As with much of the rest of Malaysia, Malay is the main language in Kuala Lumpur, and almost universally spoken by everyone. However, being Malaysia's capital and largest city, Kuala Lumpur is a mosaic of Malaysians of many different cultures and ethnicities, and while Malay is the lingua franca, several other languages are commonly heard as well. Among these languages, the most commonly spoken ones are Tamil, which is the first language of a majority of the Indian community, and Cantonese, which is the lingua franca of the Chinese community when conversing amongst themselves (even though their mother tongues could be other Chinese dialects such as Hokkien, Hakka or Teochew). As most Malaysian Chinese learn Mandarin in school, most of the ethnic Chinese are also able to converse in Mandarin. English is also widely spoken, and tourists should have almost no problems getting by with English.
Urban Malaysians are generally known to be multilingual, with proficiency in Malay, English and their respective mother tongues. Malay and English are taught in all schools from a young age, while most the Chinese and Indians also learn Mandarin and Tamil respectively in school.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Kuala Lumpur
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Kuala Lumpur - updated Apr 2024
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Kuala Lumpur Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
