Listening to the dialogue in movies will be an uphill task considering that i had to rely so much on the English subtitles when watching Jakarta Undercover last night (it was rather disappointing. The movie kind of dragged on towards the end.) Reading is less of a learning curve since I understand more of tata tata bahasa with its 'di-, per-an, pe-an, di-kan, me-kan, ter-, ber-', the list never ends. Well, 18 more hours is only 6 hours x 3 weeks. And, it will be the dreaded presentation. I really cannot imagine myself doing a presentation in bahasa in front of native speakers. Then again, it is good exposure for further bahasa modules (I just hope the placement test will serve its purpose since it will decide my Bahasa future in NUS)
Frankly speaking, I really feel the improvement of learning bahasa in THE motherland. After all, I was in BI 1 last semester. And I totally lost interest towards the end because I was just not performing well in class. Rather demoralizing, I must say. However, things are really looking up at this moment. I just took a look at the BI 2 coursepack and I have almost covered all the topics during my daily conversations (how cool is that). I feel as though I am turning half Indonesian such that I will go 'apa, ya' instead of ' hmmm'. It just rolls off the tongue.
If the future Semeter Away people happen to reading this, there is nothing like learning a foreign language by immersing yourself in the culture and country. Yes, the learning curve can be very steep at times (and feeling lost sometimes), I guess it is part and parcel of the learning process. Don't be afraid to make mistakes when communicating. In fact, the people here appreciate the fact that you are trying to converse with them. Sooner or later, you will feel so at ease with Bahasa that it might just feel like your first language.
1 comment:
Chanced upon this blog, and seen some interesting things here. Glad there are people out there who are actually here to study the country and be positive about it.
Just a bit concerned whether the fact that the short period of time that you all will be spending here can actually entitle you all to a fundamental understanding of the country, or a misguided satisfaction of being able to act and behave like a local on the exterior without the necessary substance to uphold the essence of such indonesian qualities.
The inherent human facilities for language degenerates as one grew up, and the ability to internalise the language mirrors a negative tangent. I spent 5 years learning English and still not comfortable with it, so pardon me if i remain skeptical about what can 3.5 months allow you to achieve to become a half Indonesian...
Glad to see the passion and interests you all have... hopefully you all can transcend the superficiality and gained a real and accurate understanding of this country :)
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