National Language In Malaysia

The Malay language is the national language in Malaysia. Although Malaysia is a multicultural nation, Malay is the spoken language among Malaysian and is ranked sixth in the world in the total number of speakers.(Asma Abdullah, 2006.)

Malay language is used as a medium of communication among different ethic groups in both rural and urban areas. Therefore, by using malay language for our billboard ad, we are targeting not only urban but also rural television viewers.

Due to the existence of vernacular schools in Malaysia, some Malaysian are still more comfortable speaking their own mother tongue, making most, but not all, uncomfortable and lack confidence in communicating in English(which is the lingua franca nowadays). Besides that, many words amd idioms in Malay and Chinese do not retain their meaning when translate literally into English(and vice-versa). They would sometimes have difficulty expressing and understanding eaxctly in English.(Asma Abdullah, 2006). Base on this research, if we use english language in our billboard, this makes Malays, Chinese and Indians unable to connect with our ad in a personal level, so the second best option to communicate with all ethic groups in Malaysia is to use malay language which is the Malaysia's national language. 

Also, most Malaysians between ages of 7 to 30 years have been educated exclusively in Malay as Bahasa Melayu is the national language and medium of instructions in national type schools and some tertiary institutions.(Asma Abdullah, 2006).

Overall these reasons are why we chose to use proper malay words to communicate with the audience for our revamp ad. 

Reference: 
Pedersen, P., Asma Abdullah. 2006. Understanding Malaysian Culture: delights , puzzles and irritations about Malaysians. Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya : Pearson Malaysia Sdn Bhd.