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Only English? So what role does Tagalog play? So you're telling me there are very few people who can't read English?
Well I think part of the aversion stems from the fact they feel Malay is imposed on them. I can understand the Malaysian government wanting to make Malay the main language, but they go further than that and favour the Bumiputra (sons of the soil) mostly Malay in other regards. Yeah in Ipoh or something I actually met some Malaysian Chinese who seemed to barely speak much English! It was quite a shock, as most of the people I know seem good English. I'd say it's still the Malays who have the worst command of English, but it's still much much better than Thailand of course. Maybe the Philippines might be overtaking Malaysia after all with English as a second language, due to the active encouragement of English, but Malaysia has a lot of people who exclusively speak to each other or mostly in English. I would find it strange if Filipinos are starting to speak to each other exclusively in English. As it is, though, Malaysia and Singapore are the only two countries with sizeable percentages who speak English natively.
In the Philippines, English has often been the language used to read and write, while the local language is the spoken one. Filipino (aka Tagalog) is the national language and is very much promoted on local TV. For the TV companies, it's pretty much a necessity to maintain some market share as those who prefer English are already watching foreign cable TV channels. CNN and AXN are among the most popular cable TV channels in the Philippines.
When you go to the movies in Malaysia, are any English movies dubbed in Malay?? Because no movies are dubbed in Filipino at all. People go to the movies and watch it in English. There aren't even any Disney movies in Tagalog. It's a shame actually. The only things dubbed in Filipino are foreign telenovelas and cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants and anime.
When you go to the movies in Malaysia, are any English movies dubbed in Malay?? Because no movies are dubbed in Filipino at all. People go to the movies and watch it in English. There aren't even any Disney movies in Tagalog. It's a shame actually. The only things dubbed in Filipino are foreign telenovelas and cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants and anime.
No they just have Malay subtitles. Most TV shows too, although it's sometimes dubbed. Of course if you have astro or something there is often no subtitles or you can have custom subtitles.
But I almost never have a problem ordering food in English in Malaysia. If so they're almost invariably not Malaysians but from Bangladesh or something.
Suffice me to say, but I think Malaysia still needs a lot of catching up. Maybe SG would be the better competitor of Phils in Asia not Malaysia on English proficiency. IMO
Only English? So what role does Tagalog play? So you're telling me there are very few people who can't read English?
Well I think part of the aversion stems from the fact they feel Malay is imposed on them. I can understand the Malaysian government wanting to make Malay the main language, but they go further than that and favour the Bumiputra (sons of the soil) mostly Malay in other regards. Yeah in Ipoh or something I actually met some Malaysian Chinese who seemed to barely speak much English! It was quite a shock, as most of the people I know seem good English. I'd say it's still the Malays who have the worst command of English, but it's still much much better than Thailand of course. Maybe the Philippines might be overtaking Malaysia after all with English as a second language, due to the active encouragement of English, but Malaysia has a lot of people who exclusively speak to each other or mostly in English. I would find it strange if Filipinos are starting to speak to each other exclusively in English. As it is, though, Malaysia and Singapore are the only two countries with sizeable percentages who speak English natively.
Since Malays constitute 67% of Malaysia's population, this is the primary reason why English standards in Malaysia are not high. A lot of tourists who visit Malaysia deal more with the Malaysian Chinese, eating non-halal food and go to KL, Penang and Johor Bahru where there are relatively higher concentrations of Chinese compared to the less visited places in Malaysia. This creates an impression that English standards are higher than what they actually are. When one starts to talk with a Malay, then one will start to understand that there might be more Malaysians whose English are not so good.
Suffice me to say, but I think Malaysia still needs a lot of catching up. Maybe SG would be the better competitor of Phils in Asia not Malaysia on English proficiency. IMO
SG vs phils would be no competition, but singapore is a city too. I'm not including foreign residents here. Because English is more entrenched in SG however, they have developed their own dialect, Singlish, which like say ebonics doesn't always sound grammatically proper.
...and that Singlish is the reason why I don't like much their accent...
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