Kuching runs on at least three languages daily: Malay (the national language), English (widely spoken in the city), and Sarawak Malay, a dialect different enough that Peninsular Malaysians sometimes can’t follow it. Add Mandarin, Hokkien, Iban, Bidayuh, and a dozen other indigenous languages, and you’ve got a city where someone might switch languages three times in one sentence at the kopitiam and not notice they did it.
Part of our guide to Culture & Language in Kuching.
If your main question is whether you’ll get by in English, the answer is yes, especially in the urban core. But English has a ceiling here, and you hit it sooner than the relocation forums suggest. Understanding the full language picture also tells you something about why Sarawak is unlike anywhere else in Malaysia.
Key Takeaways
- Malay (Bahasa Malaysia) is the official language, but Sarawak Malay is a distinct dialect with its own pronouns and vocabulary
- English works for most daily life in the city: shops, restaurants, hospitals, banks
- English thins out fast at wet markets, with older hawker operators, and outside the city
- Government and bureaucratic forms come in Malay, even when the counter staff speak English
- Chinese Kuching residents typically speak Mandarin, Hokkien, Teochew, or Hakka at home
- Iban is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Sarawak
- You don’t need Malay to move here, but textbook Malay won’t fully prepare you for Sarawak Malay
Contents
- What Is the Official Language?
- What Is Sarawak Malay and How Is It Different?
- Do People Speak English in Kuching?
- What About Chinese Languages?
- What Indigenous Languages Will You Hear?
- What Language Should You Learn Before Moving to Kuching?
- Common Sarawak Phrases You’ll Hear Daily
What Is the Official Language?
Malaysia’s national language is Bahasa Malaysia, that is, Malay. It’s the language of government, education, and official business in Kuching, just as it is in KL or Penang. Signage is in Malay, usually with English underneath. Official forms are in Malay. If you deal with immigration, utilities, or any state agency, the paperwork arrives in Bahasa Malaysia, and nobody translates it for you.
But “official language” and “language people actually speak at home” are two different things in Sarawak. The census tells one story. The kopitiam tells another.
What you hear on the street depends on who’s talking to whom. Two Malay colleagues might speak Sarawak Malay to each other and switch to standard Malay or English when a non-local joins. A Chinese family might speak Hokkien at home, Mandarin at school, and English at work. An Iban friend might speak Iban to her mother on the phone, Sarawak Malay to the Grab driver, and English to you, all in the same ten minutes. After a while I stopped noticing the switching. Then a visitor from KL pointed it out, and I remembered it isn’t normal everywhere.
What Is Sarawak Malay and How Is It Different?
Sarawak Malay (Bahasa Sarawak) is the everyday spoken language of Kuching. It’s technically a dialect of Malay, but the gap from standard Bahasa Malaysia is wide enough to leave peninsula visitors stuck, and to leave you stuck too if you arrived armed with a Duolingo Malay streak. I learned standard Malay phrases before moving here and found half of them quietly useless on day one. I’d say saya mahu and get a kind look that meant “we don’t really say it like that here.”
The clearest difference is the pronoun system. Standard Malay uses saya (I) and awak or kamu (you). Sarawak Malay uses kamek (I) and kitak (you). These aren’t slang alternatives, they’re the default. Hear someone say kamek and you know immediately they’re from Sarawak.
Other differences:
| Standard Malay | Sarawak Malay | English |
|---|---|---|
| saya | kamek | I / me |
| awak / kamu | kitak | you |
| mereka | sidak | they / them |
| kita | kitak | we / us |
| tidak / tak | sik | no / not |
| apa | apa / pa | what |
| ini | tok | this |
| itu | ya | that |
| makan | makai | eat |
| besar | besai | big |
| cantik | lawa | beautiful / pretty |
The intonation is different too. Sarawak Malay has a rising cadence at the end of phrases that people from KL often call “softer.” People from Sarawak return the favour and call KL Malay “hard.”
If you already speak standard Malay, you’ll adjust over a few weeks of being mildly confused. If you don’t speak Malay at all, you’ll skip the adjustment and just learn whatever you hear around you, which in Kuching is Sarawak Malay.
Do People Speak English in Kuching?
Yes, for most things in the city. English proficiency in Kuching is high by Southeast Asian standards, and the day-to-day list is long.
Here’s what works in English without any difficulty:
- Restaurants and cafes: ordering, paying, asking about the menu
- Shopping: malls, supermarkets, convenience stores
- Healthcare: Kuching’s private hospitals have English-speaking staff as standard
- Banking: opening accounts, speaking to staff
- Grab and taxis: the app is in English, and most drivers follow basic directions
Now the part the relocation blogs skip. English genuinely fails you in a few places, and not rarely. The Hokkien-speaking aunty running the kolo mee stall I go to most mornings has never once understood a word of my English, and I’ve never understood a word of her Hokkien. We do the whole transaction in pointing, three Malay words, and a number held up on fingers. Five years in and it’s still pointing and fingers, and honestly I’m made up with it, “dead happy”, as we’d say back in Manchester. At the wet market, prices get called out in Hokkien or Sarawak Malay, and “do you have a cheaper one” in English buys you a blank look. Drive an hour out toward Bau or Serian and English drops away further: in rural areas it stops being a fallback at all.
And the forms. Government and bureaucratic paperwork is in Malay, full stop. When I renewed my road tax and sorted out a utilities transfer, the counter staff spoke perfectly good English, but every box on every form was Bahasa, and the staff are not there to translate the document for you. I sat in the JPJ waiting area typing field labels into a translation app. Nobody is going to walk you through it in English. You either read enough Malay or you bring someone who does.
The reason English works as well as it does has historical roots. Sarawak was under the Brooke Raj and then a British Crown Colony until 1963, and English-medium education was widespread, including through the mission-run school system. Many older Sarawakians were schooled largely in English, and younger people grow up with it in school and online.
For most expats and digital nomads, this means you can build a full life here in English. You can also live here for years and never be able to order from the aunty who makes the best noodles on your street. Both things are true.
What About Chinese Languages?
Kuching has a large Chinese population, and Chinese languages are everywhere. The most common are:
- Hokkien: the traditional lingua franca of Kuching’s Chinese community, still dominant among older generations
- Mandarin: increasingly common among younger Chinese residents, taught in Chinese-medium schools
- Teochew: spoken by a smaller but established community
- Hakka: present, especially in certain districts and towns outside Kuching
- Foochow: more associated with Sibu (Sarawak’s second city), but you’ll hear it in Kuching too
Walk through Carpenter Street or Padungan in the morning and the language at the kopitiams and the pasar stalls is more often Hokkien or Mandarin than Malay or English. Temple ceremonies, funeral processions, and festival celebrations run in Chinese languages.
For a newcomer who speaks none of them, this layer of the city is mostly invisible. You won’t need it to get through a day. But it’s a large part of how Kuching actually sounds, and the Chinese community here predates the formation of Malaysia by generations.
What Indigenous Languages Will You Hear?
Sarawak is home to more than 40 indigenous ethnic groups, and most have their own language. The ones you’re most likely to encounter:
Iban is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Sarawak. The Iban are the largest Dayak group, and Iban is used in churches, community gatherings, and Radio Television Malaysia Sarawak broadcasts. Travel upriver to longhouse communities along the Batang Ai, Lemanak, or Rejang and Iban is the primary language. In Kuching you’ll hear it among Iban colleagues and friends, often mixed with Malay and English.
Bidayuh is spoken in the highlands near the Kalimantan border, around Bau, Padawan, and Serian. The dialect variation between villages is large enough that speakers from different areas sometimes default to Malay with each other.
Melanau is spoken along the coast, particularly around Mukah and Dalat. The Melanau are traditionally a fishing and sago-producing community, and the language reflects a coastal culture distinct from the riverine Iban and highland Bidayuh.
Orang Ulu is a collective term for several smaller upriver groups, including Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, and Penan, each with their own language. The Kelabit Highlands, a short flight from Miri, are one of the few places you can hear some of these languages in everyday use.
You won’t need any of these to live in Kuching. But knowing they exist, and that your Iban colleague is speaking a language with its own radio programming and oral tradition, changes how you hear the city around you.
What Language Should You Learn Before Moving to Kuching?
If you speak English, you can move to Kuching tomorrow and manage. That’s the honest answer.
But managing and actually connecting with the place are two different things. Here’s what I’d suggest, having got most of it wrong myself first:
Before you arrive: Learn basic Malay greetings and phrases. Duolingo’s Malay course covers standard Bahasa Malaysia. The foundation carries over even though Sarawak Malay diverges, and the effort registers with people. Just don’t expect the textbook version to come out of anyone’s mouth here.
In your first months: Pick up Sarawak Malay by ear. You’ll hear kamek, kitak, and sik constantly. Start using them. The phrases in the table below are a good start, and locals do notice when you swap textbook saya for kamek.
If you stay long-term: Consider basic Iban or Bidayuh if your social circle includes indigenous friends. A greeting in someone’s mother tongue lands differently than English or Malay does.
Common Sarawak Phrases You’ll Hear Daily
These are the expressions you’ll hear within your first week in Kuching.
| Sarawak Malay | Meaning | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Kamek | I / me | Everywhere: replaces standard saya |
| Kitak | You | Everywhere: replaces standard awak |
| Sik pa | It’s okay / no problem | When someone thanks you or apologises |
| Dolok | Earlier / just now | “Kamek makai dolok” = I ate just now |
| Mok | Want to | “Kitak mok makan?” = You want to eat? |
| Makai | Eat | Used instead of standard makan |
| Betak | Wait | “Betak jap” = Wait a moment |
| Lawa | Beautiful / pretty | For people, places, food presentation |
| Sitok | Here | “Kamek duduk sitok” = I live here |
| Sik tauk | I don’t know | Replaces standard tak tahu |
| Iboh | Don’t | “Iboh risau” = Don’t worry |
| Padah | Tell / say | “Padah kamek” = Tell me |
| Agik | More / still | “Mok agik?” = Want more? |
| Nangga | Look / see | “Nangga ya” = Look at that |
| Perasan tok | This feeling / this vibe | Casual: “Perasan tok best” = This feels great |
A note on tone: Sarawak Malay is spoken gently. The pace is slower than standard Malay, the volume lower, the endings softer. Match it. The same words delivered loud and fast sound off, even when they’re correct.
You’ll get through your first month in Kuching on English alone, and most of your second year too. What changes is small and specific. One morning you say kamek mok kopi o at the stall instead of pointing, the aunty repeats it back with the tone corrected, and the next day she has it half-poured before you sit down. That’s the whole reward, and it’s enough.
Planning your move? Read our cost-of-living breakdown to see what daily life costs, or start with why Sarawak is unlike anywhere else in Malaysia for the full picture.