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MALAYSIA // malay asia
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SELAMAT DATANG DI CROWDED WORLD MALAYSIA -- YOUR GUIDE TO THE MULTIRACIAL, MULTIFACETED, MULTIFASCINATING NATION OF MALAYSIA. This site is intended for people interested in Malaysia and also those that already live there. What language do they speak in Malaysia, and is it difficult to learn? What are the best deals at Best Denki?, where can you find the best nasi lemak? I will attempt to answer these questions, to the best of my knowledge. .. Are Jews really banned from entering this country??? that will get a look in, too. In the process, I want to introduce some of my personal experiences from various trips, and detail the depth of the various cultures and languages of the nation. I am only a beginner when it comes to understanding this part of the world, but in time, I want to become an expert. The unfoldment of this website will reflect the unfoldment of the development of my knowledge of not only Malaysia but also neighbouring Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippines and the whole Malay world. ea sooner. This website can help you! !
t h e + m a l a y + w o r l d WHAT DO I MEAN WHEN I TALK ABOUT THE MALAY WORLD? In my old naive definition, I believed that all of the territory from Jayapura to Songkla qualified as Greater Malaysia, I don't know why. Call it faulty judgment at the time. However, I was surprised to recently learn from the bonafide The Malay World website that the realm of the Malays includes only the Malay Peninsula from Thailand to Singapore, and parts of adjacent islands, such as east Sumatra and Borneo. The nation of Malaysia, as it exists on the map, comprises about x square kilomteres. So all of Java, The Philippines, Bali... all those other islands are not technically Malay. Whatever -- and it is good to be corrected! -- but if you speak the language of the Malays you can communicate with people from all the way from the south Thailand border to the Papua New Guinea border, even if you don't know the local languages. This is because the language of the Malays -- called Bahasa Malaysia in Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia -- has become the official communications and trading language for this vast reason. Which is one reason why I want to learn it, because I want ready access to this huge vastness of the Earth!  Blank Location Map of Malaysia
e a s y + 2 + l e a r n BEFORE GET INTO TOO MUCH DETAIL ABOUT THE MECHANICS OF BAHASA MALAYSIA AND BAHASA INDONESIA, HERE IS THE BEST THING ABOUT THEM -- they are considered very easy to learn! That's right, it's true! Another important point to mention early on -- Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia are so close to being identical, you could easily learn both at the same time. I mean, why learn just one foreign language when for an extra 10 or 15 per cent outlay of energy, you could pick up a second foreign language as well? Bahasa Malaysia (the Malaysian national language) is in fact so similar to Bahasa Indonesia that I think that once you know one, you know the other one. I have heard they are 80 per cent cognate -- if you know one you can understand 80 per cent of the other language, in other words. Therefore, an understanding of this language allows you to communicate with the many people and peoples of the vast Malay/Indonesian archepelago -- all the way from the Thai border to East Timor and Irian Jaya on the New Guinea island. That's a huge part of the world, packed with some attractive tourist destinations (Bali, for example, or the jungles of Borneo.) It includes up to 300 million people. I have heard that Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia are also similar to Tagalog (the language of The Philippines). So my point is this: learning Bahasa Malaysia will give you a huge advantage in being able to communicate with the people of a vast stretch of south-east Asia. While it is possible to get by speaking only English in Bali or Penang, if you want to meaningfully interact with humans in Sulawesi or West Timor, it wouldn't hurt to have an arsenal of Bahasa under your belt, or under your sleeve, or whatever metaphor you would like to use. And if you ever find yourself in Manila, your Bahasa knowledge could give you an edge in penetrating the mysteries of Filipino Tagalog. And the sweetest point of all is this -- Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesi are among the world's easiest languages to learn. So you have no excuses in failing to pick them up!
Kedah State... bordering Thailand.
k u a l a + l u m p u r IT WILL NEVER COMPARE TO BANGKOK OR HONG KONG FOR SHEER EXOTICISM, but Kuala Lumpur (KL) is cool in an unassuming kind of way. The capital of Malaysia, KL creates the impression of being an edgier, more down-to-earth version of its rich southern neighbor, Singapore. As in Singapore, you can see remnants of a British Empire colonial administration. Just like Singapore, the population is a mixture of Chinese, Indian and Malay inhabitants. But unlike Singapore, Islam is the dominant religon here, and even the skyscrapers in the city center have been designed to remind the observer of mosques and other Islamic motifs. It works well, this fusion of old Islam and modern capitalism, built atop a tattered British colonial foundation. But I have to honest, the biggest drawcard for me in KL is the cuisine, which is both worldclass and cheap. Indian food is my pet interest at the moment, and on this count, KL boasts a wide range of Indian cafes and restaurants serving incredible (and incredibly cheap) food. I can never eat enough fish head curry or chicken tandoori washed down with a mango milk shake! Go to Kuala Lumpur, it is not as dull as some people make out... (For my full guide to Kuala Lumpur, click here.) | |
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