You are not a Malaysian if you have never used the word “Lah”. It’s in our everyday language (which we call Manglish – combination of Malaysian (Malay, Chinese, Indian and whatever words that sounds good) and English!
When you are in Malacca, drop by the Orang Utan t-shirt shop to grab “To Lah or Not To Lah” T-Shirt with that tagline! Malaysia, truly Asian lah!
1. People who don’t use the –lah slang is considered a snob to a certain degree!
2. “Lah” simplifies a very long sentence that a Westerner normally use. It is used as an “economiser” that shortens sentences by 80 percent!
Example of commonly used – lah.
- Cannot lah
- OK lah
- No lah
- Yes lah
- Sorry lah
- Die lah
- What lah you
- Who lah
- Where lah
- Where got lah
- How can lah
- Don’t have lah
- Don’t worry lah
- Don’t lah like that
- Please lah
Don’t think of us Malaysian as lazy speakers, we just like to make things simpler and less formal. If we speak Manglish to you, it just means we are including you in our local social circle, so be happy about it, and try to use a little lah now and then – it may sound awkward at the beginning, but you’ll eventually get used to it! But don’t worry, Malaysians can understand proper English perfectly fine too (I like to think many of us can write good English most of the time, but we just chose to speak Manglish – a culture which we are proud of), unless you decide to use just extremely fancy words which we assume is used to impress only the super high-class in which you may come across as arrogant. So be yourself and keep it simple lah, ok? J
If you have time to spare, don’t forget to check out the Wikipedia for Manglish for your leisure reading.
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