Sunday, August 19, 2007

Bahasa Indonesian lessons

I have started my Bahasa Indonesian lessons.
I have picked up many words in the last few months but have not managed to get any joining word to make sentences.

Wow, it is going to be hard work.

Here is a small sample that I have tabled (formatting didn't make it) from my first lesson. I am putting all words that I learn in to an excel spread sheet, printing it out and carrying it every where with me.

Aku use with friends and kids I, Me My, Mine 1st person singular
Anda polite You, your, yours 2nd person singular
Apa what Vocabulary
Apa kabar how are you? Vocabulary
Apakah ?, makes a question at front of sentence Vocabulary
Apakak ? Whether? In middle of sentence Vocabulary
Ayah Father Addressing/titles 2nd person singular
Bagus Good well fine, thing Vocabulary
Baik Good well fine, person Vocabulary
Banyak much, many
Bapak Superior, formal, male Addressing/titles 2nd person singular
Beliau respected older person, eg principle , minister He she it 3rd person singular


I spend all my time at work teaching the phonic sounds of the English language, it is so hard to switch off that part of my brain.

For example
  • English E = e as in egg
  • Bahasa E = a as in hay
  • English C = c as in cat
  • Bahasa C = ch as in church

The course seems to have between 150 - 200 new words to learn each week....in an hour an a half lesson.......All the Indonesian teachers at school are helping me, unfortunately every one has slightly different meanings or translations.

4 comments:

  1. Oh wow! So very impressed with your desire and aptitude to learn the language. Good for you!! Best wishes with the lessons!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck - language is SO difficult for me. I can barely speak English!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's a lot of words to learn in a week. Teaching the English language at the same time would make that more complicated.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous6:33 pm

    Selamat belajar bahasa Indonesia :)
    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete

I've put word verification on as I'm being bombarded with spam, hopefully I will be able to remove it soon!