Well we’re still chugging along! The stress of the past two weeks of midterms, Fulbright deadline, and a few other crazy projects have impeded on my independent learning time for Bahasa Indonesia, which I rather regret. Not having the time to review over my notes regularly really slowed down my progress, I noticed! I think going forward should be a bit easier for the rest of the semester though, or at least the foreseeable future! We learned about some more essential categories of words: like colors, shapes, directions, things around your house, and how to describe time. We have kept up with our weekly 2-minute monologues about a certain thing. One week we described our days activities from waking up in the morning until going to sleep in the evening. I also added some new entries to my Indonesian cultural journal, including how to demonstrate respect in Indonesia, as well as various natural parks in Indonesia.
The culture of Indonesia is very different than that of America (not a big surprise there). Some of their cultural customs and signs of respect were very surprising to me. For example, the left hand is considered dirty! I learned a lot of things that I will have to remember and pay attention to if or when I visit Indonesia. I wonder if Malaysia has the same custom in places. Although I deeply appreciate the large diversity of Malaysia, where I have applied to Fulbright, the fact that my placement could be so very different depending on its culture (and I won’t know where I’m going until I’m in Malaysia), doing any specific cultural focus to prepare in advance is difficult.
I finally comprehensively learned the words to describe when a thing happens : like sometimes, kadang kadang, rarely, jarang, or never, tidak pernah. This makes it much easier to describe my activities and life in general. They were words I didn’t know I was missing! We also practiced all of the colors and items around a house, which I think will be important. I really appreciate this because now, while walking around my room I can describe the items and where they are located in respect to each other, and I can even say what I typically do with them in Indonesian! For example, saya biasanya duduk di atas kursi: I usually sit on my chair.
My language skills are expanding slowly, and I’m starting to feel at least somewhat competent in the language! I truly hope that these next couple weeks will be a bit slower and offer me more time to focus on my independent studies, so that I can really focus on my auditory skills. Those are not quite up to par yet, as listening to Indonesian still sounds like gibberish to me! Regardless, I think that my general methods are going well and still have me learning at a fair level. If I spend my usual time on it, I think that I will be able to gain A2 proficiency by the end of the semester, or winter break.
Replies
Madelyn,
I am glad your language journey is progressing. I am sorry October was such a hectic time, but hopefully, you have been able to jump back on the language horse and are feeling more confident in your abilities. I think it is so interesting that the left hand is considered so evil/bad. It makes me think, do people in Indonesia only write with their right hand? Is that taught and forced in the education system?