I'm a language coach and I ALWAYS use the example of the average Malaysian person as a response when my clients claim they "don't have space" for a foreign language in their head. It's a bit of a lazy excuse – if so many ordinary people in Malaysia manage, so will they!
And you just confirmed this to me.
I'll share your piece with my clients 💜 (and if you're ok with it, maybe also talk about it on my LinkedIn someday)
Hahaha. Tbh i used this when someone demanded why I didn't learn Cantonese despite living in Kuala Lumpur for so long. I told them my brain already has 4 languages and there's no more space 🤣.
The problem with living in a multilingual country is that people expect u to pick a language just like that.
A fellow malaysian here with a slight difference in background. Learned
1. Hainanese (mother tongue) while living with our grandparent during childhood
2. English for schooling at Canossian Convent (some form of christian missionary school)
3. Malay being the government official language & a compulsory subject if you hope to pursure higher education in national university
4. Mandarin cause dad said we got to learn our chinese history & culture or at the least understand when being scold & to argue back when being call a banana 😅
5. Cantonese for working in Kuala Lumpur where during the 90’s, cantonese are still widely spoken in office environment. Was once told-off by colleague (a cantonese mind you) that being in KL, I should speak in cantonese & not english only. So I pickup my 5th language due to peer pressure (survival mode)
6. Hokkien in order to communicate with uncles that my aunties married to
7. Hakka in order to communicate with maternal grandmother who only speak Hakka
We not only switch between languages, depending who we meet, we even greet same race in another language eg Selamat Pagi when a chinese see another chinese 😅 without a second thought. When oversea, we will speak in Malay to communicate among us (safe-guard reason)
Its a wonder that we are not confuse ourself 🙏 for being brought up in such a multi-lingual & multi-culture society & environment structure 🤣🤣
It is sooo nice to see all the Malaysians coming out of the woodwork! When I was given the same treatment like your point no5, I would stubbornly reply that I already have 4 langauges, my brain has no space lol. But you were driven by survival, I didn't have any because I worked in a company that was very multi racial, so everyone spoke English. If I was in your shoes i'd probably learn Cantonese in a hurry!
This ability to switch between languages is something we do take for granted, don't we? And I only know two (English and Filipino), and I only write really well in one!
(I suppose I'd know a third language if I grew up elsewhere in the Philippines.)
I grew up in Mumbai, India. I know English (educated in English-medium schools from grade 1), Marathi (mother tongue), Hindi (national language), and Gujarati (in-laws' language and second most common language in the metropolis).
This is how my US-born son analyzed this after several visits there: Global language, Province language (in India each state was originally defined based on language spoken), National Language, Family Language.
Fascinating to read about Malaysia's linguistic map.
Fellow multilingual here! We are so lucky to be Malaysians and lucky to be able to pick up all these languages by just "growing up" in the environment that allows us! When I learn my first ever foreign language as an adult, German, and struggled, I truly treasure all the gifts of languages I was given when I was young. Hence now I am trying my best now to pass on to my children, as many languages as I possibly can.
And the art of code switching is quite unique to us! Even here in Germany, where the natives all speak good English, they don't code switch as easily with these languages.
I learned French when I was in school and a year's lessons resulted in almost 0 proficiency, though I seem to know Vanessa Paradis' Joe le Taxi by heart lol.
People who live in multilingual and multicultural societies and switch between several languages daily is a living proof that learning another language (or many) doesn't have anything to do with talent, like many Americans think.
I read a language Substack that language adoption is often driven by need and survival. And indeed it is true in Malaysia. You cannot not speak Malay here as it is the language of the government, so we learn it. English is the language of business so if we want a career we also need to master. And then there's our mother tongues, which if we don't learn it, our parents have something to say about that 🤣
Yes, exactly. I also wrote recently about 'need' is the driving and possibly the deciding factor in how well and how quickly we learn a language. If we're stuck on a distant island and need to communicate with the locals to survive we'll have no choice but to learn the language.
haha i think yours maybe the Substafk I read! And what you said makes total sense. I didn't bother to learn Cantonese because most Chinese could speak Mandarin and i lived in an area with lots of Hokkiens.
I'm a Brit living in the US, two essentially monolingual cultures right there. But, I lived in Holland for 6 years, and at the time was bilingual. That was 35 years ago, so I'm a little rusty. I've just found a couple of Dutch Substacks, so I've been reading and even commenting.
I've also at various times been functional in French, German, and Spanish. Of course, these are all indoeuropean languages. My hat is off to you for speaking four languages across three language families and two scripts!
At times I think my brain gets confused. I literally need to warm up before I switch, especially from English to Mandarin. If i don't, my tones will go whack. And if I switch from Hokkien i need to remind myself to be more dramatic with my tones with Mandarin as Hokkien tones is flat and subtler.
It can be tough! When living in Holland, if I wasn't careful, I'd speak Dutch person English! And although I can still read and understand German, if I try to speak it, it comes out as Dutch with some German words.
I'm a language coach and I ALWAYS use the example of the average Malaysian person as a response when my clients claim they "don't have space" for a foreign language in their head. It's a bit of a lazy excuse – if so many ordinary people in Malaysia manage, so will they!
And you just confirmed this to me.
I'll share your piece with my clients 💜 (and if you're ok with it, maybe also talk about it on my LinkedIn someday)
Sure thing - about the Linkedin thing
Hahaha. Tbh i used this when someone demanded why I didn't learn Cantonese despite living in Kuala Lumpur for so long. I told them my brain already has 4 languages and there's no more space 🤣.
The problem with living in a multilingual country is that people expect u to pick a language just like that.
The "don't have space" argument always cracked me up. It's like their head is a kitchen cupboard that's already too full :)
A fellow malaysian here with a slight difference in background. Learned
1. Hainanese (mother tongue) while living with our grandparent during childhood
2. English for schooling at Canossian Convent (some form of christian missionary school)
3. Malay being the government official language & a compulsory subject if you hope to pursure higher education in national university
4. Mandarin cause dad said we got to learn our chinese history & culture or at the least understand when being scold & to argue back when being call a banana 😅
5. Cantonese for working in Kuala Lumpur where during the 90’s, cantonese are still widely spoken in office environment. Was once told-off by colleague (a cantonese mind you) that being in KL, I should speak in cantonese & not english only. So I pickup my 5th language due to peer pressure (survival mode)
6. Hokkien in order to communicate with uncles that my aunties married to
7. Hakka in order to communicate with maternal grandmother who only speak Hakka
We not only switch between languages, depending who we meet, we even greet same race in another language eg Selamat Pagi when a chinese see another chinese 😅 without a second thought. When oversea, we will speak in Malay to communicate among us (safe-guard reason)
Its a wonder that we are not confuse ourself 🙏 for being brought up in such a multi-lingual & multi-culture society & environment structure 🤣🤣
It is sooo nice to see all the Malaysians coming out of the woodwork! When I was given the same treatment like your point no5, I would stubbornly reply that I already have 4 langauges, my brain has no space lol. But you were driven by survival, I didn't have any because I worked in a company that was very multi racial, so everyone spoke English. If I was in your shoes i'd probably learn Cantonese in a hurry!
This ability to switch between languages is something we do take for granted, don't we? And I only know two (English and Filipino), and I only write really well in one!
(I suppose I'd know a third language if I grew up elsewhere in the Philippines.)
I totally did. Even have a bit of an inferiority complex about it as I am not perfect in all four languages😅
Fake it till you make it—single-language speakers won't know!
I grew up in Mumbai, India. I know English (educated in English-medium schools from grade 1), Marathi (mother tongue), Hindi (national language), and Gujarati (in-laws' language and second most common language in the metropolis).
This is how my US-born son analyzed this after several visits there: Global language, Province language (in India each state was originally defined based on language spoken), National Language, Family Language.
Fascinating to read about Malaysia's linguistic map.
Very cool!
Didn't know you spent time in Johor. As a kid, I spent most of my school holidays there
Fellow multilingual here! We are so lucky to be Malaysians and lucky to be able to pick up all these languages by just "growing up" in the environment that allows us! When I learn my first ever foreign language as an adult, German, and struggled, I truly treasure all the gifts of languages I was given when I was young. Hence now I am trying my best now to pass on to my children, as many languages as I possibly can.
And the art of code switching is quite unique to us! Even here in Germany, where the natives all speak good English, they don't code switch as easily with these languages.
I learned French when I was in school and a year's lessons resulted in almost 0 proficiency, though I seem to know Vanessa Paradis' Joe le Taxi by heart lol.
People who live in multilingual and multicultural societies and switch between several languages daily is a living proof that learning another language (or many) doesn't have anything to do with talent, like many Americans think.
I read a language Substack that language adoption is often driven by need and survival. And indeed it is true in Malaysia. You cannot not speak Malay here as it is the language of the government, so we learn it. English is the language of business so if we want a career we also need to master. And then there's our mother tongues, which if we don't learn it, our parents have something to say about that 🤣
Yes, exactly. I also wrote recently about 'need' is the driving and possibly the deciding factor in how well and how quickly we learn a language. If we're stuck on a distant island and need to communicate with the locals to survive we'll have no choice but to learn the language.
haha i think yours maybe the Substafk I read! And what you said makes total sense. I didn't bother to learn Cantonese because most Chinese could speak Mandarin and i lived in an area with lots of Hokkiens.
Switching languages from one to another and...another is indeed great :D
This just reinforces my desire to return to my studies and to learn another language! Thank you for sharing!
I’m quite impressed with how multilingual people in Malaysia. And it’s not just the number of languages, but the number of language families.
I guess being in the middle of the East and West has something to do with that !
I'm a Brit living in the US, two essentially monolingual cultures right there. But, I lived in Holland for 6 years, and at the time was bilingual. That was 35 years ago, so I'm a little rusty. I've just found a couple of Dutch Substacks, so I've been reading and even commenting.
I've also at various times been functional in French, German, and Spanish. Of course, these are all indoeuropean languages. My hat is off to you for speaking four languages across three language families and two scripts!
At times I think my brain gets confused. I literally need to warm up before I switch, especially from English to Mandarin. If i don't, my tones will go whack. And if I switch from Hokkien i need to remind myself to be more dramatic with my tones with Mandarin as Hokkien tones is flat and subtler.
It can be tough! When living in Holland, if I wasn't careful, I'd speak Dutch person English! And although I can still read and understand German, if I try to speak it, it comes out as Dutch with some German words.
Yes, it's funny you say that. When I was in Australia I had to conciously remind myself not to speak in "Manglish" or just slip into Malay hahaha