Learn a little Indonesian and Malay

Flag of Singapore, a country where you hear four languages in announcements on the MRT (train system). 

Here are a few words of Malay for today, and Indonesian is almost the same, with the occasional addition of a local word, like American English and British English. I have added in brackets my ways of remembering the word.

You hear and see the Malay language in Singapore, where I live part of the year. Malay is one of four official languages. Announcements are made in Malay, often ending with terimah kasih, meaning thank you. One day I shall record the announcements and type the English with the translations into the other three languages. Then I can effortlessly listen out for the words I know.

Here are my discoveries today of words in Malay and Indonesian. One word a day for a year would be 365 words. Let's allow for holidays and hospitals and being too busy. 300 words a year. Ten words a day is a really useful 3,000 words a year, of any language you choose. If you are a student, unemployed, or retired, with oodles of time, you could do ten languages a day for five minutes.

English - Malay / Indonesian
apple - apel
black - hitam (You might get hit on a black night. Black and hitam both contain the letter a. The letters l and t are uprights.)
eat / food - makan
have - punya (Both words contain the letter a. Y is a bit like an upside down h. Punya and possess both start with the letter p.)
I - saya (I, myself - letter Y in myself and saya.)

one - satu
two - dua (Looks like dual)
three - tiga (Both start with letter t.)
goodbye - selamat tinggal (selamat like salaam and shalom, s-l-m, meaning peace)
thank you - terimah kasih (The Malay- Indonesian sounds like terribly thankful, Madam, for the cash tip.)

Indonesian / Malay - English
apel - apple
dua - two
hitam - black
makan - eat / food
punya - have / possess

satu - one
saya - I
selamat tinggal - goodbye  termimah kasih - thank you 
tiga - three

Useful Websites For Travellers and Language Learners
LANGUAGES
Earworms 
earwormslearning.com
(This is a shortened version of Berlitz where you hear the words, provided on a disc or download, but the addition of music in the background makes it relaxing when you listen and they claim improves the speed and ease of learning). I bought the German and Spanish, then added other languages when I saw the discs available at low prices second hand on ebay. The booklet is amll and easy to carry. The print is small and hard to read in a poor light at night but much better in daylight, outdoors, such as when waiting at a bus stop.
It is written with the traveller in mind, starting with words you need on a flight.

Duolingo - my absolute favourite system. It's free.
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. Workshops and speeches for students and businesses. 
Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Learn And Remember A Few Words of Basic Food In Portuguese

Flag of Portugal

Problem
I had another go at learning Korean on Duolingo and it doesn't work for me. Others on the forums recommend that learners should persist. But I feel my time is better spent on learning Korean from a dedicated Korean website. Duolingo, however, is just right for learning Portuguese. So what have I learned today in Portuguese?

Answer
The trick is to keep repeating words. Duolingo is good at this. The main site has a revision after every lesson. Today I was almost too tired to do the revision. Normally I go through it once or twice, until I can get all the answers right, fast. This time I just looked at the questions and then the answers.

However, I am going to write out what I have learned.

Portuguese - English
amango - bitter (this is so bitter, I'd rather have a sweet mango)
atum - tuna
a banana - the banana (note that the is a, and that the can be masculine o or feminine a)
bolo de chocolat - chocolate cake (yes, I would like a bowl of chocolate cake)
eles - they
eles comen - they eat
eu - I
eu gosto - I like
os homens  - the men (os is plural masculine)
o molho - the sauce (the Portuguese looks like the English word moisture)

English - Portuguese
the banana - a banana (four times letter a)
bitter - amango
chocolate cake - bolo de chocolat
I - eu
I like - eu gosto
The - o (masculine); a (feminine); os (masculine plural)
the sauce - o molho
they - eles
they eat - eles comen
tuna - atum

Useful websites
Free languages for beginners:
https://www.duolingo.com (Portuguese and several other languages)
English in Tinycards for speakers of Portuguese:
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/users/DuolingoPT
https://www.memrise.com/course/1121957/portuguese-portugal-1/

Paid for courses:
https://www.memrise.com/course/1121957/portuguese-portugal-1/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=berlitz+portuguese&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=188201508211&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16051061403562216167&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045970&hvtargid=kwd-500446475&ref=pd_sl_4e6324zqs0_e
https://www.rosettastone.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

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Learning Indonesian With Babbel - compared to Duolingo

Problems
TIME TO LEARN A LANGUAGE? - HOW QUICKLY CAN I DO IT?
Today I received an email from Babbel asking me if it's possible to learn a language in three weeks - with the results of their survey if I clicked on the link giving the answer. I hesitated. I was supposed to be clearing my inbox of unwanted circular letters and starting my appointments for the day and emails to people I needed to see or contact. What did I do?

Answer
I clicked on the answer. What was it?

Story
As far as I can see you can learn Spanish with their system on fifteen hours, studying one hour a week - or fifteen hours over two days if you devoted your whole weekend. I am learning through Duolingo, five minutes a day.

WHAT'S THE COST?
I clicked on Babbel, assuming that I would have to pay to start the course, or would get only a five minutes lesson before being asked to pay. Never mind. Try the first short lesson.

At the bottom of the page I saw the words: Supported by the European Development Council. That bodes well. I now suspect that at least some of the course will be free if it has a subsidy. Is the subsidy to develop the program, or to offer it free? I shall find out.

I was not asked for an email, only to download a flash drive and say if I wanted it once or every time. I clicked on every time because constantly having to decide is a nuisance.

First, which language? They offered:
French - I already speak French fluently as my second language.
German and Italian - I am already learning those on Duolingo.
Spanish - yes, I want to learn that - but it's too similar to Spanish and will confuse me.
Indonesian - I am less likely to visit - but when in Singapore lots of signs are in Malay, which is the same, so easy to reinforce the language and a constant question in my mind as to what does that Malay word mean.

Whilst I am trying to decide I find I have automatically clicked on Indonesian!

Up comes the Babbel first lesson. The interesting thing was the comparison between Babbel and Duo lingo (no space but I had to insert the space to prevent out correct spelling from changing what I typed without asking). Babbel asked me for the translation of English greeting such as Hello and good morning. I was offered two choices of sets of words. Only two choices to look at. Mostly you can tell by the length of the phrases translated.

Duo lingo offers you three choices, with pictures, so the first pictures are items such as boy and girl.

UPDATE
After the first six words I am asked for my name and email and a password to continue. They say it's free. I find I have already registered.
Then I am told I get (only) one week free.
Does this mean that I have to race through to finish the course in one week?
Does it mean that if I spend more hours I can complete more in the week, or is there a limit so that even if I worked all day on day one (7 hours) I would achieve no more that if I spread my time, over the week, one hour a day for seven days?

Author, Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages. Author and speaker.

Learning languages: repetition is not wasted time

I am learning Italian, German and Romanian using the website Duolingo which offers free courses.

Problems
Sometimes I use the website ap on my mobile phone while traveling on the train and then when I reach the destination station I have to leave the unfinished lesson half way through.

When I return to the lesson later in the day one of two things happens. Either

Answers
1 Sometimes I have to start all over again.
2 Mostly I can continue where I left off.

Stories
At first when I found I had to start the lesson from the beginning, it felt like a waste of time.

However:
1) I proceed quicker than the first time I did the whole exercise, and get more answers right immediately.


2 When I simply continue with the second half, I often forget the words I learned earlier and get the second half of the lesson wrong.

Tips
Just consider that you are adding to the repetitions needed to cement the knowledge.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker and language teacher.