Most effective learning tool.

[Vanhelsing]

I have basic (at best) bahasa Indonesia skills but have begun trying to further my ability over the last few days by experimenting with different learning methods, whether it be through free introductory online resources, writing words from a dictionary or the flashcards I'm about to make. Of course I'd like to be fluent overnight.....

Was there any particular learning technique people found to be a little more effective than others?

 

[rabbit_39]

Read detik.com or finance.detik.com. Simple sentence structures and vocabulary.

 

[John_Oates]

I think the best way is to just use it in conversation. It will be ropey at the beginning, but it will soon improve. In my experience anyway.

 

[Vanhelsing]

I think the best way is to just use it in conversation. It will be ropey at the beginning, but it will soon improve. In my experience anyway.

I agree learning with conversation is ideal but I'm starved of it at present and have to find different ways. I could skype though, I guess.

cheers

 

[Vanuatu]

There is a book "Instant Indonesian, 100 words to express a 1000 ideas" I used it when first learning the language and it was a big help.

 

[Smallworld]

Writing: Try to memorize 3-5 words per day and use the to write 5 sentences with each word.
One a week try to write short memo to make sure you haven't forgotten any new words.
Grammar: after writing short memo you can have it checked by some Indonesian bahasa teacher.

Reading: read something that really interest you eg. How to build a house in Indonesia? How to fix motorcycle?

Listening: watch metro tv, berita satu, interact with people

Speaking: interact with people eg. go to passar and buy small stuff, your goal is to... Bring as low the price as possible. Always menawar.... Your second goal is to get more confident with your skills.

 

[Vanhelsing]

Writing: Try to memorize 3-5 words per day and use the to write 5 sentences with each word.
One a week try to write short memo to make sure you haven't forgotten any new words.
Grammar: after writing short memo you can have it checked by some Indonesian bahasa teacher.

Reading: read something that really interest you eg. How to build a house in Indonesia? How to fix motorcycle?

Listening: watch metro tv, berita satu, interact with people

Speaking: interact with people eg. go to passar and buy small stuff, your goal is to... Bring as low the price as possible. Always menawar.... Your second goal is to get more confident with your skills.

Thanks Smallworld,Utilizing a cross section of the language's usage whether it be written, verbal or just being immersed in it as an observer/listener makes sense.

 

[Smallworld]

With me learning from books is not as efficient as practicing outside house. Talk to your staff if you have any like driver, maid turn them into your unofficial teachers for bahasa... I learnt a lot this way.

Second best way is to have a hobby, small business were you have to search and deal with customers, suppliers. Eg from some franchise like bubble tea, selling juice ending up on small manufacturing textile perhaps ect...

 

[Vanhelsing]

I'm not back in Indonesia until January so interacting on a personal level will have to wait unfortunately.

 

[dafluff]

Was there any particular learning technique people found to be a little more effective than others?

Getting thrown into an Indonesian grade school at the age of 8 with only a rudimentary command of the language. Fluent in several weeks!

 

[harryopal1]

So, if you are not in Indonesia, as Lara Bingle famously said in an Australian tourist promotion while standing on a beach arms wide, "So where the bloody hell are you?"

I find formal grammar learning books just so tedious. I buy an occasional Indonesian translation of a reasonable novel and spend a couple of hours each day copying a line at a time into google translate. I know the translations are not particularly good but I get a sense of the sentence. I then drop words with which I am unfamiliar down on the next line and then write each word and translation into columns in an exercise book. I am sure lots of people will say this is the most stupid method they have ever heard of but gradually words are falling into place and there is some interest sustained following the story in the novel. I use mnemonics to try and remember each word as I do the occasional revision up and down the columns.

It will be interesting to hear which method you find works best.

 

[vocalneal]

It will be interesting to hear which method you find works best.

Universal.

Bad_Azz can find here own toyboy picture!

 

[Davita]

Getting thrown into an Indonesian grade school at the age of 8 with only a rudimentary command of the language. Fluent in several weeks!

hahaha...similar to getting thrown into the swimming pool, at an early age, with only a pair of arm-floats ....guaranteed success or glug, glug....

or the first time my flying instructor opened the throttle of a two-seater aircraft at the end of the runway and said "OK...you have control!"...

Fully immersing usually works best. I went to language school in Jakarta but soon forgot everything by not continuing ..'coz I went back to Canada....big mistake!

 

[Vanhelsing]

The method I've come up with which I hope will help with learning a little is as follows. I've written down twenty five new Indonesian words onto flashcards with it taking almost twenty four hours to memorize them all and have a clean run through.the list. Once I am able to complete a full flashcard run through, I construct/type sentences using those words and others I know, then run the sentences through Google Translate to see if there are any major errors and the constructs make any sense.

This has created child-like beginners dialogue such as;
Saya akan pergi ke bar kerena saya harus mabuk. Bob akan pergi juga untuk makanan kerena dia lapar dan kurus

The issue with Google Translate is I'm not sure of grammar, but it's a start, I guess.

So now I find another ten or twenty words and keep adding, doing revision, creating sentences and so on. I'm enjoying it but foresee it becoming more difficult to remember the words the more I add, not to mention affixes......

Any other suggestions are most welcome.

 

[Bad_azz]

I am sure I will be corrected- but you need to add more to it. The English way of talking with pronouns is not the Indonesian way.
Saya akan pergi ke bar kerena saya ingin mabuk, dan Bob harus ke bar juga dan harus beli makanan karena dia lapar dan kurus.

 

[Bad_azz]

I have recently been editing Indonesian to English translations. I find it has focussed me on format/sentence structure a lot.
I might read the first few words & instantly think - AHA! they mean ..bla bla bla & then I see the rest of it & find some obsure thing tacked right at the end that c ompletely changes the message. So VH - try looking at things such as that too.

 

[Vanhelsing]

Thanks, B_A., I appreciate your help. I'll try and expand a little more as words become more accessible to me.

 

[Bad_azz]

Whereas we might say " I want that one"& point, an Indonesian person would be more specific & say I want the cake which is from left second.
Saya inging kue yang di kiri kedua.
If talking with people who know your name, then you might refer to yourself in 3rd person. Example it might be my cousin's shop:
B_a inging kue yang di kiri kedua.

 

[Bad_azz]

I think it is better to try and learn it "properly" initially VH, because if you learn it in bare basics and incorrect structure, it will be rather difficult to unlearn what you already stored in the old grey matter.
I speak from experience- my own skills are not at all as good as they should be, mainly because when I first came here, I was taught basics by my friend's children... & haven't progressed much _Shameface_

 

[Bad_azz]

oh, VH - Hubby just said, skype him & he will happily talk with you & teach you, in exchange for some Australian black opals....