Southeast Asian Languages/Bahasa Malaysia


The Bahasa Malaysia Department

Welcome!

Bahasa Malaysia 1

Bahasa Malaysia 1 is a course offered by the Division of Southeast Asian Languages in which students are introduced to simple vocabulary, phrases, and elementary grammatical structures of the language.

Malaysia


Malaysia is a federation of thirteen states in Southeast Asia. The country consists of two geographical regions divided by the South China Sea.

The name "Malaysia" was adopted in 1963 when the Federation of Malaya (Malay: Persekutuan Tanah Melayu), Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak formed a 14-state federation. Singapore was expelled from the federation in 1965 and subsequently become an independent country.

Although politically dominated by the Malays, modern Malaysian society is heterogeneous, with substantial Chinese and Indian minorities. Malaysian politics have been noted for their allegedly communal nature; the three major component parties of the Barisan Nasional each restrict membership to those of one ethnic group. However, the only major intercommunal violence the country has seen since independence was the May 13 racial riots of 1969 that occurred in the wake of an election campaign that was dominated by racial issues.

Lessons