Malaysia: Talk

The sole official language of Malaysia is Malay (Bahasa Malaysia or colloquially, Bahasa Melayu). Some parts of Malaysia near the Thai border, most notably Kelantan have dialects of Malay which are nearly incomprehensible to speakers of standard Malay, though most people in these areas will be able to converse in standard Malay if needed. English is also a compulsory subject in all schools and widely spoken in the larger cities although in rural areas a little Malay will come in handy. There is also a colloquial form of English spoken among Malaysians in urban areas, not inappropriately known as Manglish, which takes a bit of getting used to if you intend to join in the conversation on local topics. Malaysians will almost always try to speak 'standardized English' when approached by Western travellers.

Arabic is taught to those who attend Islamic religeous schools, and many clerics as well as other very staunch Muslims will have a functional command of Arabic. However, it is not widely spoken, though the Malay language does have a large number of loan words from Arabic.

The Chinese community in Malaysia speaks a wide variety of Chinese dialects including Cantonese, Mandarin, Teo-chew, Hakka, Hainanese, Hok-chew and Hokkien. Mandarin is taught in most Chinese schools while Cantonese is commonly heard on in the mass media, so most Malaysian Chinese would be conversant in both, regardless of their native dialect. The most commonly spoken Indian language is Tamil; others include Malayalam, Punjabi and Telugu.

In the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia bordering Thailand, there are various ethnic Thai communities, known locally as the Orang Siam, who speak various dialects of Thai. Malacca in the south is also home to a Portuguese community which speaks a Portuguese based creole. The remote forest areas of Peninsular Malaysia are also home to various tribal people known as the Orang Asli, who speak various indegenious languages such as Semelai, Temuan and many others. In East Malaysia several indigenous languages are also spoken, especially Iban and Kadazan.