Malaysia is a multi-cultural, multi-racial country and so English is widely spoken in most parts of Malaysia but knowing a few simple words in Bahasa Malaysia would be good. Chinese dialects like Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien are widely spoken too. In addition to the very widespread use of English, especially in business and among the educated majority, Bahasa Malaysia or BM (MaIay) is spoken by all Malaysians, and although dialects differ regionally, the basic structure is the same.

Adjectives always follow the noun. “Rumah” (house) and “besar” (big) together as “rumah besar” means "big house'' and so on. When constructing a sentence, the order is subject-verb-object:

Dia (he); makan (eats); nasi (rice); goreng (fried). “Dia makan nasi goring” = “He eats fried rice.”

The traditional greeting is “Apa khabar” - literally ''What news?” and is the equivalent of “How are you?” - to which the reply is “Khabar baik” – “I'm fine”. Today, the ubiquitous ''HeIlo!'' or ''Hi!'' serve the same purpose.