1. Malaysians are not ‘horny’ … we are ‘salty wet.’ (Ham sap)

2. Malaysians don’t say someone is ‘uptight’ or ‘anxious’…we say ‘you are a tight long spider.’ (Kan cheong spider)

3. Malaysians don’t ‘get confused’ … we ‘scramble around making a lot of banging noise.’ (Kalang kabut)

4. Malaysians don’t say someone has a ‘casual attitude’ … we say they’re ‘green vegetables.’ (Cincai)

5. Malaysians don’t ‘go on vacation’ … we ‘eat wind.’ (Makan Angin)

6. Malaysians aren’t curious to the point of being annoying …we’re ‘home grannies’. (Kaypoh)

7. Malaysians don’t say something is ‘super difficult’ … we say ‘eat strength.’ (Chia lat)

8. We Malaysians have a mental state somewhere between oblivious and silly … we call it ‘blur like a squid.’ (Blur like sotong)

9. Malaysians don’t say something is ‘second-rate’ … we say it’s ‘half-past six.’

10. Malaysians don’t say ‘forget it’ … we say ‘wait long time.’ (Tan ku ku)

This story was produced through the travel journalism programs at MatadorU.

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11. We don’t refer to our slang as a “mix of Malay, English, Hokkien, Cantonese and Tamil’ … we say it’s ‘vegetables and a fruit salad’. (Rojak)

12. Malaysians don’t say ‘Oh wow! … we say ‘Is it’ or ‘Izzit’ (Ya ke!)

13. When someone points out the obvious, we don’t say ‘What else did you expect?’ … we say ‘ah, but then?’ (Abuden)