Begin Learning Malay and Indonesian - A Few Words Of Malay and Indonesian

Singapore flag

I was standing by the lift on the ground floor of a building in Singapore. Americans would say first floor and elevator.

A woman waiting for the lift was conversing in a foreign language to the cleaner. I heard her greet him.

Malay flag.

Malay Language
I recognized the words selamat pagi, which means good day, so I knew the language was Malay. After that I did not understand a word.

However, I heard one word repeated. So when we got into the lift I asked her what it meant. It was a number.

Later I asked my family, who know a smattering of Indonesian, mostly the same vocabulary, and overlapping with Malay from regular visits to Malaysia by motorbike, and trekking in Indonesia, what are the numbers.

Indonesian flag

"I can tall you Indonesian a few, zero, one two thee four five. Nul is zero. Satu dua tigga, empat, lima. It rhymes."

"Ah. Anything else?"

"The first thing that men on bikes learn to say is satu bir, one beer, meaning another beer."

From the announcements on the train stations I hear the English then can recognize the Malay instruction to ring 999 in emergencies. Nince nine nine is sembilan, sembilan, sembilan." that's six out of ten, over half way there. More later.

Most Malay speakers will understand Indonesian and vice versa

English - Malay/Indonesian
zero - nol Indonesian (like English words  nil or nullify) Malay sifar
one - satu (I remember I am satisfied with one)
two - dua (as in dual or duo)
three - tigga (t as in three and the i in the Malay is pronounced like the ee in the English word three, remember tea for three)
four - empat
five - lima (letter i in both the Malay and English, five of us are leaving for Lima)
good morning - selamat pagi
one beer - satu bir (bir sounds and looks like beer, letters b and r)
sembilan, sembilan, sembilan 999

dua, tiga
empat, lima
 two, three
four five

Easy to remember.
du -a
tig -a
em-pat
lim-a
Not quite a rhyme but a definite rhythm of two syllables.
Tig-a and lim-a are assonance, sounds echoing.

Malay-English
nul - zero
satu - one
dua - two
tigga - three
empat - four
lima - five
selamat pagi - good morning
satu lagi - one beer / another beer

I want to learn both Malay and Indonesian with the minimum outlay of money and time. So I am learning online.

I prefer Duolingo to Memrise, but some people suggest using both. Here are the handy links and a comparison of these two language learning systems and others.

If you already speak Malay and want to keep it up, in Singapore you can attend or joing the Toastmasters Clubs, Jauhari (Malay) which meets on a Saturday late afternoon, or the Indonesian Professional Speakers Association. Other Toastmasters clubs are in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Useful Websites
duolingo.com
memrise.com
https://www.alllanguageresources.com/memrise-vs-duolingo/
https://www.memrise.com/course/193830/beginners-malay/
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages

How to Learn Indonesian and the Malay language

Flag of Malaysia

The flag of Malaysia resembles the US flag. Both have red and white stripes. The difference is that the American flag has stars, whilst the Malaysian flag has a yellow crescent and a solo multi-pointed yellow star. Learn the difference and you have learned to recognize two flags. Teach it to pupils or relatives and they will have learned to recognize two flags.


The flag of Indonesia resembles the flags of Poland and Singapore. You can learn to recognize three flags at the same time. The Indonesian flag is red above white. I have reproduced a flag flying with people because that is livelier but mainly because the white part of the flag disappears when you are seeing it against a white paper page or screen.

The Singapore flag has an additional crescent and star on the red at the top.

The flag of Poland has the colours reversed.

Problem
How do I learn Malay, Indonesian or any language systematically, a minimum number of new words every day, plus some grammar?

Answer
A  Duolingo course in Indonesia is out. Malay is very similar, like American and English, with just some additional vocabulary in both languages. Indonesia was partly under the rule of speakers of Portuguese so Indonesian includes words which are Portuguese or which are developed from Portuguese. Indonesia includes many islands and the larger inhabited islands also have their local words.

My new year's resolution is to learn ten new words (or do one Duolingo session) every day. If I miss a day, I catch up the next day.

In Singapore you will hear all four of the national languages in the train announcements and announcements on the stations which you can hear near the ticket office and in the toilets nearby even if you do not go through the barrier to get on a train. The four national languages are English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay and Tamil.

You will hear the English announcments often end with the words 'thank you'. It is easy to spot that the Chinese for thank you sounds like shay-shay, the Malay is terimah kasih and the tamil is nandri.

Other words you will quickly learn are the words for drink and food which you will see on roadside stalls in Malaysia. Makanan and minuman.

How do you remember which is which?  I think of make me some food. Makanan.

Drinks is minuman. Minimum amount of drink because no alcohol is served to Muslims. Minuman. You will probably not be able to buy it either except in certain hotels which have licenses. Places serving alcohol are sometimes run by the Chinese or Indians who are Malay but not Muslims. Bali is Hindu. A Muslim man will not drink alcohol in public.

English - Malay/Indonesian
drink - minum
drinks - minuman
food - makanan
thank you - terimah kasih
danger  (hazard) - bahaya

Malay/Indonesian - English
makanan - food
minuman - drinks / (have a drink)
terimah kasih - thank you
bahaya - danger (hazard)


A word you frequently see is
BAHAYA.
This mostly means danger. But in context it could mean hazard.

The sentence structure of Malay and Indonesian is simpler than English so it is easier to learn. The verb to be in many languages does not exist or is omitted.
The English sentence 'my name is' translates into 'my name' or I called.

I and me (and sometimes my) are also the same word in several languages and the language Esperanto, the most popular made up language, quick to learn and to communicate with others whose languages are hard, or whose languages are easy so they find English, Russian, German or your language hard.

Your new friend or colleague or companion at a class learning English who uses abbreviated sentences is not tired nor ill nor daft but may be translating words literally from Malay or Indonesian into English. If you listen carefully to what they are saying in English, you will get a clue as to how to construct a sentence in their language.

Useful Websites
duolingo.com
google translate
https://en.bab.la/dictionary/indonesian-english/berbahaya
August Even In Singapore
https://www.youngparents.com.sg/sponsored/5-ways-to-help-your-kid-love-mother-tongue-languages/?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=sp_001_moe





About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and speaker. 

Are Malay and Indonesian the same?

We thought that Malay and Indonesian were almost the same. So when we opened our meeting of Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters club in Signapore, I thought it would be welcoming and a novelty to open with greetings in Chinese and Malay.

The Malay was to honour our installing officer (installing the new committee) who was from the bilingual English and Malay speaking club, Jauhari toastmasters. By now, you might already be a bit confused, as I am.

Let's start with the flags.
The Indonesian flag is similar to the Singaporean flag. Red band on top, white band below.

Indonesian Flag


Singaporean Flag
Red and white with a white crescent and five five point white stars. Like a mixture of East and West - European.



Malay Flag
Red and white stripes. Yellow crescent and multi-point star in yellow on blue background.


US flag
Red and white stripes and white 5-point stars on blue for the states.




Now let's look at the languages. British English and American English are similar. 'two countries divided by a common language.'

The Malay language and Indonesian have a huge amount of shared vocabulary. If you know one you can get by in the other.

But the words for good afternoon are different. As we discovered at Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters on July 20 2019. Our installing officer was Muhammad Nurhakim from Jauhari Bilingual Toastmasters, which is a club in Singapore whose members speak English and Malay.

English - Malay
good afternoon - selamat tenga

English - Indonesian
good afternoon - selamat sore

Under Google translate the translation for selamat is congratulations or safe or secure.

Useful Websites
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/
https://www.google.com/
translate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Standard_Malay_and_Indonesian

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.