The topics that Melisa and I have been working on most closely as of late are 'Tubuh Badan' (body parts). This is an essential part of learning any language, and I have made sure to pay special attention to how reduplication does or does not affect these terms. It seems that, for the most part, these words function on their own and do not require reduplication, meaning that 'telinga' can mean either 'ear' or 'ears' concurrently. This is unsurprising, given how much of Malay relies on contextual markers and other clues to denote specificity or even just the precise meaning of a word. Chinese can be a little similar in this regard, as there is no -s/-es type of suffix that can be added to showcase that something is plural, and there are some similar rules in Malay. The word 'daun' (leaf) can either be written as 'dedaun' or 'daun-daun' to denote the plural (leaves), while other words, such as body parts, do not have such rules. I was also surprised to learn that the words 'Tangan' and 'Kaki' both have double meanings of sorts: the former means both 'arm(s)' and 'hand(s)' and the latter means both 'leg(s)' and 'foot/feet.' I also explored specific facial features and the like, which I think is important because these often come up as common motifs in poetry and other literary mediums. If I do want to explore this aspect of Malay further, they will be useful vocabulary to know and keep in mind.
It was interesting to see how Melisa took a different approach in helping me remember some of these terms. First there was the worksheet with basic labels and illustrations, which is standard and more in line with what we have done all year. After that, Melisa showed me some videos on YouTube that were both songs about body parts. The Malay equivalent of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" was interesting and fun to watch, and it reminded me of learning something similar in Mandarin (which I have now since forgotten unfortunately!). I practiced singing the song myself and it actually did help me to remember them the next time Melisa and I met. The other video helped review some of the common verbs associated with the body parts I learned. For instance, for 'Hiding' (nose), the verb 'mencium' (to smell) is used, whereas with 'Mulut' (mouth), 'bercakap' (to speak) is used. While I already knew many of these verbs, it served as a good way of reviewing them and connecting everything I learned. There was even a sentence pattern we reviewed where it essentially went 'Saya menggunikan [body part] untuk [verb/action]" (I use ___ in order to ___) as well as the 'digunikan' passive voice equivalent ([body part] is used in order to [action]). This was useful review that was also lighthearted and enjoyable.
Overall, I am happy with my progress and cannot believe that it is already so late into the semester. The one-on-one sessions with Melisa have been going a lot better than I expected, so continued language learning on that front has not been too difficult. As we enter into the final weeks of the semester, I am thinking more and more about some of the ways in which I will continue to practice Malay on my own.
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Hi Bryan!
Learning body parts is always great vocabulary to know in any language! As of right now, I think I still want to be a doctor so I found your post really interesting. You seem to really be learning a wide variety of topics in Malay which is awesome to see. I also like how you connect Malay with Chinese when you can. I have been using a lot of videos and some songs to help me learn Korean so it was cool to see that Melisa is making use of similar resources too. Songs are really powerful ways to learn a language so I hope you can find some more songs to learn in the future. Thank you for your post, Bryan!