I find that majority of East Malaysians are better at English than West Malaysians.

Almost in everything, like grammar, pronunciations, heck, even in slangs from a simple English conversation.

What I find most interesting is that when they speak English, it sounds English.
Majority sounds like standard US accent.

When West Malaysians, particularly KL/PJ people, speaks English, it will definitely have those slang of like a Malay speaking English, a Chinese speaking English, or an Indian speaking English.
Only a small minority will have the standard US accent, and even smaller numbers are with the British or Australian accents.

Setting aside the rojak language which is already common, how do you gauge yourself in your English accent, /k/?

Apa kau merepek ni, daus?

don't generalise, i felt offended

what's the big deal about accents?

if the grammars okay then fine

lies

johorean far the best...hidup johor

i speakz like /k/ during the gathering, so u iz no hear my proper engrish

Kau ingat kalau kau champion speaking English kau boleh terlepas dari cengkaman penjajah ar?

well you sound like japanese you foo!

Can be yes or no.

Yes - I agree that majority of East Msians sounds like they're speaking in US accent (except some of them from rural areas).

No - I don't think that small minority of West Malaysians have that accent. I have met up with a lot of West Malaysian friends and would like to give a ratio of 50:50 to those who speak as fluent as US/UK accents and rojak Manglish. Some of them perform better than East Malaysians as well.

This post has been edited by ilovecookies92: Mar 14 2010, 02:56 AM

Speaking is one thing, what about writing?

oi ni Malaysia ah. lu tak suka lu keluar gemuk.

no..we has no englis good. we only has forest and village. u is not right.

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Added on March 14, 2010, 3:00 amu no see pantai east english yo?

spoong.

This post has been edited by Username is username: Mar 14 2010, 03:00 AM

sorry but i speak RP(received pronunciation),in other words,no accent...

This post has been edited by CleverDick: Mar 14 2010, 07:05 PM

i lol'ed at this topic... i can speak irish slang really... but who cares??? hahahahaha... i feel noob when i really speak like those british/irish/scottish/ texas style..u name it... hahahh... its too many S and F... a real sound it shall be... and my voice must turn out to be like them too.. so be as what as you are is still the best

^but still, when it comes to formal thing, event, whatsoever, do u still speak with msians slangs?

dude, if you work in a MNC company, the first thing they'll tell you is.
"lose the slang"


This post has been edited by skitzo: Mar 14 2010, 03:12 AM

i speak in inggeris

good example.. have u been to other company? will they ask u the same thing as well?

Firstly , TS, why do we have to be defined by the accent that we speak in order to judge our standard of English to begin with?

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Added on March 14, 2010, 3:23 amBTW i think they sound like filipinos.. like the ones you see in pengako sayo

This post has been edited by beatlesalbum: Mar 14 2010, 03:23 AM

+1

i iz speak /k/ slang....

In West Malaysia, we call it "Accent" instead of "Slang"

Indeed, like TS said west side can't speak.

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I think it is GOMEN fault.

I have been to 10 schools previously. From experience, some of the teacher are good. Some of them are talking bahasa more while teaching English. I fuking hate that. How come english teacher talks bahasa in English class.

The gov wants teachers to teach student to score.
But not to speak properly.
If exam A+ you think his/her English powderful? NO


When i see public interview on tv, i lol-ing very hard.

Science/Technology is much more important than English language...

Most of the advanced countries don't even speak proper english... Japan and Germany are good examples...

Speaking good english doesnt mean you are a knowledgeable person...

my english teacher is from east malaysia, she speaks with a hakka accent.

but, they DEVELOP their own technologies. they created them, in their national language. but we, the merehsian, we just import the technology from outside. thats y we have German Malaysian Institute, Malaysian Spanish Institute, etc to study their techs..

This post has been edited by Username is username: Mar 14 2010, 03:58 AM

I mean English is just a Language.... It does not determine whether you are a successful person or not....

In fact, English is not a pure language, it has a lot of borrowed words from Latin, French etc... a little bit like Bahasa Rojak...

east msia less <insert race> ...majority is <insert race> , <insert race > and <insert race>

has jew eated liao?

it much better if the state gov impose english as official language in all sectors, just like during brooke's empire

i dont mind, as long i can understand em

accent doesnt matter, as long as the structure / grammar is correct....

anyway the best english is still KELANTANese english!!

my england like chef wan..dun shy lor..chef wan english is malaysian accent..already known all over the world..

Is it coz last time they slower submit to federal LAW that all school must teach in BM?

YES!!

I lazy to google the wiki on this.

So?

oh yea u bet it right mate... i speak aussie english... my frens around kch speak british and american english!!!

i just speak english,fluent and clear dun care bout slang

I am Sabahan

I duno talk england

apparently I found Johorean English sounds the most ah beng style one

tuhan tak tengok benda ni semua. yang penting mengaji mesti ada tajwid

i iz speaken like this. i is eated lunch later afternoon was coming

i lawd

i want to watch greenzone. nice o not?

what is slangs ar??

*raises hand*

I speak English in KL almost the whole time to avoid the "kamu orang Indon?" generalization. For some reason, people would kick off their Malaysian hospitality by going OMG YOU'RE FROM BRITAIN HAI2U and I LOL'd.

I think accent should not be an issue. Even the australians have their own accent which sucks to the max, and the americans finds the british accent to be horrible and vice versa. Whats more important is pronunciation (which can differ by regions too), grammar and vocabulary (differs based on the society).

And as for Eastern M'sians having better command of English, i beg to differ. Having experienced people from there, sll I can say is that they pronounce words freaking weirdly and its not correct. They have the accent but then it makes no sense to have an accent and speak with wrong pronunciation. One person whom i know have to resort to explaining things in Malay coz her pronunciation is OMGGGGGGGG

Plantlets becomes "palletes"
sugar - "sue-ge"
horizontally - "horijontali"

At the same time I have met Easterners with excellent command of English too. So IMHO, there's not much differences as its individual based.

BUT, I've got to say that i find most East Malaysians more willing to learn English and to them English is like very important as compared to the mentality of those in the West.

This post has been edited by cutejams2004: Mar 14 2010, 12:40 PM

you're getting it backwards. ALOT of people are good at writing as opposed to speaking. and thats the problem most Malays (im not generalizing) face. they get As in UPSR, PMR, SPM. but when it comes to speaking. epicly they will fail.

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Added on March 14, 2010, 12:43 pmyou're getting it backwards. ALOT of people are good at writing as opposed to speaking. and thats the problem most Malays (im not generalizing) face. they get As in UPSR, PMR, SPM. but when it comes to speaking. epicly they will fail.

This post has been edited by Mikeshashimi: Mar 14 2010, 12:43 PM

actually east and west

it's the same shit different assholes

hi, saya melayu dan berumur 12 tahun, apa semua ini?

This post has been edited by kai_rel: Mar 14 2010, 01:44 PM

wad u generalizing for i felt offended!
i dont speak bad english! im frm KL/PJ area laaaaa
come out PK see who english better la
outside settle

*joking*

define better engrish

this is very easily known by seeing theres more east malaysians studying overseas than the west malaysians =)

we e.m always take aeroplane fly here and there while w.m only use cars/public transports

+1

come out challenge oral then....

i dont gip a damn on how other ppl life.

my accent is british, and sometimes US accent. depends on who i am talking to. my grandpa talks like pure british. hitler = hitlar

i like japanese accent. I find Jap girls talking in english very cute

strawberry cake = setolobelli kaykey

what matters most is what happen under the sheets....

kimochi

uuuu lala..oral...nose bleedoo....so where the place u guys wanna settle...wanna go watch~? free rite?

how inconvenient is that. why hav to hide? lulz

usually i speak broken english...cause i dun care nyahaha
but when i write it's a different story...nyahaha
dont generalize u dindle finch

so many people butthurted here...

US accent is the high pitched nasal voice. Are you sure? Or do you just mean the intonation?

there are around 20 diff races in sarawak, and we usually socialize with different race/culture everyday, one person can speak at least 3 languages, 5 to 6 for some, if u are speaking that many languages in a day you must have developed certain adaptability when speaking to different people and able to differentiate when to use which slang in which language but imho, it's far from american slang tho, i only think it sounded natural without too much of chinese/indian/mother tongue accent in it.

where as west malaysian usually flock with their own kind and developed too much of their mother tongue accent in their english.

well, just my 2 cents through observations

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!

OFF WITH UR HEAD

Hi-5 my fellow Borneo soldier.

I agree with you although I'm living in KL now x)
I had an online friend from Miri, her English is much better than some of my friends here...
But I think Majority of Petaling Jaya , Subang Jaya and Kuala Lumpur area are able to communicate in English well and proficiently x)

malaysians are good engrish

This post has been edited by kristenkimkim: Mar 14 2010, 03:12 PM

im west malaysian live in pj .. i cant speak malay well with west malaysian slang, i cant speak hokkien or cantonese.. understand parts of mandarin.. so how u think im gonna converse?

I speak Australian now.

i feel you man, i felt the same thing here, especially with those who i think living in their cupboard box, if we could at least listen an know which part of malaysia their slang are, why cant they at least know which part of malaysia are we, such a dumbass.

PJ people is butthurting after seeing the thread

WHAT IS THIS SHIT!!!
*butthurt*

once again generalizing is bad!!!!
many PJ/KL ppl engrish is goodest than u all too man
u think u so kheng lai go PK la

I speak differently when with different people.
i do not use accents, i just watch my grammars and the words i use...
when with family or friends, i just speak manglish or any terrible version of english, as long as people understand, then can edi.
when dealing with official stuffs, i speak proper english.
its got nothing to with the accents...

This post has been edited by xkellyxemox: Mar 14 2010, 03:49 PM

r u sure fire????

i have been in sarawak for 5 years now and i cant seem to find a good english speaking local other then chinese in sarawak.

got 1 dj in sarawak red fm that really annoys me by the way she talk.

I iz speek Mangrish...

Engerish iz for Engaland peepel. Mangrish iz for Malaysian peepel.

We are Malaysians, why speak like US or UK...
Nobody talk like Malaysians ???
Hmm~

Wa firdaus opening a whole can of worms eh...bahaya..later vroom vroom wor....
Jokes aside we do try to speak 'correct grammar' english but i also found some peninsula dudes speaks great english specially those who works in bigger MNCs.

English good also no use, cannot communicate, cuz the person you're speaking to has terrible vocab.

So you mix in some BM, some Hokkien, some Malaysian English (IE: Disengage (tak paham), Break it (paham)).

Common situation.

LOL

allinuff, of course when you speak to the other party you have to think 1st if they can understand or not ma. You go mamak of coz you speak their lingo. Tak kan you go tamu ground you speak queen's english?

I stopped reading shakespeare a long time ago

learnt something though, don't speak too fast, because angmoh ears cannot understand. They're not trained to pick up isi tersirat.

An example of a common, standard US accent (Sarimah Ibrahim):


An example of common Western Malaysian speaking English:

So what makes Akio Toyoda's horrible english compare to the redneck's ?

i like Prof Agus's english accent lolz

pek tow

im still waiting for oral pk...when where ????

Aiya, Fire whats wrong.
u so exposeds to the world and see so many things, and little thing like language can perturb you?
My friend chinese educated and really traditional upbrining but marry japanese communicate in ENglish and reside there. no problem for him too, and his gf not that good english.
Most important thing is LOVE not language. If you speak the language of LOVE, nothing reallyt matters does it?

why bother about acents?

ppl around the globe speaks with bdifferent accents. south africa, australia, new zealand, us, uk.

remember spoken language is differnet from writing. it becomes a problem when u write improper english in formal situation.

-lah, mah, is our signature accent. why lose it?

my english really bad and now i felt offended...

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Added on March 14, 2010, 6:15 pmi want to cekik u

This post has been edited by Pain4UrsinZ: Mar 14 2010, 06:15 PM

i tot sarimah accent was an Irish accent?
she was born and raise there before kambeng bak to malaysia....

People just think that I have a weird-ish American + British accent. (When I'm acting all pompous and trying my best not to make any mistakes obviously)

Can't be avoided really. I was raised without English spoken in the family. My brothers speak English with an odd English accent like mine and I took after them.