MALAY LANGUAGE (BAHASA MELAYU)

Since in RSP, we learn Malay, I guess it’s appropriate to have a post on the language itself. Before I start going on about all the information I gathered from the internet…

To me, learning Malay is very practical, considering that I stay in Singapore and Singapore is in the Southeast Asian region. Malay is spoken widely in Southeast Asia. Singapore is a small country and to be able to survive in this world, we need help from other countries, in terms of economy, etc. like how we import a lot of food and other daily essentials from our neighboring countries.

If we are able to speak the lingua franca of this region, it would strengthen the diplomatic ties we have with the other countries.

Besides economy, another reason for me to learn Malay is that Singapore is a multi-racial nation and to bond us Singaporeans together, I find it important that we can communicate in each other’s mother tongues. Actually, I feel that people give respect to those who can speak their mother tongue as it gives the impression that they are indeed sincere as they had to work hard to learn that language.

Okay, I think that’s about it on why I want to learn Malay.

According to Wikipedia, Malay is spoken in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, southern Thailand, southern Philippines, and Timor Leste (East Timor). There are approximately 200–250 million people who speak Malay. Malay is also the official language in Malaysia, Singapore (together with English, Chinese and Tamil), Indonesia and East Timor.

There, so most of Southeast Asia speaks Malay so being able to speak it gives Singaporeans (or anyone actually) and edge when working in this region. Of course, it might be useful to learn other third languages, but to me, I think it’s important that Singaporeans, especially the younger generation learn Malay as it is the lingua franca in this region.

Just like being unable to speak English may cause one problems, living in Southeast Asia and not knowing Malay can be rather frustrating at times, especially in places where people cannot speak English. But really, even in places where people do speak English, it does impress others to see that you know their mother tongue.

In Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech, in 2007, he mentioned that even though many people in the older generations could speak Malay, too few of the younger generation could. It is not necessary for people to be fluent in Malay, but enough for conversations, etc. without translation. He mentioned RSP as well.

That’s all. It’s late. I need to sleep.