Nowadays, not many Malaysian really use this language as their day-to-day communication icon. We can even meet Malay who can't really communicate via their mother language. Why is this happening to us? Couple of days ago, the Award Winning Actress, Sharifah Amani had been criticized over her speech of I sound like stupid if I speak malay in the Malaysian Film Festival. Well, it's really not neccessary for us to blaim youngsters of being over reacted and their forgetfulness in using Bahasa Melayu but we should blaim ourselves whose everyday tend to beautify other language more than ours. Infact everyday we can see Politicians appear in TV speaking in other language, businessman talking about profit using other language and an artiste tend to speak in other language (trying so hard). Why can't we just proud of using malay? Sometimes, Malaysian (including me)feel like speaking in other language will make them look reputable, hence earn more respect from the listener. Something that government should give their concern more in Ninth Malaysian Plan.


you guys can always visit my blog to see more

Hey moebiz,

Thanks for the blog link. Will check it out later.

Personally I think the Education Ministry could do more to get non-Malays to love the language. There isn't enough verbal practice of the language. Many I know, esp. Chinese, would speak Malay with a very foreign sounding accent. Wouldn't it be cool if they were taught to speak and sound like a Malay? Of course, the Chinese students must want this for themselves too.

I don't know why some Malaysians were upset about the introduction of English for Maths and Science. Have they seen to it that the Bahasa Malaysia lessons are doing the best to teach the language to non-Malays? Why not improve on what is already taught instead of wanting to plant the Bahasa Melayu flag on every secondary school subject?

More effort should be devoted to getting non-Malay speaking students to love the language. Making it really difficult or annually changing the tatabahasa on the minutest detail is not the way to go. There is a strong emphasis on mastering the language, but not loving it.

How to be proud of something you do not love?

Well, we need to make bahasa melayu as the knowledge language..

UTM is one of the best example.. Some of their text book (eng. course) are written in Malay language.. kinda like that..

But problem will arise when these graduates seeking for job because nearly 100% of the work advertisment said that English is compulsary..

Friends, glad to have people like all of you still thinking about the future of this language. anyway, government I think should be firm on implementing the "love" from the grassroot. Its kinda late now since everybody had accepted foreign language as our mother tongue.

well, how about re-introducing jawi to the standard script?

and how about cellphones for bahasa use? or bahasa meleyu OS?


Click here to read inspiring news about a country that is resisting foreign scripts and language to enter the digital world. thanks to a group of 17 students, the whole nation does not need to forfeight their language just to be abel to use a computer ..

Malaysians can do the same if enough people actually cares to bahasa meleyu as a standard language in malaysia.

the problem here is that most urban people like to talk in English..

Some people feel that they are great if they speak in english always..

As I once stated, Bahasa Melayu/Bahasa Indonesia(OK, they sound different, but basically similar in tatabahasa and in written protocol) is the most widely used language in South East Asian, it's used for official/business matters in Indonesia,Malaysia and Brunei and these countries are economic powerhouses in ASEAN.

To neglect Bahasa Melayu is foolish if u want to be successful in business in ASEAN.

Bahasa Melayu is even offered in foreign courses such as the South Australian Matriculation....it seems foreigners do value Bahasa Melayu than some Malaysians.

Bahasa Melayu is a rich and beautiful language, but I agree that the rigid Bahasa Melayu courses at schools make it boring.......... but gosh...once u read authentic BM poetry u'll be captivated.

Do u guys realize that Bahasa Melayu love novels are one of the best selling books in Malaysia ...guess u never realize that there are whole shelves of BM love novels at MPH...my mom and cousin are one of the readers.

Your score:
13%

Your grade:
F


Comments:
A lot of grammatical errors.
Word structures are not in order.
A lot of spelling errors.
Fail to express clearly via correct and precise words.
Punctuations are not in the right place.

I know!! How ANNOYING!! Why can't they write more horror novels and adventure novels or murder mystery novels instead of this lovey dovey mush!!! AIH!!! Geram!!

No offense, but I truly hate romance novels.

that's just mean.

Where's the guideline..?
13%..? man, every letter counts as 1 pt. ehh?

i think only malays in KL prefer to speak english (even though their english sucks) -YUCK

but other places where there are other real malays out there do speak bahasa melayu everywhere they go and they prefer bahasa melayu cos they dont want to learn other languages :P

so i think YES,,bahasa melayu is still the national language...and more...i have many chinese friends who like talking in malay...they want to polish up their bahasa melayu(unlike some of our malays who just simply forgot their own language...how pathetic...orang putih wannabe...yuck yuck yuck)

These days...sometimes I do watch the many dramas over Tv3 or Tv1&2, it reminds me of the life back home as the drama depicts the real life in Malaysia but sometimes, I do found certain dramas with usage of english...and sometimes it get carried away.....my 1st thought was....kesian pakcik-pakcik and makcik makcik who dun understand what they are talking about.

I half agree with Yana on the fact that on KLites like to speak the language but there is a vast difference between people living in the west compared to the east coast like kelantan, terengganu and pahang.

Bahasa Malaysia is still alive and kicking..... and it is still predominantly the national language. On the malays speaking the english language...or even the non malays....we still have that malaysian accent and I believe there is nothing wrong with it. We in malaysia and singapore tries to speak very much like an ang moh....we tried too hard to impress and sometimes, I do get annoyed....but look at the people in other country. They dun care how they speak...as long as you understand me, that's fine for me....if you dun...who cares. Juz like the ah pek selling laksa or prawn mee....they dun care whether you understand them or not, as long as you can order what you want...that's fine with them.

you wanna know why?
cos the malay authors enjoy writing about sex and fantasize lots of all that rape craps and having sex before marriage and two timing and bla bla

and just so happen readers love to read those "materials"

so thats why..

p/s: hey...dont look at me like that...yeah i confess i did read the books when i was in primary school...but i felt so disgusted that one of the author wrote about this guy who is in his 40s hunt girls down with his good look and kill them and rape them and smash up their body and before he burries the girls his faithful servant will do a bit more dirty job on the body then only the bodies will get covered up

^Then us should find other books larrr....look to translated works.

I am a fan of Agatha Christie novels and DBP made the BM versions available in 2003 and I bought two novels 'The Orient Express' and 'Murder in Mesopotomia' ..in BM....'Ekspres Orient' and 'Kematian di Mesopotamia'.
At first I though the books were gonna be boring in BM but I the english versions of these books are very hard to find, so I bought them anyway. I was surprised the BM could express the language of mystery of the books very well, and I enjoyed both books . . Now these books are proudly among my other Agatha Christie novels, I dun need the English versions coz I can enjoy reading the BM version as much.

forrestcat

Even you must know that a translated work is nothing compared to an original work, rich with original ideas, with a genuine Malay flavour. I think esp in the horror genre, Malay writers (pple who write in BM, not necessarily orang Melayu) have much to contribute. Asian horror has a lot of potential.

Your suggestion that one tries translated works does not negate the fact that there is a vaccum of talented horror, thriller and adventure writing. You're proposing an alternative. I'm asking why there is a vaccum in the first place.

The people (DBP? Ministry of Edu? Uni professors of the Malay language?) who claim to love the language aren't bothered to ensure that more literary works of a wider range of genres are available to the public.

yana

Re: dwindling books on horror fiction
It is equally possible that the growing fundamentalist elements of our society frown on potrayal of demons and ghosts. Why? Because traditionally, it is the job of the bomoh (not the religious teacher) to fight these. Power struggle la. You get the hint? Even some Christian groups are very touchy about horror.

With regards to those romance novels, I find it difficult to accept that Malay authors are necessarily hornier than authors of other ethnicity.

^Yes, when I was at high school , I do enjoy reading horror Malay stories like Siri Bercakap Dengan Jin... but these books are discouraged due to religious issues.

There is actually a huge market for Malay horror books in BM, I mean mystery magazines like Mastika is the most circulated local magazine in Malaysia.

Erh...., that horor mumbo-jumbo thing is not good example of using Bahasa Melayu as modern language.....
Why don't using it in scientific or literature things, you know.., sastra, roman, novel, buku ilmu pengetahuan, ensiklopedi, sejarah.

Malaysia should encourage and promote Bahasa Melayu as modern scientific national language, including among Chinese and Indian Malaysian.
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei also should synchronize our language (Penyelarasan Bahasa dan Istilah), so our language are interchangeable and grow closer. (Sometimes I got a hard time to understand Malay subtitle on DVD's, while they don't provide Bahasa Indonesia subtitle, so I must satisfied with English one.....).

Majapahitans

While I appreciate that you make high aspirations for the language, I don't agree with the method. Let me show you what I mean..

American slang.

How did our youths pick up so many American phrases like "no sweat", "hang out" etc... Was it through American science magazines? science journals? encyclopedias? American literature? American history?

No. It was via entertainment.

You spoke of novels and "roman" which I assume was a reference to romance. That is an e.g of entertainment media. So why are romance novels ok, but horror novels "mumbo jumbo"? Because you don't like horror? Because you don't believe in the paranormal? Those are personal preferences.

To popularise a language, its usage must permeate as wide a range of media as possible, including horror fiction. If we impose our personal preferences to limit the growth of the language, then you will exclude pockets of the population in loving the language.

I don't really hate horor movie.
In fact there's some horor movies that become my fave.

But I really don't like cheap tacky horor things. In Indonesia we have "Mistik" magazine, and I dare to say it's a crap..... Full of dukun (bomoh) advertisement and weird articles that make no sense. "Takhayul yang tak masuk akal"
It's really showing primitive-supertitious side of our people. And it's quite "pembodohan".
But what can I say, there's market niche on this silly reading materials.

tauke.. Im beginning to salute you more la thse days.. tak sangka youre' stil very Malaysian at heart.. terer la you..

"Mistik" in Indonesia, while in Malaysia it's majalah "Mastika"

Back to the original post, it was quite disappointing for Sharifah Amani to say what she did, but hopefully she knows better now.

hey...once a malaysian always a malaysian la dei...but sometimes I see "indian" they go to US, they say they are not Indian but Blacks...in Malaysia....they tend to be like Micheal Jackson with white socks.....open yr eyes big big...sure see white sock...and all black...udah la hitam pakai baju pun hitam....

I am NOT racist as I am also half indian....but I am dissappointed lihat tingkahlaku my own kind....very embarassing....

oh.. so you're Chindian eh.. no wonder la.. why disappointed?

something like dat la....aiya many things happen yang amat memalukan bangsa...drink little bit they act mabuk....they become lawyers and doctors...their favourite profession.....they lupa daratan.... lawa sikit....hidung tinggi macam bintang..... the only thing my brother cannot tahan is their smell...why ah...hidung really mampus...

lawak wei! btw rico.. you more dekat to your Chinese or your Indian blood?

nei...aku india n cina celup.....gak tahu pak.....cuz my mum was adopted by an indian family and she doesnt know her heritage....my brother looks like a chinese...and somemore...he married a singaporean chinese...got 2 kids...like chinese...but we carry the indian race....people always is disbelief when we say we are indian....sepatah haram pun tak tahu

ic...

my goodness....ricochet is a cindian....... what a disbelief.......okay get back to the topic.........well guys,i personally think that the official and national language used by malaysian is MANGLISH.....try to think out a bit,nowadays all the malaysian citizens prefer to use the "contaminated" English which is currently flourished by our wonderful neighbour "singkapo"..........to make things worse,all the programmes that are being aired on the national broadcasters are being injected with a so called "sense of humour" manglish......
futhermore,i personally disagree with what samsheifl have told,it is a dumb act by the public university to teach english medium courses such as TESL and so on with malay.....does it make sense to you?.....the current need for the education industry is that they need more english teachers who are graduated with a high competence in english,and why should these local universities offer courses which are being conducted in malay language? does it sound logic? the matter of fact is that sooner,what our late pm did is going to bring out the consequences........I need to say,some of you won't even know what unisel is,but i am proud that i have choosed to study at Universiti Industri Selangor because the teaching methodology being used there is totally different from other local universities,plus,the subjects taught is purely conducted in english medium........

good one.i agreed that all vasities should fokus in english during teaching but we cannot ignor bahasa melayu neither.maybe some student cant understand english that well but still the teachers can explain in bahasa melayu, so no matter how well or high competence teachers in english ,we still need this two language in education industry.is not easy for a people like me who back ground dont have english speaking in the family.

Sosungguh eh bahso kito jiwo bangso kito. Buek apo mongagongkan bahso barek nun? Dapek apo? Somemang eh bahso omputih ponting untok pasaran antarobangso, tapi udah jumpo Molayu samo Molayu, bocakap omputih cam boghuk Mak Nyeh. Boghuk Mak Nyeh pon tak cakap omputih, tapi cakap bahso boghuk, malah paham bahso Molayu.

Koghajaan pon bangang tak abeh2 promo bahso omputih. Bhaso Molayu tak tobelo lansung. Apo kono bilo oghang Cino ngan India bulih cakap Molayu, oghang Molayu yg moghondahkan bahso sondighi.

Cinto lah bahso kito!

Umang aihh.. torbolit lidah nak membaco eh..

It's a fact of our natural instinct, even if we live in the most open or most rigid society, we need to write our horny thoughts and images down ...




As i said in one of the posts here, there is a real problem for Malay educated technical consultants at the UN to produce and write structured technical reports in the english language. I think it would be a good idea if students of Bahasa are taught to formulate their thoughts in their minds and write in a technical report manner from young in school. It may encourage the scientific way of analysing and reporting in our daily lives. Rather than going on in life by intuition and vague instincts.

Maybe its becasue they think about what they want to say in Malay and then translate to English. Becasue the way sentences are structured in both languages are different when it comes out in English, it seems odd. In which case studying English at an early age would be important. Maybe even the ciriculum in Universities should be taught in English and students who aren't sufficiently proficient in English, should do a 1 yr prep course specific to the course thay have been accepted into.

don't know bout this much.. but as far as i'm concern, almost all the private Uni use english as their medium.. while almost all the public Uni. use Malay as their medium except is some technical course..

Don't speak good? Have a fine.


Culture Minister Rais Yatim: he don't like no bad wording (Sick old man.. huahah)

Friday, October 6, 2006
People what don't speak proper might do well to avoid Malaysia in the future – as the Malaysian government is planning to introduce fines of around £150 for improper language use.

The plan was announced by the Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim, in an attempt to preserve Malay, the national language. The government will even empower a special division of government, the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, to act as language police - hunting down people who fail to use proper Bahasa Malaysia (as Malay is also known).

The government is angry at the increasing proliferation of mixed English and Malay words and phrases – known as 'Maglish' – which are commonly used in advertisements and in everyday speech.

They plan to enforce the replacement of frequently used English and Manglish words with their Malay equivalent. They can impose a fine of 1,000 ringgit – about £144 – if people fail to use the right kind of words, for example on adverts and in place names.

Dr Firdaus Abdullah, the director of the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, said: 'We seek the cooperation of the public to assist us by drawing our attention to language offences committed.'

While Malay is the only official language of Malaysia, the country has many other commonly used languages amongst its different populations. Many middle class Malaysians of Indian descent speak English as a first language, and there are also numerous Chinese dialects, as well as Tamil, Telugu, Thai , Malayalam, and Panjabi.

Firdaus also said that the language police would provide a help service for people wondering if their words were good words or bad words. 'I guarantee that any confusion referred to us will be answered within 72 hours. The service is offered to everybody including advertisers before they put up billboards,' he told the Bernama news agency.

Presently more majority of the Chinese send their children to Chinese schools where inter racial integration is very limited. I have doubt that the Chinese in the future are able to speak Bahasa more fluently than their present counterparts.

Personally I support the teaching of Maths and Science in English but thorough planning need to be made before being implemented. Currenlty you can find many Maths and Science teachers who can hardly speak English but are asked to teach in English. Students taught by these teachers are not going to improve their proficieny in English at all but may instead end up with poorer English.

Manglish...