Few Europeans, except Jesuit priests and other Catholic missionaries, knew how to speak any of the Asian languages. While the English found a smattering of Portuguese useful to begin with, Malay had long been used by the Chinese as the lingua franca in Southeast Asia.

As factories were set up beyond the Malay world, the Company began to send out apprentice boys to learn the basics of the local language before it would employ them. Relationships with local women and just listening to their Asian employees made linguists of others.