Welcome back home!
With our return to campus on Monday and the opportunity to finally greet each other in person we thought it would be a good time for Jom Belajar to explore some everyday greetings in Bahasa Malaysia.
Selamat is a word used in most greetings. It comes from the Arabic Salam, meeting peace, safety or salvation. By itself, Selamat means well-being (safe), such as in Selamat jalan (safe journey). Like the English ‘good’ it is followed by the time of day and other words to form most common greetings.
Selamat datang – Welcome (datang = to come)
Selamat pagi – Good morning (pagi = morning until 11 am)
Selamat tengahari – Good day (tengah hari = midday from 12 pm to 2 pm)
Selamat petang – Good afternoon (petang = late afternoon, 3 pm to 7 pm)
Selamat malam – Good evening (malam = night, after dark) and Good night
Selamat jalan/tinggal – Safe journey or good bye
Selamat menjamu selera – Enjoy your meal
“Apa khabar” is another common greeting which literally means ‘What’s the news?’ (apa = what, khabar = news), or in other words, “how are you?”. The standard answer is khabar baik, meaning “I’m fine” (baik = well, fine). The more informal apa macam? (literally, ‘what kind”) is sometimes used in place of apa khabar among friends.
“Dah makan?” is widely used by Malaysians to greet someone, it literally translates as “have you eaten?” but it is another form of saying, “how are you?”. Most common answer is “Sudah” or “Dah” which literally means “Already” but in other words “I am fine” or “Fine”.
To all our students returning to campus on Monday we say, Selamat kembali! Welcome back home!
