Learning Bahasa Melayu.

  

“Dear Mitchell Tendai Kangausaru. In regards to your recent Course Selection for Bahasa Melayu, your request has been submitted to your department for approval.”

I am not going to sugarcoat this abit. “It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be intellectually tiring. Is it really worth it? I don’t even know any word in Bahasa Melayu and I have been here for a year, are we seriously doing this Mitchell? You won’t even be able to make proper pronunciations, you will never get it all right,” are words I fed myself for weeks before my classes commenced.

Day 1: “Good Afternoon. I am Dr. Neo Swee Leng . Welcome to Bahasa Melayu class,” she said with an overwhelming smile. “I understand it is not easy learning a new language, but I will try by all means to make it comprehensible for you,” at this moment I slowly took back my words.

Bahasa Melayu is Malaysia’s national language. A greater population of Malaysians speak and understand Bahasa Melayu. And being an international student, it come with a couple benefit. Yes, I had survived a year in Malaysia without learning Bahasa Melayu but I also felt like an outcast some of the times. The locals always seem friendlier when you communicate with a few words of their own language.

From my previous language learning experience, they were not quite pleasant. After every class I would definitely feel intellectually drained and could not recall any of my new vocabulary. But this one time everything worked out differently. Dr. Neo conducted games which demolished all the boredom and increased retention in our class. Vocabulary words were integrated in all the activities did. Which had an added advantage our end to memorize a ton of new vocabulary words. We had a couple of in class competitions and rewards which motivated everyone to take part in the games.

I never imagined myself having a strong urge to win candy, in what may have seemed as kid games. But here I am today grateful for each moment spent in my Bahasa Melayu class.

As much as Dr. Neo made everything comprehensible, it was my job to retain all that she had taught. The only way to make this possible is by immersing yourself as much as possible into Bahasa Melayu. Surrounding myself with local friends with whom I did language exchanges and spoke Bahasa Melayu with. I also Bahasa Melayu with my international friends. The best way to learn, is from your mistakes. I made a couple of mistakes, but they all enhanced my pronunciations and hearing skills.

Here’s a compilation of basic greetings in Bahasa Melayu:

Selamat Pagi- Good Morning

Selamat Tengahari- Good Afternoon

Selamat Petang- Good Evening

Selamat Malam- Good Night

Selamat Datang- Welcome

Apa Khabar? - How Are You?

Khabar Baik- I am Fine

Terima Kasih- Thank You

Sama-sama- You are welcome

Selamat Tinggal- Good Bye

Jumpa Lagi- See You Again

These are some basic words that you can use on a daily basis when you are in Malaysia.