Bayt ul-Hikmah Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 It looks like we'll be moving to Indonesia this summer for at least two years. I'd like to give my boys a head start learning Bahasa Indonesia. Does anyone have any suggested resources? Rosetta Stone has one level of Indonesian, and there is also Pimsleur... Any advice about these two or any other suggestions? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 How wonderful! I know very little about Indonesia except that I want to go there with you! :) http://www.bbc.co.uk/indonesia/ ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 I generally prefer Pimsleur over RS (and it's cheaper), but it's not really geared for kids. My son was able to buy food at the bazaar, get a taxi, and take care of other basic tasks when we moved here because of Pimsleur. He also could order various types of alcohol (he did Russian) and discuss adults' jobs with them if he wanted to. I would hope that Bahasa wouldn't have such an emphasis on alcoholic beverages. With RS (this was Persian) none of us would have been able to actually say much to anyone. However, RS is more suited to children. It's frustrating trying to find language resources for less-commonly taught languages. It took us a long time to find some good courses for Tajik and Uzbek, and those ended up being from a university. You might try finding a couple of universities that have good Bahasa programs and see what they use. Good luck. I hope you find something that works for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ummto4 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Hi Kate, Just to let you know I'm Indonesian. Our language is the easiest in the world. No tenses, no subject-verb agreement .. easy peasy. Many vocabs are from Arabic. A while ago, I found a website on learning bahasa. It's by a mixed couple (Indonesian and American). Okay, this is the website: http://www.learningindonesian.com Btw, are you going to be in Jakarta ? I hope not ...:). Huge traffic jam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholderby Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Wow, maybe we should do Indonesian as a third language! :D:lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayt ul-Hikmah Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 Thank you so much for the replies! Amira: That is just what I imagined. I think that Pimsleur would be great for me, but I can't imagine it capturing the interest of my children. I just discovered that my library has Pimsleur Indonesian (yay!), so I will check that out and perhaps try Rosetta Stone for the boys. Dian: No tenses?! No subject-verb agreement?! I'm in love already. :D After so many years of studying Arabic, that sounds lovely. Thank you for the link, I will definitely look into that. As for where we will be... we will be closer to Jakarta than I would like (I fear the traffic!). We will be south and a bit west, where Banten, West Java, and the Jakarta Capital Region meet. It will no doubt be an adventure! stripe: We like visitors! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuirkyKapers Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Indonesia is beautiful! We have visited there twice. Lucky you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
home4fun Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 We had our boys start Rosetta Stone and they had a great jump on language learning. They did it for 20 mins a day 4-5 times a day for 5 months before we came and it was amazing what they had picked up and were able to start using when we arrived. Where are you going to be located? We are pretty remote in Sumatra. Go luck with language. Its a blast seeing the kids speak and use another language. Angie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ummto4 Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Thank you so much for the replies! Amira: That is just what I imagined. I think that Pimsleur would be great for me, but I can't imagine it capturing the interest of my children. I just discovered that my library has Pimsleur Indonesian (yay!), so I will check that out and perhaps try Rosetta Stone for the boys. Dian: No tenses?! No subject-verb agreement?! I'm in love already. :D After so many years of studying Arabic, that sounds lovely. Thank you for the link, I will definitely look into that. As for where we will be... we will be closer to Jakarta than I would like (I fear the traffic!). We will be south and a bit west, where Banten, West Java, and the Jakarta Capital Region meet. It will no doubt be an adventure! stripe: We like visitors! Not only that ... you can use the same pronouns for both subject and object. No infinitives. No linking verb (like arabic). E.g.: if you want to translate this sentence into Indonesian (I want to see him), then you can say: I want see he. He wants to see me --> He want see I. (no subj- verb agreement, remember ?) See ? it's easy !! Between banten and jakarta ? What city would that be ? If you're in west java, you will be exposed to the local language as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Not only that ... you can use the same pronouns for both subject and object. No infinitives. No linking verb (like arabic).E.g.: if you want to translate this sentence into Indonesian (I want to see him), then you can say: I want see he. He wants to see me --> He want see I. (no subj- verb agreement, remember ?) See ? it's easy !! . That's awesome. I could use an easy to learn language. Count me in! I'm kicking "Plan Indonesia" into high gear, effective immediately! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ummto4 Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 One more: no 'he' and 'she'. Only 'it' for both masculine and female. I was so confused when I learned English back then because of 'she' and 'he'. I thought English was difficult. But of course, I didn't know that there are many languages 'worse' than English ....:). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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