Keeping in touch

Internet cafes
Malaysia has embraced the web with enthusiasm and most towns now have internet-cafes, which are listed under Communications in the Directory of individual town increasingly hotels have email addresses and websites too, which are listed in the text.

Language
Bahasa Melayu (the Malay language, normally just shortened to bahasa) is the national language. It is very similar to Bahasa indonesia, which evolved from Malay. and can be understood in southern Thailand,throuqhout Borneo and as far afield as the Moro areas of the southern Philippines. All communities, Malay, Chinese and Indian, as well as tribal groups in Sabah and Sarawak, speak Malay, as most are schooled in the Malay medium. Nearly everyone in Malaysia speaks some English except in remoter rural areas, although the standard of English has declined markedly in the past 10 years. Realizing this, and because good English is essential for business the government has sought to reverse the decline. The other main languages spoken in Malaysia include the Chinese dialects of Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien as well as Tamil and Punjabi,
For those wanting to get a better grasp of the language, it is possible to take courses in KLr (enquire at Tourism Malaysia offices) and other big cities. The best way to take crash course in Malay is to buy a 'teach-yourself' book; there are several on the market but one of the best ones is Malay in 3 Week, by John Parry and Satan bin Sulaiman: (Times Books, 19891, which is widely available. A Malay/English dictionary or phrase book is a useful companion too; these are also readily available in bookshops.

Basic grammar and rowels Basic grammar is very simple. there are no tenses genders or articles and the structure or sentences is straightforward. Plurals are also easy one man, for example is laki, men is laki-laki, often denoted as laki Pronunciation Is not difficult as there is a dose relationship between the letter as t is written and the sound.Stress is usually placed on the second syllable of a word. For example restoran (restaurant) is pronounced res-TO-ran For pronunciation of vowels and consonants a is pronounced as nn in an open syllable, or as in but for a dosed syllable; e is pronounced as in open or bed.; i is pronounced as in feel; o is pronounced as in all; m is pronounced a foot. The letter c is pronounced as in ch as in change or chat. The r's are rolled.

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