Can Malaysians and Indonesian understand each other? How similar are they and what is the difference between them? Although the languages are to a large extent mutually intelligible, there are variances and the two languages have differences in vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and spelling, which we will discuss in this episode.

In this video Yoni (Indonesian), and Muhammad (Malaysian) will demonstrate to what extent they can understand each other.

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Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia) is a standardized register of Malay and the official language of Indonesia. Indonesia is multilingual country and most Indonesians speak another language, however, the Indonesian language has been used as a lingua franca in the archipelago for centuries. Indonesian is also recognized as minority language in East Timor.

Malay is an Austronesian language spoken in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and also used in some parts of the Philippines as a trading language. Prior to the arrival of Islam in Southeast Asia, the Pallava, Nagari, and old Sumatran scripts were used in writing the Malay language. As their rulers converted to Islam, and the religion began to spread across the region, a modified form of the Arabic script (Jawi) was formed. The arrival of the Europeans brought the Latin script, and in recent times, the Latinderived Rumi alphabet has become the most commonly used for both official and informal purposes.

Translation of the Introductions
Yoni's: Hello everyone. Let me introduce myself, my name is Yoni. I come from East Java, Republic of Indonesia. I speak Javanese, Indonesian, and English in my daily life. Currently, I am studying at one of the universities in Indonesia. Nice to meet you all. I'm very happy to be able to meet you.

Muhammad's: To meet you all, first of all my name is Muhammad Nazri bin Naharuddin, I come from Johor Malaysia. South Malaysia, I am 24 years old. Now I study at Mara Teknologi University.