Bahasa Indonesia/Bahasa Malaysia

[Maple_fish]

Is anyone learning these languages? I'm finding it difficult to obtain resources and have resorted to copying words out of a dictionary that I think might be useful and learning them. Isn't doing my conversational abilities any good though :/

[DgN13]

You should probably find a list of basic words that will be important in these languages, but also study the grammar.

Admittedly, these are obscurish languages, so you may have to settle for intensely scrutinizing the Wikipedia grammar article.

[maycelestia]

I learnt them through all of school but have hardly practised since, thanks to starting Mandarin and Japanese at uni D: This also means my resources were mostly high-school textbooks.

One bit of advice that I wish I'd had, is to learn a few basic affixes and their general effects quite early. If you haven't already looked at this, it makes vocabulary a lot easier to learn (instead of facing a wall of verbs starting with ber- and me- and trying to memorise them!), allows you to look things up in the dictionary, lets you experiment with 'creating' new words from base words you know, and allows you to figure out the basic parts of speech. If you have been using a dictionary you've probably found about about the affixes already but in case you haven't here is a rather comprehensive site: http://www.indodic.com/affixeng.html. There is a better all-round site here: http://www.seasite.niu.edu/indonesian/tatabahasa/.

If that's too in-depth here are some sweeping generalisations of the major affixes:
ber- prefix means an intransitive verb
me- (mem-, meng-, men- etc) prefix means a transitive verb
di- prefix is the object-focus version of me- prefix
-kan suffix can go along with me-/di- prefixes, often causative or benefactive

pe- prefix makes a noun, often someone/something who "does" the base word
-an suffix also makes a noun
pe- -an affixes are also nouns, often more general or abstract
ke- -an affixes do all kinds of things

I still have all my textbooks and notes though, so if you want any advice or even to practise feel free to PM me. I was basically fluent for a while but... er... six months of no practice was too long D: Also, I really apologise if this is too much information/not enough/incoherent/etc. It is probably too late at night for me.

[Aufinder]

Ha! Been waiting for someone else who is learning Bahasa Indonesia to pop up. I'm studying it at university. I'm sure you'll find Indonesian/Malay quite fun - it's fairly easy to learn at the beginners level, though the more advanced, intricate and idiomatic levels of communication are far trickier.

If you're just beginning, I highly recommend using 'The Learner's Dictionary of Today's Indonesian' by George Quinn - ISBN-13: 9781864485431
Very easy to follow and use, it contains common Indonesian words under their agglutinated entries: i.e translations for membaca and dibaca, as well as just baca. It also has an excellent list of common words and phrases, as well as an introductory guide to the grammar.

A more advanced guide to the grammar is 'Understanding Indonesian Grammar', James Sneddon - ISBN-13: 9781864487763
Easy to follow guide with lessons and questions to complete.

As far as online resources go, there are a few simple games to learn key phrases and words here:
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Indonesian.htm
and more beginner's exercises here:
http://web.uvic.ca/lancenrd/indonesian/

and some resources from Northern Illinois University's Southeast Asia centre: http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Indonesian/

As far as conversation skills go, I've yet to find much online - some of the above links have example conversations you can practice with, but the best bet is to track down a native speaker somehow - online, or locally, and ask for help. My experience is that Indonesians are usually surprised that foreigners wish to learn the national language, and are usually quite willing to help.

Hope that helps and selamat belajar!

[Maple_fish]

I'm already in Malaysia and trying a few ways to learn the language. Those links a rules and links are very useful though and happily I don't mind making a fool of myself by trying them out on people. Someone suggested I learn from TV shows, but everyone speaks too fast and often use dialects.

How similar are Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia anyway? Is it like the relationship between Spanish/Portuguese, or am I over-simplifying?

Saya cuba belajar hari-hari, tapi faham lambat. Tak tahu kanapa. Terima kasih untuk tolong saya!

[Aufinder]

They're much more similar than Spanish/Portuguese. They're essentially different standardised dialects of the same language and are mostly mutually intelligible. Perhaps compare them to say.. Scottish English and American English? (Although that itself isn't the best comparison either...)

The main differences are in pronunciation and some vocabulary. The formal registers of both are quite similar but day-to-day conversational language is very different, as you've noticed with the dialects... man, I remember visiting Kelantan and having my Bahasa Indonesia understood - with some difficulty - but not understanding a word in reply.

Anyway, if you're over there then I guess it's just a matter of immersing yourself. TV is a good idea - I know what you mean about them speaking too fast though! Maybe try finding some kids tv programs?? They'd be slower and use simpler language. And yeah, don't be afraid to make a fool of yourself.. again, my experience is that people feel proud that you're learning their language and are pretty helpful and understanding.
Semoga berjaya!!

EDIT:: Actually, is there anyone else out there who can speak/learning Indo/Malay? Would be great to get a practice thread running.

[smilehoe]

Well, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia (or Bahasa Melayu) is quite similar in general, but the words sometimes can be very misleading. Grammar and sentence structure are very related and it's only the vocabulary that's an issue in making oneself understood in the other language. My BM is reasonably good but often I have to resort to google translate to understand BI.

Also if you're learning either language, google translate is doing a surprisingly good job in translating compound words. And most of all, BM/BI is to my opinion much easier to learn than mandarin, english and french. Since as mentioned by Maycelestia, the prefix (and grammar) is consistent and once you understand them, things start to fall in place.

[Joeldi]

I've just barely started learning Bahasa Indonesia and I'm throughouly enjoying myself. It is kind of dispiriting that the words I say sound absolutely nothing like my teacher's. It's strange that I can get my mouth around all the new consonants without too much trouble, but throw me an /ä/ and I'm floundering.

(Excuse me if that's the wrong IPA)

[Joeldi]

Resources: http://indonesian-online.com/tiw/lessons/

It seems to be an entire University of Hawaii course online for free. Hell yeah.