No Malay, English on hotel signage disappoints Malaysian

HOTELS usually have wayfinding signages placed to direct guests and visitors on how to get to a certain amenity located in the building.

Understandably in Malaysia, Bahasa Melayu and English take precedence over other languages when it comes to signages.

However, one Malaysian recently took to social media app Threads to express her disappointment with a hotel in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah after she encountered a wayfinding signage with no Bahasa Melayu or English instructions written on it.

In her post, @zana_raiming explained that it was her first time staying at the hotel and that she had encountered difficulties in searching for the swimming pool as she could not quite get the directions from the signage.

@zana_raiming also attached a picture of the signage which appears to deliver the instructions to the swimming pool in Chinese and Korean.

“On the way back from the swimming pool, I realized that from the first floor, you have to go down the stairs to the cafe. From the cafe, you continue to the swimming pool. We had to go all the way to the end of the first floor, down the stairs near the hotel kitchen, before we finally found the swimming pool. It’s understandable since we didn’t quite get the directions in the picture.

“If the instructions were in BM or English, it would have been clearer,” she lamented.

“What is happening to Sabah, my homeland? Not only is the Malay language lacking, but even English is nowhere to be found.

“As a local, it’s really sad. We were looking for a swimming pool at the hotel, but we were left struggling to ask the staff.”

Her post has since gone viral with many Malaysian netizens expressing their surprise towards the hotel for not even displaying Bahasa Melayu or English on the signage.

“There are indeed a lot of Chinese and Korean tourists in Kota Kinabalu. But it’s unacceptable that there’s no signage in Malay or at least English. There are many Malaysians staying at this hotel too. Come on, this should be taken into consideration,” said ij16042024.

Many have also urged her to report the matter to the right authorities.

“Report please. Regardless of having a million visitors from China and Korea, this is Malaysia,” commented zurinrahman.

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