Language barriers in Malaysia

It goes without saying that learning the local language goes along with living wherever you go. Malaysia presents some special problems because its multi-cultural. Do you learn all the local languages? Well, that would be best, but can you?

English is widely spoken but not entirely. Some chinese, malay and indian do not use English at all even though its claimed that all Malaysians learned English as kids.

Personally, I use English nearly all the time. Whatever Malay you can pick up is useful to speed things up and if you learn it well you can read government documents. But if one really wanted to get along well here, one would learn cantonese, mandarin, tamil and malay, a task so difficult I cant comment further.

Buy this book or purchase the APP "Collins Malay phrasebook" I've tried others they don't compare because of your English tongue. This APP teaches you how to say the word correctly so everyone doesn't laugh at you. I feel sorry for you if your relying on google-translate to make signs or tell someone something. I often get giggles from my wife when I use google-translate. Once told the electric reader to not vote at my house. LOL

Bahasa is the official language. English, Mandarin,  Tamil are commonly spoken. Its quiye easy to get going without knowing the local language,  as there are so many people from other countries, including those from gulf countries.

The locals can catch a few english phrases otherwise google translate helps.

I forgot the main point of my post which is something common to ASEAN. Malaysians have a way of talking that doesnt follow the book. Ive heard chinese-malay-english all in one sentence, and then there is the slang, and then there are cultural pet words that each use. If you talk straight out perfectly by the book, you may barely be understood. Its a matter of linguistics, I suppose, but it would take decades to learn to speak HOW they speak, not just WHAT they speak. Whether English or what I may know in Malay, I try to speak properly and not at the bottom level. Malay and Chinese talk at the bottom, Indians take some pride at speaking higher up the ladder with multi-syllable words and deeper expressiveness. If you take the pure local lesson, you will become dumbed down as has happened to me. Its as if everyone is a child, trying to get by on the shortest and simplest baby language possible, with everything black or white and no shades of grey. Its "Im hungry," not, "My stomach is beginning to growl and I was wondering what might best cure that. Should I have rice or make spaghetti carbonara? "i sleep, im late, not late, maybe, yes, no..." In the restaurant its "Makan?" then "Minu? (not even the whole word minuman), and not, "What would you like to eat? Have you had a chance to read the menu?" Oh my, they would never say that much. They talk in ONE WORD sentences if possible and fully expect that its a complete thought.  So, what do you want to do, educate them or be educated by them?

Sum up, you can get along here on ONE word, HALF words or even pointing and no words at all! Ive had workmen come to my house and i just point to the ceiling, the wall, the floor and there is nothing more to talk about until the moment of payment. I feel ashamed for this. Some would argue that I talk too much, or who cares as long as communication has occurred. But really, POINTING? Anyone notice how much pointing goes on here with no words at all, let alone complete sentences? It feels....not right. So sharpen your pointing fingers and dont even bother buying a dictionary or something. "No need!"

Hello, hello, I like what you wrote. Malaysians are creating a new creole. In Maurice(that is Mauritius Island) they speak Creole which is their national language. If you listen to Creole you will find quite french words as well as the local dialect . Quite a mixture they have there.
I really think the Malaysian government should start to get our younger generation to speak proper Standard English. I don't mean we should imitate the "Western Accent or Manner in speech" then we will be accused of trying to be "Mat Salleh"(trying to act like British in speech or manner). We just speak with our nature accent(that is malaysian accent) but proper grammar and sentence not using monosyllable all the time. Like "Yes lah" , "OK lah".
If you speak really bad french to the French from France they will walk away from you. They refuse to allow you to continue to butcher their beloved National Language. In France they have an Institute to protect their National Language, they called it "Academie Française". The French thinks too many English words have crept into the French Language and they don't like it. So they try to keep English words out of the French Language.
In Malaysia we really screw up the English language and think we are doing a great job. We even called it "Manglish".  Being a pure linguist myself I really don't like what is being done to the English Language.
You should attempt to speak a Language as it is spoken by the Native Speakers.

It is indeed chivalrous to protect one's language, but non native speakers will never speak like natives, like obviously natives speak in a certain way for a reason.  It does seem to be a butchering of the language,  but then, in the long run that is just the way language evolves. We cannot cut out people from using English  just because they don't speak it well. Yeah, the standards should be raised, but non natives cannot mimic those of natives. Its far fetched.

Yes, ankamun, you may be right. But it is possible to get the general population to speak reasonably good English if you start with the young kids from Primary one onwards, that means it will take one generation to achieve. Yes, one generation. No easy way.
Why bother you may ask? Because it is right and proper to do something the correct way. The present poor standard of English is the laughing stock of the world. Of course not everyone speaks bad English in Malaysia but enough of them to create a bad impression of the country.
I have spoken in English to many Arabs from Maghrib countries( ex-french colonial north african countries) I was surprised that their spoken English is good especially the younger generation.
Why can't we do it if they can do it?  The North African Arabs also speak French but they didn't mix it up with their English. They speak Arabic their mother tongue, French and English.
The answer is "Yes, Malaysians can learn to speak proper Good English". 
Malaysians should be aware that their bad English is not acceptable and it is foolish to think otherwise.  We fail to speak proper English and yet we go around saying "oh Manglish is fun, it is acceptable in Malaysia..... and so on...
Like someone who fails and he drinks because he drinks he fails all the more.
Our spoken English will in time to come deteriorate to the point of stupidity.

Alright seems like a question I've got a perfect answer to. I've grew up here in Malaysia. My whole life I've only just used English. The most you would need out of the local language (Bahasa Melayu AKA BM) is to order food and even then it's not completely necessary but just speeds things up slightly.

Don't worry, loads of Malaysians can't speak their own respective languages either. You can stick with English, there is no urgent need to learn BM or any of the other local languages. Just pick up whatever you can pick up. That's it.