kingajit wrote:Hi ,
Anyone care to share their experience for learning conversational Malay. I have tried a couple of CC's but not effective.
Look forward to some recommendations ...cheers
Ajit
Malay is actually one of the easiest languages to learn. I assume you meant community centres when you said CC, so what went wrong when you tried to learn from CC? I'm curious.
I speak fluent Malay but I can't commit to language exchange arrangement but I can give few pointers on learning if you need to know.
For starters, converse with a Malay more. Perhaps it could be a helpful colleague, a friendly "pakcik" (uncle) or "makcik" (aunty) who sells in that Malay stall in your favourite coffee shops, or someone you always meet in your neighbourhood. You will be surprised how warm, friendly and engaging they are when they know you're keen to learn their language. Best way to learn basic sentence structure that way. Stuff like subject + predicate, noun + adjective, user + verb + object.
You probably know some words already in your interaction with fellow Singaporeans here. There is no way you could miss these words if you interact with Singaporeans a lot: tahan, makan, sekali, boleh/tak boleh.
And of course a lot of names of places in Singapore are originally Malay like Bukit Batok (hill, cough), Tanjung Pagar (cape, fence), Tiong Bahru (mynah, new), Bukit Timah (hill, tin), Jalan Membina (road, to build), Lorong Kilat (alley, lightning), etc. Of course not all of them mean literally but they have interesting history behind the names. Good to start.
Very fascinating when you start realising the wonderful details.
Ask again if you have specifics. I personally do not know any good teachers but I guess going to places like Inlingua helps.