Jom Belajar: Learn Bahasa Malaysia

In today’s installment of the Jom Belajar series, we’re going to learn about our host country’s language, Bahasa Malaysia. Malay is an Austronesian language spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, and the Philippines. In Malaysia, it’s called Bahasa Malaysia (BM) and became our national language when Malaysia gained independence in 1957. Many English words have remained from the period of colonization and are now an inherent part of Malay. Examples are the Malay word ‘bas’ for ‘bus’, ‘teksi’ for ‘taxi’, ‘farmasi’ for ‘pharmacy, and so on.

 

Let’s learn some basic BM greetings:

 

Good morning – Selamat pagi

Good afternoon – Selamat tengah hari

Good evening – Selamat petang

Good night – Selamat malam

Good bye – Selamat tinggal

See you again – Jumpa lagi

Thank you – Terima kasih