I speak four languages. That's just being Malaysian.

And also because of an accident in geography and school choices.

I love this photo by Mega Caesaria of a mural in Ipoh. Murals like these can be found around Malaysia, but especially in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang, my hometown.

The first time I realised I had a superpower was when I was living in Australia.

I was at a party where there were mostly Malaysians and Australians, and a lady from China was there. She could only speak Mandarin, so I spoke to her in my not-so-good Mandarin, apologising for my subpar command of the language. She reassured me in the polite way Chinese people do when you're trying your best but not hitting the mark.

Then, a friend from Malaysia came over, and I responded to her in a mix of Malay and English - Manglish, to most of us.

Then another person came over to talk to me, and I joked with her in Hokkien and then switched to English when her Aussie spouse came over.

When I returned to the lady from China, she remarked, "You Malaysians are so amazing!"

At first, I was confused, because I was just doing what many Malaysians do and take for granted - context-switching and adjusting my language to the person I'm speaking to.

Then she said, "You can speak Mandarin, you can speak English. I'm amazed that Malaysians can do this."

This may sound like I'm humble bragging, but this was not the first time people said this to me. I've travelled around the world when I was younger, and I heard this often.

Once, in Japan, the guide and translator who accompanied us said that the Japanese people were intrigued by Malaysians due to our linguistic abilities. I had the same remark about Koreans from another tour guide when I visited Seoul.

I'm not sure if they're flattering us Malaysians, but since both tour guides were originally Malaysians, maybe they were speaking the truth.

And I think, due to this flexibility, a lot of people are confused by Malaysians.

More than a decade ago, I was vacationing in an amazing Bed and Breakfast in Scotland island, off Sydney. I was having breakfast at the veranda with a friend when the host approached us hesitantly.

“I hope I am not offending you when I ask this, but we were curious why you were still speaking English after we had left.”

I was a little amused and surprised that she didn’t know Malaysians often choose to speak English among themselves, and that for many of us it is our "unofficial" first language.

However, I'd be lying if I said that all Malaysians are fluent in English. Most of us are fluent in one or two languages; there are even monolingual Malaysians, though those who are at a massive disadvantage in a job market full of multilingual Malaysians. How many languages we end up adopting depends on the school we attended, where we grew up (urban vs rural, for example) and our family history.

For example, I'm the only one in my family who can speak and understand Mandarin because I spent the first decade of my life in Johor, a Malaysian state where the primary Chinese language was Mandarin. I can also speak Hokkien because I spent a year with my grandma in Penang.

My English is also the way it is (ie fluent) because my parents were educated in English schools and I studied in a top-tier school. The "standard" of the school meant that I had good teachers who were fluent in English, and because the school is in Petaling Jaya, one of the most developed cities in Malaysia, meant that most of my classmates spoke English, even if the school's official teaching language was Bahasa Malaysia. (Heck, sometimes the teachers taught us in English on the sly!)

Not all schools have this language make-up. In some schools, like the one I went to very briefly, they spoke mostly in Mandarin even if it was considered a "national" school where the primary language should be in Bahasa Malaysia. In many rural schools, you won't hear anything beyond Bahasa Malaysia, the national language of Malaysia.

And if you're from a Chinese or Indian medium school, you'll probably only interact in Mandarin and Tamil with teachers and classmates. If you belong to a private international school, where tuition fees can be in the five figures a year and are populated by the children of expats and the monied, you'd probably end up speaking great English and not much Bahasa Malaysia, which I honestly don't think is a good thing.

If you're confused, I don't blame you. I'm confused by the complexity of our school systems as well. I've not even touched the religious schools yet ...

Long story short - Malaysians are gifted linguists due to the way our society evolved.

This issue of Tai Tales would end up way too long if I go into the centuries of history where Malaysia was the port of call for many people on the way to China or the West, how the country was colonised by the Dutch, Portuguese and British, how we've had diplomatic relations with China for centuries, and how, unlike many countries in South-East Asia, Malaysian ethnic minorities were not forced to assimilate and give up their language or culture.

But yes, due to all of this, Malaysians can speak to Western and South-East Asian countries, India, and China.

Besides the language, we understand the cultural context of each country as we are exposed to all the cultures via direct contact (either through travel or by literally living the culture every day) or media. Our TV channels and cinemas show media in various languages: primarily Malay, English, Mandarin/Cantonese and Tamil/Hindi.

The ability to be culturally flexible, to understand various cultures at once, and context switch and communicate with various parts of the world is invaluable at a time when the world is becoming more multipolar. I honestly think that Malaysians (and Singaporeans), will be at a great advantage in a multipolar world.

But our uniqueness has its downsides. The way some of us grew up sheltered and divided from each other by language ... well, I think it has caused some problems in Malaysia, but that's a topic for another issue.