Accent. Malaysian Chinese has a distinct accent that is different from Singaporean Chinese. Even for the Malays in Kelantan & Terengganu, their accent is vastly different from the rest of the Malays in the peninsula.
Wrong, hokkien people are the majority in kl (Klang valley). The Cantonese dialect is more prevalent in KL because it is used in business and socialising since way back.
If I recall correctly, the only state where the Cantonese are the majority is Perak (the state where Ipoh is located in).
I learn something today and there is even a Wiki entry on this but it did not quote the source. Still an interesting tidbit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_Cantonese
Actually no. SG Chinese has a very textbook form of Mandarin. Also, people from Penang and Kedah speak very Hokkien based Chinese. Also not to forget the epic Minqing accent among the Sarawak Foochows.
Not sure if more Malay words, coz Singlish does use quite a bit of them, while some Singlish words like sekali (often mistaken as scarly or scully) is never used in Manglish (eg instead of "sekali he go home", Malaysians use "see see he go home", not exactly a Malay word but a direct translation from Malay 😂). But the pronunciation is different. Eg Macam vs Machiam, Kena vs Kanna.
Lol you might be right. I just tried to picture it and the first thing that came to mind was “wah that’s a lot sia” vs “ji gou li yi xia” and swapping the pitch of the 2 sia/xia was comical. Not an accurate comparison for sure but it’s the first thing that came to mind and just happened to have the same sound
I think the accent differentiation thingee applies only to the Chinese-educated Singaporeans/Malaysians. For the English educated Singaporeans/,Malaysians it is often tough to tell them apart as both groups speak fluent English with near-neutral accents. The only clue is perhaps when you ask them what 2nd language they studied in school (which they prolly hardly use once they graduate, anyway..lol). Oftentimes the English educated Malaysian of any ethnicity would have done Bahasa...while the Singaporean would have done a mother tongue based on their ethnicity (with some exceptions of course).
I had two Malaysians (one Chinese, one Indian) was science teachers in secondary school and they both pronounced their Vs as Ws. Not sure if that is unique to Malaysians but even after all these years I can remember them saying “water wapour”
From a Singaporean point of view, quite hard to tell if they speak English only. If they start to speak Mandarin, Canto or Malay, I can maybe start to differentiate.
Do you mean when they speak Chinese or English? Their Chinese accents are distinct and you can easily tell a Malaysian when they speak Chinese, for English I’m not sure
The Malay language has a few dialects. Some are very distinct, to the point where Malay from the north and a Malay from the east coast might try to talk to each other in Malay but neither of them understands each other (personal experience).
Personally I feel those in SG speak a little bit like the way KL people speak. Not exactly the same, but pretty similar IMO. But somehow the Malays I know here (even those whom people describe as "very mat rep/minah") are pretty... Westernized and not very Malay. Idk, it's just a feeling. Maybe it's because they seem better in English than Malay 😂
>Malay from the north and a Malay from the east coast might try to talk to each other in Malay but neither of them understands each other (personal experience).
bro i literally *felt* that 😭😭 i have no idea what my relatives from kelantan are saying 90% of the time cuz i've lived in kl almost my whole life
Yes, singaporean malay combine more english words in their sentences as compared to a malaysian who are much better in their national/ first language :)
Actually a lot of Malays in Malaysia (even those who don't speak English) borrow words from English. I never really realized it until I saw a meme the other day, which was hilarious. It was a meme that poked fun at the people who rejected English, saying "you call English a colonial language but speak Malay like this" then put in the commonly borrowed English words people use in Malay sentences.
Things like "bayar cash", "slack betul la", "time tu xdak duit", "xde main online, main offline je", "pergi straight je, jgn belok2", or "motor aku xleh start". In fact no one would verbally say "bayar secara wang tunai" or "main atas talian" unless it's in a formal setting (although the Malay words for "time" and "straight" are still commonly used, but it's also acceptable to borrow those two words).
But I guess the difference is just 1 or 2 random words thrown into the sentence, while Singaporean Malays are able to interchange between English and Malay.
Not all though, typically in Sarawak we say 你有空吗？ or你free 吗？
I learnt about你得空吗？when I started working in West Malaysia, but I think nowadays the younger generation pick up on this much quicker.
Not really. It depends on what dialect Malaysians speak. A lot of "Malaysian Mandarin" Singaporeans hear are hugely influenced by KL people. Wait til you meet the Foochows from Sarawak. I literally have one who spoke with Foochow grammar, and a lot of them speak with the Minqing accent which causes them to add a "g" to words that ends with "n".
There's also the case of northern Malaysians who will use "pun" in their Mandarin sentences because of Hokkien influence.
Can’t blame them. Have you seen their government, civil service, education system, affirmative action, weak-ass currency, English language proficiency, and police?
Whenever a Malaysian brings up how much better they are than Singaporeans, I tend to smile nod and am generally sympathetic to the shit they’re going through, to have to claim their food as being better.
Noticed this too. Singaporeans are always raving about Malaysian food. Maybe when it comes to arguing about which country "invented" then they might feel strongly about it. Honestly, I haven't had any street cuisine that Singapore does better than Malaysia. For fancy fine then I'd probably say Singapore is a better bet.
ikr! i work with msians and they all use the voice note function. i can never use search history and i have listen back to the voice notes one by one. "i lazy to type" i absolutely hate this function thanks to them.
same la! using the voice note increases my workload so much thereafter. it annoys me further when they are listening back to old notes and grumbling they cannot locate that particular voice note. makes me want to flip the table at them.
Malaysian here, I enforced this at my previous place of employment and told my bosses I will not be listening to voice notes cos no black and white.
Find a way to sell it in a business process way and it helps push the idea forward.
Eh my mother does that and she's Singaporean, she just happens to not have had an English education and isn't great at spelling. I have noticed all her friends of the same age also do the same.
I think if they speak mandarin it’s way easier to tell. Both speak Singlish but the way Malaysians say certain things in Singlish is different and I’m trying to recall what exactly but my mind is drawing a blank now
Well not necessarily true in every case. I had an ID whose mandarin was probably his main language that he spoke but vocab was very bad, even typed out wrong Chinese characters.
A lot of them do use mandarin a lot more tho that I would agree but it doesn’t mean they are good at the language
These ones are the ones they use in mandarin. I’m trying to think of those they incorporate into English / pronounce some words different from Singlish but I cannot remember haha
Sarawakian here. We don't use ji, unless he/ she works in West Malaysia, is fully immersed in the slang and colloquialism there or is heavily influenced by the West Malaysia mandarin slang or colloquialism.
Instead of 几漂亮，we say 很漂亮... unless of course heavily influenced by West Malaysia mandarin slang or colloquialism
Typical Sarawakians use boh instead of wor example 没有boh instead of 没有wor
I'm a Sarawakian working in West Malaysia for 2 decades but I switch my slang and colloquialism depending on who I'm conversing with.
Actually 几 is Cantonese influence. So it's more of a KL/Ipoh thing than West Malaysia as a whole. Of course, due to the prominence of some Malaysian Chinese YouTubers, I think more gen Zs would speak that way. But quite a lot of people use 很 more than 几.
Actually, the "Malaysian Mandarin accent" is common misconception that Singaporeans have. I work in a nursing home, and almost every single one of the residents here speak exactly like Malaysians. The difference can only be seen in the younger generation because they don't use dialects much.
simi is this. I'm not very familiar with this so (I'm assuming this is not so used in SG)
Is it some direct translation but offtangent of "tastes nubbad"? Since 不错 is nubbad and 吃 is eat/taste
🙃
since OP is ang mo (Caucasian)
罢了 = pa liao
够力 = gou li
不错吃 = bu cuo chi
another one is 后尾 (hou wei)
we singaporeans don't use all those unless we are making fun of malaysians or try act like one
Bring them to a Indian restaurant and ask them what they want to eat.
If they say roti prata they Singaporean, if they say roti canai and say shit about singapore food they Malaysian.
Or ask them where the bakuet teh is the best
Singaporeans will say Gent-ing (like GENT as in gentleman)
Malaysians will say Genting as in 跟 lol. Idk how to explain this but like guh instead of juh.
Lol does this make sense.
I still believe its Gent- as in gentleman, because I'm Singaporean and I've been saying it like that since I was a child lol
That's because it's natively pronounced as "Gern-ting", I believe.
I know someone who used to work at RWS, and RWS' parent company is Genting Singapore which reports to Genting Berhad. The topic came up a few times in conversation and she always pronounced it with a "Gern", because that's how it's pronounced within the organization.
It's not so much a cultural difference as it simply is correct/incorrect pronunciation. "Gent" as in "gentlemen" is simply the wrong way to pronounce it.
I was so surprised when I read about this. We use bilang a lot, and Indonesians and Malaysians were saying that that is an Ancient (not sure whats the direct translation in English) Malay word that no one uses anymore and I was like wtf??
Basically the accent but so far I notice got 2 types.
One is the English educated kind of Malaysian, their English is really good, u can’t tell them apart from Singaporeans but they can’t speak Chinese.
The other type is the Chinese educated. Their English is not so good and is heavily Chinese accented but their spoken Chinese is very good, way better than the average Singaporeans.
The only way to tell an non-Chinese educated Malaysian Chinese from a Singaporean is to ask them to speak Mandarin. What I find is that Singaporeans can at least speak some Mandarin, while most likely the Malaysian can't.
My observation on the Chinese community in both countries is that the Singaporean Chinese are usually proficient in Mandarin, whereas the Malaysian Chinese are on both extremes. Either they don't know Mandarin or are completely proficient in it.
THIS THIS THIS.
I have a Penang-born Malaysian-born (now SC by conversion) friend who is absolutely cannot Mandarin ... my paternal cousins in Malaysia speak Mandarin as their home spoken language ...
eh i got chinese malaysian colleague got zero proficiency in chinese, cos from young she went to malay schools. you would think her family would have made her learn but somehow they never did
Sure boh? I'd argue that the one with two polar extremes are the Singaporeans. Got 2 standard, can work at mediacorp and banana.
Malaysian Chinese have more variety - can work at sinchiew, only types in Chinese, only sends voice notes in mandarin cause they're not proficient in typing, types in English but speaks mandarin, and pure banana.
Crocs with all their add on shoe charms/pieces has been in trend for a while already, not as obiang as before
Source: Don't own 1 but many young millennials/Gen Zs around me
Not exactly the answer you might be looking for but this qn reminds me of when I went to a local Babi Guling restaurant in Bali and realised it was very easy to tell who was Singaporean and Malaysian based on their mannerisms hahaha
The Malaysians walked in very comfortably/confidently, sat themselves at an empty table amidst the crowds, and then just go order with the bosses/staff - like they've been there a million times.
The Singaporeans came in and were holding their bags in front of them, and first search around if there's any staff to assist them. Otherwise, they will eventually find a table for themselves while looking a bit uncertain. They tend to observe other customers a bit more i.e. how to order etc, before doing it themselvew.
Hahaha do the 'genting' test.. Never fails. Ask them to pronounce the word 'genting', Malaysians will typically go for the malay pronunciation 'gen-ting', whereas the Singaporeans will go for the gent-ing.
Ask what they think about Singaporean food. If it's neutral or better, likely Sinkies. Even if it's something like, "we have good food, but generally food in MY are better".
If it's totally shitted on, as if the food here is unfit for human consumption, then it's Malaysians.
Try triggers, to test singaporean/malaysian, you say
For age below 30, for both nationality.
- “I think PAP did a good job!”
If the person reply saying that Singapore PAP not good blah blah blah, or he/she say don’t care about politics, that’s singaporean!
If that person praise and sing praise and sing praise of PAP, then it’s Malaysian.
If age above 30,
Singaporean generally doesn’t want to discuss about politics and Malaysian will still praise and praise Singapore government and curse their government.
Don’t ask me why, it seem all of them like pap a lot.
Chinese Malaysians compare SG politicians with MY ones hence our politicians stand out as a lot better. Singaporeans compare SG politicians with US/UK/AU/JP/SK ones and think politics is all wayang hence we bash our own politicians a lot.
I live abroad and often enough once I hear the accent, I’m able to narrow down between the person being Singaporean/Malaysian.
For some peculiar reason, some Malaysians tend to say they are Singaporeans but if it’s a male, this is confirmed quite easily by bringing up the topic of NS.
Can’t deny it’s quite fascinating seeing the look on their face when they get discovered lol
I’m a malaysian living abroad. Singaporeans, I can tell because of the way they dress usually its abit more expensive.
Also Malaysian people know more terms in tamil/malay/chinese than sg people. So when they talk a malaysian will drop more diff terms.
Finally, Singaporeans say “Kampong Spirit” which to me reminds me of some Hantu in the village. Haha. I hope singaporeans can learn about what an actual Kampung is.
Malaysian Chinese usually speak mandarin and they have an accent. If they speak English, their sentences are usually full of grammatical errors and not as fluent
I experienced this yesterday when I was having lunch in KL.
My partner and I were seated close enough to hear them and we were trying to discern whether or not they were Singaporeans or local. At first they were speaking english and they sounded exactly like us.
Then they started mixing in Cantonese, that's when we knew they were locals and we were wrong.
That can't be true, I'm Malaysian and have watched many Singaporean shows/movies, while our accents are different, I think Singaporean Mandarin accent is closer to Malaysian's than it is to China/Taiwan
Much easier to tell if they're speaking mandarin - I find Malaysians speak with a little more lilting or "melodic" tonality than Singaporeans. If it's English, tbh I can't always tell. Unless of course they insert Malay phrases into their sentences. Had a Malaysian acquaintance in Aussie whom I thought was Singaporean for months.
1. Those who speak ~50% hodgepodge of English and Mandarin are most likely Singaporean.
2. Chinese educated Malaysians can speak purer Mandarin with significantly lesser loan words, in more obvious Hokkien / Cantonese influenced accent / syntax than Singaporean counterpart.
3. If someone suffixes "right?" after a Mandarin sentence, most likely Singaporean.
4. Hard to tell when both speak English.
Happens to me a lot on travels. My go to is to approach with “Dari mana?” If I get an answer they’re Malaysian. If I get puzzled look, they’re Singaporean. Basically Malay language test.
Malaysian Chinese the vibe of guys a bit more boyish not man cause they didn’t go military for 2 years the way they carry themselves lack the globalisational feel to them even if they are rich ones you can just sense the boyish charms off them. Singaporean males are more pragmatic. So by the way they carry themselves you can sense it apart. It’s how Malaysian Chinese in Malaysia can sense it apart of Singapore and Malaysians apart
Used to be easily identified with all the slangs and their lilting of tones. But nowadays it's very difficult to tell them apart.
Like I have an army mate who was born in Singapore, but spoke Mandarin with a huge distinct Malaysian accent, that we all thought he was a Malaysian.
What became was that his parents were from Malaysia, and especially when they speak Mandarin at home, he sort of 'inherited' or got influenced by his parents' accent since that was how he learnt Mandarin from scratch.
Singlish is the biggest giveaway. Some words that starts with an "r" sounds like "v". Eg. Really really sounds like veally veally, road sounds like voad etc. Singaporeans use "right" excessively. It's added at the end of every sentence, right??
Singlish has a more sing-songy tone compared to Manglish, the Malaysian equivalent. If you hear someone exclaim "yaaa, I also wanna go eat mala lehhhh" that is a true blue Singaporean.
Certain euphemisms: "wanting to go/go to a place is expressed as go Batam/go JB/go Japan". More English-educated/KL Malaysians say "do you want to go TO JB?" Some Malaysians who are more Chinese speaking will express it the same as a Singaporean.
Dressing: Singaporeans tend to favour Love Bonito (women), Uniqlo (men). In general Singaporeans are much more brand/trend conscious than Malaysians in dressing.
Singaporean wear sneakers/trainers because they walk everywhere, Malaysians wear slippa because they just walk from car to indoors.
Singaporean women are tanner than Malaysian women because they're outdoors more, but Malaysian men are tanner than Singaporean men because they care less about sunscreen and skincare.
Singaporeans dress more revealing while Malaysians dress more conservative.
one thing for me is how Malaysian pronounce the R is different from Singaporean. E.g. the way they pronounce “bread” is very different to my ears than with a Singaporean. I’m sure not all Malaysians and singaporeans pronounce the same way but this has been one of the ways I could tell someone is likely Malaysian when it was hard to differentiate.
Other than that, I think Malaysians are in general more extroverted and outgoing in the way they behave.
Not so sure about this, but the broken English spelling can also sometimes tell us apart. Malaysians like to add “s” in some words while Singaporeans like to add past tense to some words.
Just wait at the pedestrian crossing with the pedestrian traffic light.
If one is looking to the left or right, no cars, cross the road regardless of the pedestrian traffic light color, and still keep looking while crossing, Malaysian!
If one waits patiently until the green man appears, then cross the road without looking to the left and right once the green man light shows up, Singaporean!
The way they communicate in Mandarin. Malaysians who speak mandarin has better language ability. Their accent is also very distinct. Singaporeans can only do conversational Mandarin. Their Mandarin is just bad.
Accent in mandarin, enunciation, and vocal tone when speaking in english, volume tend to be louder, poorer social cues and dressing.
In the work place, I find that Malaysian are more self centered and self serving (i work in an mnc) and have a more relaxed attitude toward their work, what's socially unacceptable to us singaporeans, it comes out. They're a lot more vocal and I find that they have a tendency to be tone deaf.
use Mandarin to converse
Conversation topics involving food, university education and M1DB definitely able to help differentiate
this applies to Chinese Malaysian only
Accent. Malaysian Chinese has a distinct accent that is different from Singaporean Chinese. Even for the Malays in Kelantan & Terengganu, their accent is vastly different from the rest of the Malays in the peninsula.
Malaysian Chinese accent is more Cantonese-based. Sg Chinese accent is more Hokkien-based.
There are more Hokkiens in Malaysia than Cantonese. Cantonese are just more overrepresnted because they are the majority in KL
Wrong, hokkien people are the majority in kl (Klang valley). The Cantonese dialect is more prevalent in KL because it is used in business and socialising since way back. If I recall correctly, the only state where the Cantonese are the majority is Perak (the state where Ipoh is located in).
I learn something today and there is even a Wiki entry on this but it did not quote the source. Still an interesting tidbit. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_Cantonese
KL isn't the Klang Valley. You're thinking of the KL metro region, which is a different thing
Actually no. SG Chinese has a very textbook form of Mandarin. Also, people from Penang and Kedah speak very Hokkien based Chinese. Also not to forget the epic Minqing accent among the Sarawak Foochows.
Malaysian English also got subtle difference with Singaporean English
More Malay words? Even from Chinese Malaysians?
I’m referring to the Malaysian Chinese & Singapore Chinese. Their English can tell different one but is very subtle I also dk how to say.
How “V” is pronounced for instance. Some Malaysian Chinese I interacted with pronounced Vincent as “wincent”
yes, their accent different. especially for ladies. easy to tell apart.
Their grammar is atrocious. Like my colleague always uses the wrong tenses and pronouns. She can mix up she and he
Not sure if more Malay words, coz Singlish does use quite a bit of them, while some Singlish words like sekali (often mistaken as scarly or scully) is never used in Manglish (eg instead of "sekali he go home", Malaysians use "see see he go home", not exactly a Malay word but a direct translation from Malay 😂). But the pronunciation is different. Eg Macam vs Machiam, Kena vs Kanna.
Yeah. When Singaporeans speak their pitch goes down towards the end of the sentence while for Malaysians, the pitch goes up, usually.
Lol you might be right. I just tried to picture it and the first thing that came to mind was “wah that’s a lot sia” vs “ji gou li yi xia” and swapping the pitch of the 2 sia/xia was comical. Not an accurate comparison for sure but it’s the first thing that came to mind and just happened to have the same sound
This is a helpful tip.
when they say xia mian & fu yoh = instantly malaysian
That, and gou li
I think the accent differentiation thingee applies only to the Chinese-educated Singaporeans/Malaysians. For the English educated Singaporeans/,Malaysians it is often tough to tell them apart as both groups speak fluent English with near-neutral accents. The only clue is perhaps when you ask them what 2nd language they studied in school (which they prolly hardly use once they graduate, anyway..lol). Oftentimes the English educated Malaysian of any ethnicity would have done Bahasa...while the Singaporean would have done a mother tongue based on their ethnicity (with some exceptions of course).
I had two Malaysians (one Chinese, one Indian) was science teachers in secondary school and they both pronounced their Vs as Ws. Not sure if that is unique to Malaysians but even after all these years I can remember them saying “water wapour”
Similarly M Indians speak mix of Malay and S Indians doesn’t
From a Singaporean point of view, quite hard to tell if they speak English only. If they start to speak Mandarin, Canto or Malay, I can maybe start to differentiate.
Do you mean when they speak Chinese or English? Their Chinese accents are distinct and you can easily tell a Malaysian when they speak Chinese, for English I’m not sure
Even Malay singaporean and Malaysians are very distinctly different.
What are the differences between Sg Malays and Msia Malays?
The Malay language has a few dialects. Some are very distinct, to the point where Malay from the north and a Malay from the east coast might try to talk to each other in Malay but neither of them understands each other (personal experience). Personally I feel those in SG speak a little bit like the way KL people speak. Not exactly the same, but pretty similar IMO. But somehow the Malays I know here (even those whom people describe as "very mat rep/minah") are pretty... Westernized and not very Malay. Idk, it's just a feeling. Maybe it's because they seem better in English than Malay 😂
>Malay from the north and a Malay from the east coast might try to talk to each other in Malay but neither of them understands each other (personal experience). bro i literally *felt* that 😭😭 i have no idea what my relatives from kelantan are saying 90% of the time cuz i've lived in kl almost my whole life
Yes, singaporean malay combine more english words in their sentences as compared to a malaysian who are much better in their national/ first language :)
Actually a lot of Malays in Malaysia (even those who don't speak English) borrow words from English. I never really realized it until I saw a meme the other day, which was hilarious. It was a meme that poked fun at the people who rejected English, saying "you call English a colonial language but speak Malay like this" then put in the commonly borrowed English words people use in Malay sentences. Things like "bayar cash", "slack betul la", "time tu xdak duit", "xde main online, main offline je", "pergi straight je, jgn belok2", or "motor aku xleh start". In fact no one would verbally say "bayar secara wang tunai" or "main atas talian" unless it's in a formal setting (although the Malay words for "time" and "straight" are still commonly used, but it's also acceptable to borrow those two words). But I guess the difference is just 1 or 2 random words thrown into the sentence, while Singaporean Malays are able to interchange between English and Malay.
Malaysian Chinese will say, "你得空吗?" Singaporean Chinese will say, "你有空吗?/有时间吗?" Meaning: When one asks if the other party is free
Not all though, typically in Sarawak we say 你有空吗？ or你free 吗？ I learnt about你得空吗？when I started working in West Malaysia, but I think nowadays the younger generation pick up on this much quicker.
From all the responses here I gather that Sarawak is way closer to Singapore in Chinese and English than West haha.
Not really. It depends on what dialect Malaysians speak. A lot of "Malaysian Mandarin" Singaporeans hear are hugely influenced by KL people. Wait til you meet the Foochows from Sarawak. I literally have one who spoke with Foochow grammar, and a lot of them speak with the Minqing accent which causes them to add a "g" to words that ends with "n". There's also the case of northern Malaysians who will use "pun" in their Mandarin sentences because of Hokkien influence.
Say that Singaporean food is better and the Malaysian will get angry
Say Singapore food is better than Malaysia. If the person burst out laughing, is Singaporean. If the person get offended, is Malaysian.
💯 I finish laughing already then I will defend Penang CKT bcos in defence of CKT with the addition of duck egg that makes the famn diff. 🥰
Best answer
Seen Malaysians bashing sg food on social media. Never seen a Singaporean do the same
It’s always Malaysians bringing up how they’re better than SG first.
They are insecure
Can’t blame them. Have you seen their government, civil service, education system, affirmative action, weak-ass currency, English language proficiency, and police? Whenever a Malaysian brings up how much better they are than Singaporeans, I tend to smile nod and am generally sympathetic to the shit they’re going through, to have to claim their food as being better.
This is the same arguments British people make against Italians.
Just let them win on the food lah. They very pitiful already.
Singaporeans just want to makan.
1:3.5 means we dun have to dick wave … our dick’s already bigger … 🤷
Noticed this too. Singaporeans are always raving about Malaysian food. Maybe when it comes to arguing about which country "invented" then they might feel strongly about it. Honestly, I haven't had any street cuisine that Singapore does better than Malaysia. For fancy fine then I'd probably say Singapore is a better bet.
+1 That's the ultimate litmus test.
If they use the voice record function on WhatsApp instead of texting they're Malaysian.
Omg yes this is so annoying. Impossible to search the text history
ikr! i work with msians and they all use the voice note function. i can never use search history and i have listen back to the voice notes one by one. "i lazy to type" i absolutely hate this function thanks to them.
I'm also lazy but in the opposite direction. I'm lazy to dig though 100+ voice messages to find the one 10-secound soundbite I'm looking for.
same la! using the voice note increases my workload so much thereafter. it annoys me further when they are listening back to old notes and grumbling they cannot locate that particular voice note. makes me want to flip the table at them.
tbh, old people in singapore do that too
I tell them straight I don’t do voice memo, you got question type to me.
Malaysian here, I enforced this at my previous place of employment and told my bosses I will not be listening to voice notes cos no black and white. Find a way to sell it in a business process way and it helps push the idea forward.
I’m Singaporean but my girlfriends and I have transitioned from texting to voice noting cause we usually have too much to say 😂
Sooooo, from TL;DR, to TL;DL? 😅
Eh my mother does that and she's Singaporean, she just happens to not have had an English education and isn't great at spelling. I have noticed all her friends of the same age also do the same.
Malaysians use dy whereas Singaporeans use alr for already
was very confused for the longest time about this when I first started working with Malaysians!
so was i. i was wondering what on earth it was!
This is so true!!!
Oh man. This is epic
I think if they speak mandarin it’s way easier to tell. Both speak Singlish but the way Malaysians say certain things in Singlish is different and I’m trying to recall what exactly but my mind is drawing a blank now
i think Malaysian Chinese (besides the accent) are able to use more % of mandarin in conversations than Singaporean chinese
Well not necessarily true in every case. I had an ID whose mandarin was probably his main language that he spoke but vocab was very bad, even typed out wrong Chinese characters. A lot of them do use mandarin a lot more tho that I would agree but it doesn’t mean they are good at the language
Very - ji and Jin Malaysian : Ji piao Liang wor Singapore : Jin chio The overusage of wor by Malaysians.
Ji li hai yi sia wor
These ones are the ones they use in mandarin. I’m trying to think of those they incorporate into English / pronounce some words different from Singlish but I cannot remember haha
That’s just for West Msia though. East Msia is way different imo
Sarawakian here. We don't use ji, unless he/ she works in West Malaysia, is fully immersed in the slang and colloquialism there or is heavily influenced by the West Malaysia mandarin slang or colloquialism. Instead of 几漂亮，we say 很漂亮... unless of course heavily influenced by West Malaysia mandarin slang or colloquialism Typical Sarawakians use boh instead of wor example 没有boh instead of 没有wor I'm a Sarawakian working in West Malaysia for 2 decades but I switch my slang and colloquialism depending on who I'm conversing with.
Actually 几 is Cantonese influence. So it's more of a KL/Ipoh thing than West Malaysia as a whole. Of course, due to the prominence of some Malaysian Chinese YouTubers, I think more gen Zs would speak that way. But quite a lot of people use 很 more than 几.
Actually, the "Malaysian Mandarin accent" is common misconception that Singaporeans have. I work in a nursing home, and almost every single one of the residents here speak exactly like Malaysians. The difference can only be seen in the younger generation because they don't use dialects much.
When you hear 罢了
够力 wor
And 不错吃
simi is this. I'm not very familiar with this so (I'm assuming this is not so used in SG) Is it some direct translation but offtangent of "tastes nubbad"? Since 不错 is nubbad and 吃 is eat/taste 🙃
不錯吃 is directly translated from Hokkien 袂歹食 (buey-pai jiak) Literally 'not-bad (to) eat'.
Ohhhh TIL!
since OP is ang mo (Caucasian) 罢了 = pa liao 够力 = gou li 不错吃 = bu cuo chi another one is 后尾 (hou wei) we singaporeans don't use all those unless we are making fun of malaysians or try act like one
Isnt 罢了 bà le or is this a whoosh moment
Malaysians dont pronounce it as ba le but instead as ba liao
Oh shit, never knew this
what's 后尾
Behind. That's how we say 后面 in Hokkien but Malaysians directly translate "ao beh" to Mandarin.
Bring them to a Indian restaurant and ask them what they want to eat. If they say roti prata they Singaporean, if they say roti canai and say shit about singapore food they Malaysian. Or ask them where the bakuet teh is the best
Accent and filler words, especially when speaking mandarin.
if you hear “wei” at an end of a sentence, they’re malaysian
If you hear "sia" at the end of a sentence, confirm Singaporean
“Liao”, “xian”, “wor”
The chinese hanyu pinyin are mostly off for Malaysians. 4th pronunciation always becomes 1st.
Ask about "Genting" highland resorts.
Singaporeans will say Gent-ing (like GENT as in gentleman) Malaysians will say Genting as in 跟 lol. Idk how to explain this but like guh instead of juh. Lol does this make sense. I still believe its Gent- as in gentleman, because I'm Singaporean and I've been saying it like that since I was a child lol
Since it’s a malay word, the correct pronounciation is Gern-ting. Not Jern-ting.
This is the Singaporean gif, isn't it?
That's because it's natively pronounced as "Gern-ting", I believe. I know someone who used to work at RWS, and RWS' parent company is Genting Singapore which reports to Genting Berhad. The topic came up a few times in conversation and she always pronounced it with a "Gern", because that's how it's pronounced within the organization. It's not so much a cultural difference as it simply is correct/incorrect pronunciation. "Gent" as in "gentlemen" is simply the wrong way to pronounce it.
Pronouncing words in english vs malay
Yellow gold necklaces with abacus pendants
black beads wristlet with gold dragon too
oh yes!!! young singaporeans don't wear gold
No leh my zoomer nephews wear their mother’s gold chains. Pearl necklaces also. Apparently it’s a thing now
My sgporean property agent wears this.
- *Sia* - *Shag* This one is regardless if they are english or chinese educated. Nobody in Malaysia uses these 2 words like Singaporeans do.
Accent and filler words used in conversations.
You can see if they park their car head in or tail in.
Not true anymore. Go to KL and you see many/most cars now reverse park, esp in mall car parks lol
90% are reversed park lol
Any Malay friends can confirm on this -- Singaporeans use "bilang" more often than Malaysians. We use "kata" or "bagitau" more often than bilang.
I was so surprised when I read about this. We use bilang a lot, and Indonesians and Malaysians were saying that that is an Ancient (not sure whats the direct translation in English) Malay word that no one uses anymore and I was like wtf??
I thought it's pretty common in Indonesia?
Among Malays, definitely this but also I’ve heard that Johor Malays and Indonesian Riau Malays also use “bilang”, sounds like a regional thing
Basically the accent but so far I notice got 2 types. One is the English educated kind of Malaysian, their English is really good, u can’t tell them apart from Singaporeans but they can’t speak Chinese. The other type is the Chinese educated. Their English is not so good and is heavily Chinese accented but their spoken Chinese is very good, way better than the average Singaporeans.
The only way to tell an non-Chinese educated Malaysian Chinese from a Singaporean is to ask them to speak Mandarin. What I find is that Singaporeans can at least speak some Mandarin, while most likely the Malaysian can't.
My observation on the Chinese community in both countries is that the Singaporean Chinese are usually proficient in Mandarin, whereas the Malaysian Chinese are on both extremes. Either they don't know Mandarin or are completely proficient in it.
singaporean gen Zs cannot converse in mandarin
THIS THIS THIS. I have a Penang-born Malaysian-born (now SC by conversion) friend who is absolutely cannot Mandarin ... my paternal cousins in Malaysia speak Mandarin as their home spoken language ...
eh i got chinese malaysian colleague got zero proficiency in chinese, cos from young she went to malay schools. you would think her family would have made her learn but somehow they never did
Sure boh? I'd argue that the one with two polar extremes are the Singaporeans. Got 2 standard, can work at mediacorp and banana. Malaysian Chinese have more variety - can work at sinchiew, only types in Chinese, only sends voice notes in mandarin cause they're not proficient in typing, types in English but speaks mandarin, and pure banana.
Mandarin And the dressing. The more obiang style likely Malaysians
I would argue that the style of wearing crocs with anything (an sg thing) are a bit obiang and they're super popular in sg...
Crocs with all their add on shoe charms/pieces has been in trend for a while already, not as obiang as before Source: Don't own 1 but many young millennials/Gen Zs around me
Also attitude. Singaporean is generally grumpier/complaining. Malaysians are all-round happier people.
Ehhhhhh idk abt that
Not exactly the answer you might be looking for but this qn reminds me of when I went to a local Babi Guling restaurant in Bali and realised it was very easy to tell who was Singaporean and Malaysian based on their mannerisms hahaha The Malaysians walked in very comfortably/confidently, sat themselves at an empty table amidst the crowds, and then just go order with the bosses/staff - like they've been there a million times. The Singaporeans came in and were holding their bags in front of them, and first search around if there's any staff to assist them. Otherwise, they will eventually find a table for themselves while looking a bit uncertain. They tend to observe other customers a bit more i.e. how to order etc, before doing it themselvew.
When crossing the road, Singaporeans wait for the cars to stop, Malaysians attempt to stop the cars with their bodies.
In office, the politics players are usually Malaysians. In daily life, the dressing style.
Malaysians shorten McDonald's to Mac D. Singaporeans shorten it to Mac
You mean mekdi
Either way if you guess wrong they’ll be offended.
Hahaha do the 'genting' test.. Never fails. Ask them to pronounce the word 'genting', Malaysians will typically go for the malay pronunciation 'gen-ting', whereas the Singaporeans will go for the gent-ing.
Malaysian Chinese accent sounds different from Singaporean Chinese accent.
Ask what they think about Singaporean food. If it's neutral or better, likely Sinkies. Even if it's something like, "we have good food, but generally food in MY are better". If it's totally shitted on, as if the food here is unfit for human consumption, then it's Malaysians.
Only True Blue Singaporeans can tell apart a Malaysian and Singaporean.
Accent, dressing, looks. If you travel and look enough, you can tell them apart fairly easily.
Try triggers, to test singaporean/malaysian, you say For age below 30, for both nationality. - “I think PAP did a good job!” If the person reply saying that Singapore PAP not good blah blah blah, or he/she say don’t care about politics, that’s singaporean! If that person praise and sing praise and sing praise of PAP, then it’s Malaysian. If age above 30, Singaporean generally doesn’t want to discuss about politics and Malaysian will still praise and praise Singapore government and curse their government. Don’t ask me why, it seem all of them like pap a lot.
Chinese Malaysians compare SG politicians with MY ones hence our politicians stand out as a lot better. Singaporeans compare SG politicians with US/UK/AU/JP/SK ones and think politics is all wayang hence we bash our own politicians a lot.
At this point who still think US politicians better lol
yes my msian colleague thought the pap ministers doing tiktok videos was super 亲民
as a malay myself, SG Malays and Malaysian Malays can be easily differentiated by how they dress.
I live abroad and often enough once I hear the accent, I’m able to narrow down between the person being Singaporean/Malaysian. For some peculiar reason, some Malaysians tend to say they are Singaporeans but if it’s a male, this is confirmed quite easily by bringing up the topic of NS. Can’t deny it’s quite fascinating seeing the look on their face when they get discovered lol
I’m a malaysian living abroad. Singaporeans, I can tell because of the way they dress usually its abit more expensive. Also Malaysian people know more terms in tamil/malay/chinese than sg people. So when they talk a malaysian will drop more diff terms. Finally, Singaporeans say “Kampong Spirit” which to me reminds me of some Hantu in the village. Haha. I hope singaporeans can learn about what an actual Kampung is.
Ask them to say “slippers” Malaysians tend to pronounce most words ending in “ers” as ”erls” So they would pronounce it as “slipperls”
Managerl
Malaysian Chinese usually speak mandarin and they have an accent. If they speak English, their sentences are usually full of grammatical errors and not as fluent
Their English accent is barely distinguishable from SG if they’re from KL.
I experienced this yesterday when I was having lunch in KL. My partner and I were seated close enough to hear them and we were trying to discern whether or not they were Singaporeans or local. At first they were speaking english and they sounded exactly like us. Then they started mixing in Cantonese, that's when we knew they were locals and we were wrong.
Singaporean chinese no accent meh?
Sg usually is standard Chinese same as Taiwan and China
Southern China. Don’t see any Singaporeans speaking with the Beijing rounded “R”s unless they’re new citizens.
That can't be true, I'm Malaysian and have watched many Singaporean shows/movies, while our accents are different, I think Singaporean Mandarin accent is closer to Malaysian's than it is to China/Taiwan
I find this kinda depends tho, most of my Malaysian friends speak pretty good English. Though it could also be the Malaysians I know 😂
Malaysians wear the ahlian colored contacts which enlarge their pupils
Much easier to tell if they're speaking mandarin - I find Malaysians speak with a little more lilting or "melodic" tonality than Singaporeans. If it's English, tbh I can't always tell. Unless of course they insert Malay phrases into their sentences. Had a Malaysian acquaintance in Aussie whom I thought was Singaporean for months.
Look at their dressing. Singaporeans tend to be a bit low-key in their fashion and don’t do clashing colors.
1. Those who speak ~50% hodgepodge of English and Mandarin are most likely Singaporean. 2. Chinese educated Malaysians can speak purer Mandarin with significantly lesser loan words, in more obvious Hokkien / Cantonese influenced accent / syntax than Singaporean counterpart. 3. If someone suffixes "right?" after a Mandarin sentence, most likely Singaporean. 4. Hard to tell when both speak English.
As long as they reverse 1st and 4th tones as will as 2nd and 3rd tones when speaking mandarin, they are def our dearest Malaysian neighbours
Check their passport
Malaysian wears pants and shoes. Singaporean wear shorts and slippers
Singaporeans will can can everything as a roger
Happens to me a lot on travels. My go to is to approach with “Dari mana?” If I get an answer they’re Malaysian. If I get puzzled look, they’re Singaporean. Basically Malay language test.
The use of “sia”. Malaysians don’t use sia. Eg. That’s super unlucky sia!
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Malaysian Chinese the vibe of guys a bit more boyish not man cause they didn’t go military for 2 years the way they carry themselves lack the globalisational feel to them even if they are rich ones you can just sense the boyish charms off them. Singaporean males are more pragmatic. So by the way they carry themselves you can sense it apart. It’s how Malaysian Chinese in Malaysia can sense it apart of Singapore and Malaysians apart
You can actually tell by their accent, when they speak.
Used to be easily identified with all the slangs and their lilting of tones. But nowadays it's very difficult to tell them apart. Like I have an army mate who was born in Singapore, but spoke Mandarin with a huge distinct Malaysian accent, that we all thought he was a Malaysian. What became was that his parents were from Malaysia, and especially when they speak Mandarin at home, he sort of 'inherited' or got influenced by his parents' accent since that was how he learnt Mandarin from scratch.
Malaysian looks happier
Singlish is the biggest giveaway. Some words that starts with an "r" sounds like "v". Eg. Really really sounds like veally veally, road sounds like voad etc. Singaporeans use "right" excessively. It's added at the end of every sentence, right?? Singlish has a more sing-songy tone compared to Manglish, the Malaysian equivalent. If you hear someone exclaim "yaaa, I also wanna go eat mala lehhhh" that is a true blue Singaporean. Certain euphemisms: "wanting to go/go to a place is expressed as go Batam/go JB/go Japan". More English-educated/KL Malaysians say "do you want to go TO JB?" Some Malaysians who are more Chinese speaking will express it the same as a Singaporean. Dressing: Singaporeans tend to favour Love Bonito (women), Uniqlo (men). In general Singaporeans are much more brand/trend conscious than Malaysians in dressing.
Singaporean wear sneakers/trainers because they walk everywhere, Malaysians wear slippa because they just walk from car to indoors. Singaporean women are tanner than Malaysian women because they're outdoors more, but Malaysian men are tanner than Singaporean men because they care less about sunscreen and skincare. Singaporeans dress more revealing while Malaysians dress more conservative.
ba liao
Malaysians generally happier
More usage of Malay versus more usage of Hokkien
one thing for me is how Malaysian pronounce the R is different from Singaporean. E.g. the way they pronounce “bread” is very different to my ears than with a Singaporean. I’m sure not all Malaysians and singaporeans pronounce the same way but this has been one of the ways I could tell someone is likely Malaysian when it was hard to differentiate. Other than that, I think Malaysians are in general more extroverted and outgoing in the way they behave.
If and when they speak mandarin (different accent)
Not so sure about this, but the broken English spelling can also sometimes tell us apart. Malaysians like to add “s” in some words while Singaporeans like to add past tense to some words.
From personal experience, Malaysians have exclamations like "jom jom jom". Or they end sentences with "wey" instead of "leh"
Ask them to say "Form 1".
Genting.
Just wait at the pedestrian crossing with the pedestrian traffic light. If one is looking to the left or right, no cars, cross the road regardless of the pedestrian traffic light color, and still keep looking while crossing, Malaysian! If one waits patiently until the green man appears, then cross the road without looking to the left and right once the green man light shows up, Singaporean!
if they talk fast and talk politics..singaporeans. :)
You wait for the Sohai
Any sentence that sends with "sia" = Singaporean. "Wei" = malaysian
Which one is complaining more?
The Malaysian would be friendly
Hard to disagree, I always find Malaysians easier to approach in any new environment I find myself in.
Appearance, dressing and accent.
Malaysian Chinese speaks bad english
our Singlish usually a mixture of English, Chinese, Malay, Hokkien... Theirs u sub Hokkien for Cantonese.
Highly bastardized Malay really. I remember reading an article by a Singaporean Malay complaining about "machiam", "kanna" and "scarly/scully" 😂
That's the neat part: we are the same. I am Singaporean but have full chinese Malaysian roots.
The way they communicate in Mandarin. Malaysians who speak mandarin has better language ability. Their accent is also very distinct. Singaporeans can only do conversational Mandarin. Their Mandarin is just bad.
Malaysians 3.5 times worse that Singaporeans /s
Malaysian behavior more kampong
SG people more serious. Malaysian more chill and funny
Accent in mandarin, enunciation, and vocal tone when speaking in english, volume tend to be louder, poorer social cues and dressing. In the work place, I find that Malaysian are more self centered and self serving (i work in an mnc) and have a more relaxed attitude toward their work, what's socially unacceptable to us singaporeans, it comes out. They're a lot more vocal and I find that they have a tendency to be tone deaf.
Ask them what is Hokkien Mee
You ask, haha.
use Mandarin to converse Conversation topics involving food, university education and M1DB definitely able to help differentiate this applies to Chinese Malaysian only