is come from.Eventhough my language can sometimes be rojak like.

Answer 3

ha, 'the bear', thumbs up!

I am a foreigner, and I think I speak pretty good Malay (yes, called Bahasa Melayu nowadays, I wonder why - it kind of reflects that it is not the common language of all Malaysians, kan...). But I am in Sabah and we speak again a different Malay, closer to Bahasa Indonesia. I have no troubles understanding Indonesians (and they are abundant here in Sabah...), but I have problems with 'Semenanjung slang'... you have to look at it from a historical perspective to understand the evolution and changes in modern day Bahasa Melayu, but I can asure you, it is a beautiful language, and BM (Bahasa Indonesia, that is) belongs to the five great world languages that will, once all the other now existing 6000 languages, including Iban, Kadazan, Bidayuh, Rungus etc survive alongside English, Spanish, German and Chinese. So maybe it would be better to try and gain a good understanding and mastering of the national language, and of course at the same time also cultivate good English, it has many uses...

Answer 4

BM is a clumsy language. Of course most of Malaysians can't speak decent English, me included. I can understand and speak bahasa rojak. In Sarawak BM is not in frequent use, people speak bahasa Sarawak to communicate, in rural areas knowing Iban is more useful. BM is a funny language, but I can't criticise loads of loan words since my mother language (Iban) is also full of loan words.

Answer 5

I must agree that most non-malays speak not so good Malay and most Malaysian nowadays speak well, not good English too. Bear in mind that Malay is a fairly 'young' language, in the sense that it's still growing. There are many words that do not exist in the Malay language, in which case, foreign words need to be imported, but in order for that imported word to be malay'ized, it needed to be well, localized, hence word like komunikasi. Well, syarikat, pejabat, faham, mungkin is arabic, right? That's borrowed but who's complaining? Why complain now that the English words are being borrowed? Why complain when the Malaysians have created for themselves their own form of English-Malay way of communication? Language is a form of communication, as long as this Manglish, whatever -lish you may call it, can be understood, well, by you even, it's a success, no?

I must say that in a way I am proud to see so many Malaysians proud of themselves, yes, blindly proud, but still proud to be Malaysian. Please note that not all are blind not to see that English is on the decline, the government is now really trying hard to bring the standard back up. Give them a chance, let Malaysians be proud Malaysians.

Answer 6

I don't know why people keep to say nasty thing to 'Bahasa Malaysia'. Every language in this world is unique in its own way. Every country has it's own mother tongue and that's what differentiate us from others nation. All of us just have to
respect that. I'm not deny that English is important for us to master but please leave the respect towards our own mother tongue.

It's so shame to say something not nice towards 'Bahasa Malaysia' while you're Malaysian, live in Malaysia, studying in Malaysia and working in Malaysia.

Answer 7

Melayu don't even bother to speak BM grammatically correct. I've been picking up some BM, not by choice, and constantly am asking my friends what a word means, but am constantly told "oh that's slang". The best I can understand is that not only do they not bother to speak English correctly, they also don't bother to speak their own language correctly.

If they have such a problem with English or other languages, I say that we pull all business out where the parent company doesn't speak BM natively and see where the Malaysia economy goes. I read/write/speak English, Thai, and Spanish and am in the process of picking up quite a bit of Mandarin, yet I fail to see the reason to learn BM even though I'll be here for quite some time.

I won't delve too deep into their education system. I find it absolutely comical when I run across someone with a BSEE that doesn't even know Ohm's law, and smoke comes out of their ears when I give them a simple opamp problem. Granted I went to one of the best tech schools in the US, Cal Poly SLO, but I have yet to meet someone who I felt actually earned their degree, besides those educated outside of Malaysia.

Answer 8

Non malays is denying the fact that bahasa is the national language.. normally is the non-malays normally seldom used bahasa in communication.. so when time comes where they have to talk in bahasa.. they'll sound so terrible even sometimes it makes me laugh..
for me we have our own expertise on certain language.. especially mother language..

Answer 9

bahasa malaysia is useless.
so many words are from other language..
risk - risiko
communication - komunikasi

bahasa malaysia always use the wrong spelling of english words n claimed tat tat word is a malay word.

It educates people to use the wrong spelling, when it comes to english, many students will write it in a different spelling.

Answer 10

I Love Bahasa Malaysia!!!!!!!!!!!!
Malaysia Boleh!!!!!!!
Damn all of you who say bad things about BM!