THE beauty of Malaysia also lies in its multilingual society, as Malaysians not only speak standard Bahasa Melayu and English but also communicate in other languages—sometimes ones that are not their mother tongue.
A viral TikTok video by a durian seller recently impressed netizens, showing a Malaysian woman helping the vendor communicate with Chinese tourists in fluent Mandarin.
The 16-second video showed three Chinese nationals standing in front of the stall, with the customer assisting the durian seller by explaining the types of durians available, as well as the pricing.
According to Harian Metro, the durian seller, identified as Mohamad Amin Rosli, said the woman voluntarily assisted him in communicating with the tourists.
Before the incident, he explained that he usually uses Google Translate when dealing with foreign customers in the event of a language barrier.
“As a businessman, I am very grateful because, indirectly, she helped me do business with the Chinese tourists, as they could not speak or understand English,” he was quoted as saying.
The 34-year-old trader added that he posted the video on TikTok to commemorate the incident but did not expect the post to go viral, amassing over two million views as of press time.
