How To Learn Malay From Beginner Level (2022)?
Language is not simply a mode of communication. It is a form of art. An art that has evolved over the years, containing emotions, traditions, and ideologies of a nation.
No matter what language you speak, what area you reside in. The language you speak is the purest representation of your heritage and shows how proud you actually are of it. This is the very essence of language learning.
Talking about traditions and diversity, the Southeast Asian countries have a separate spot of their own. Whether its their food, their clothing, or the super diverse Malay itself. This region is the epitome of cultural and literary diversity around the globe.
The History of Malay
According to calculated estimates, it first appeared in the Southeast Asian region around 1000 BC. As the time passed, the language began to grow its roots among countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.
Today, there are more than 200-250 million speakers distributed in the so called Malay Peninsula. Out of these numbers, around 19 million individuals are regarded as Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Malay variant general speakers.
Is learning Malay difficult?
As experts like to put it this way, no language is difficult to learn if you understand the basics of grammar. the same thing goes with the language.
Even though, the language is heavily influenced by early colonial and influential languages such as Arabic, Sanskrit, and Tamil. The Bahasa Malay, which is also considered as the purest form of Malay, has developed a different and objective set of Malay grammar.
This allows any first time learner to get a better understanding the overall words, common phrases, and Bahasa grammar effectively.
Are there any reliable language software to learn Malay?
We are living in the 21st century. this is an era where learning a new language is not something that’s confined to the premises of a class room. The same thing goes with learning Malay language.
Language learning software like Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, Duolingo contains special directories, pictorial representations, and practice problems to help anyone around the globe to learn any language. Even the Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Malay.
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Majority of these top-notch software are oriented towards developing a strong grammatical foundation of the Malay language. this allows the user to learn Malay just like the native speakers.
Where to start?
Well first, you need to acknowledge one thing. There is no way you’re going to effectively learn and speak language without properly understanding the grammatical structure of the language.
That’s why, most of the experts would suggest you to begin with working on the grammar of the Bahasa division. After understanding the very basics of grammar, you can focus on the second most important section of any language, the pronunciation.
And language learning software like the ones mentioned above will help you learn the Malay language and its dialects in a step by step tutorial series. A great way to initiate the whole language learning program.
How To Learn Malay From Beginner?
Before trying to frantically learn the dialects, there are some very basic steps and questions that must be addressed. this will allow you to get a better direction to learn the Malay .
The very first and probably the most important question so far. Why do you want/need to learn Malay language in the first place?
Without a doubt, Malay language is a complete and dense language just like Arabic and Chinese. But in terms of overall widespread and popularity, it is not as famous as the later two discussed languages.
The whole Malay (Bahasa Malaysia) speaking population of the world is confined to Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei up to 99%. This confines the future of Malay growth to a very limited region.
The 3 major Malay speaking regions
As discussed earlier, Malay is not a widespread or global communication language. English, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, etc. are some of the languages that fall under the category of global reasons.
And the reason behind this is the number of individuals around the globe that can communicate through these languages. Arabic alone covers at least two major world continents.
But if we discuss about Malay, specifically the Bahasa Malay dialect, the number of speakers only range between 19-20 million native speakers, further distributed among three regions,
First, Malaysia itself. the number of Malay speakers is the highest among the technologically advanced Malaysia. As being a country with a rich and diverse sea shore market, it is quite an obvious fact that Malaysia became a perfect hub for the native speaker community of the Bahasa dialect.
Second, the beautiful and tropical Brunei. A land of cultural and linguistic diversity at its best.
And last, the sea surrounded land of Singapore. The crown jewel of the Southeast Asian peninsula. A large number of people around here also prefer to speak Malay.
Current Statistics of the Malay Language and its future
A couple of centuries back, the language was the native language of almost whole Southeast Asian region. This was a time before the start of colonialism in the region.
As foreign invaders grew stronger and stronger in the region, the number of Malay speaking community grew smaller and smaller with each passing year. most of the natives switched to languages like English and Spanish, leaving the Malaysian dialect to become almost obsolete at one point.
But with the rise of freedom movements throughout the region, the native speakers began to revive the glorious past of their local language. today, there are around 250 million native speakers of the Malay distributed among the region. And according to current statistics, the number of Malay speakers is increasing quite impressively.
But today, the Malay is generally used as a language for non-native communication among individuals residing in various countries of Southeast Asia. We can consider it as a replacement of the English language for this region rather than ranking it as a native language.
What exactly is Bahasa Malay?
The word ‘Bahasa’ itself means ‘language’. The origins of Bahasa can be traced all the way back to the Sanskrit word for language ‘bhāṣā’.
The modern day Malaysian or Malay language can be divided into two base variants. The Bahasa Malay and the Bahasa Indonesia. As the Indonesian vocabulary and pronunciation is quite different from the Malay one, it is only confined to the Indonesian region alone.
Lets talk about the primary Bahasa Malay dialect. The overall Malay dialect is quite different than the Indonesian dialect in some major sections. The overall Malay grammar and words are focused towards introducing and explaining concepts in a more friendly tone.
If we take a look at the native Malay speaking population, the structure of sentences along with writing and speaking vocabulary of the Malay dialect is much easy to understand as majority of the content is derived from known international languages including Arabic, English, Sanskrit, etc.
Does Bahasa Indonesia affect the Bahasa Malay Structure?
In simple words, yes. And the overall geographical setup of the region plays a vital role in promoting the overall similarities and structural interferences among these two dialects.
Both Malaysia and Indonesia are neighbouring countries. Since the very beginning, bot the countries share almost the same heritage, traditional, culture, and language.
But with the introduction of the modern Malay dialect, the Indonesian dialect becomes confined to Indonesia and its islands alone. At the same time, the Bahasa Malaysia or Malay widened its geographical approach to even states like Singapore and Brunei.
Talking about the common phrases, and the phrases, the Malay words and pronunciation is affected by the Indonesian dialect quite much. Specially in the Malaysia and surrounding regions that are closest to Indonesia.
Where most of the natives can fully understand someone talking in the Indonesian dialect, there are certain phrases sets that can cause some serious miscommunication if not pronounced correctly.
Understanding the writing scripts of the Malay dialect
Just like any other well structured and well versed language, the overall Malay vocabulary comes with aa certain pattern.
In the beginning the Malay script was heavily influenced by the common South Asian scripts of that time. These scripts include styles influenced by the Sanskrit, Hindi, and the Marathi script writing style.
But as the ethnic concentration of the region changed with the passage of time, the past scripts and words were replaced scripts and common phrases of more wide spreading languages of that time.
And one of the most influential language on the Malaysia based dialect script was Arabic. Arabic script was adopted as the base script for Bahasa Malaysia.
The major reason behind the change of this level was the rise of Islamic empire which was stretching its wings even to the most remote areas of the planet.
This conflict of script writing gave Bahasa Malaysia the two writing scripts that are used as a base of Malay words and phrases writing.
The idea to develop multiple writing scripts is also influenced by the Chinese language.
The Jawi Script
The Jawi script is probably one of the oldest script of Malay writing. According to historical records, the Jawi script dates back to the 14th century era. An era when Islam was going through its golden periods in history.
That’s why, the basic practice and style of the Jawi script has a close connection to the Islamic words, phrases and vocabulary that was used in the Arabic language.
Due to its very close resemblance to the Arabic and Islamic practices, the Jawi Script is the optimal script choice for someone with an Islamic background. This will help in understanding the vocabulary, word and phrases structure quite effectively.
Currently, the Jawi script is implemented in the Kingdom of Brunei. A country where both Malay and English are declared as the official language.
Recently, Malaysia decided to implement the Jawi script of Malay as a part of elementary school lessons.
But due to the multilingual traditions of Malaysia, the government faced a severe backlash on its decision from the Tamil schools in the area.
The Rumi Script
The secret to communicate through Malay fluently lies within understanding the Malay grammar and script effectively.
Even though most of the Malay states of the region prefer the Jawi script, which is also the Islamic script of writing Malay. Progress is being made by the Governments to transfer the writing transcript to the more advanced Rumi script writing.
The overall Rumi script of is quite widespread in its usage. The sentence development and structure is also more easy to understand in the Rumi script writing.
This is because of the fact that the Rumi script is much similar to the English Malay writing script as we know it. Allowing the reader to speak Malay more effectively.
Is Malay hard to learn?
As stated by experts of the field before, no language is hard to learn. As long as you master the grammar and every day used words associated with that language.
The same thing goes with Malay. it is true, Malay has been divided into multiple dialects. This indeed creates quite a confusion when a first time learner decide to learn this language.
But its okay if you can’t decide which dialect to choose. It’s quite natural comparing to your first-time effort to learn the Malay language.
Generally, the dialect that is most widely used today in the Bahasa Malaysia dialect. The second dialect, i.e., the Indonesian dialect could only be used in the Indonesian soil.
Also, in order to speak Malay just like a native speaker, you must learn Malay from the very core. In other words, focus on Malay words, observe native speaker, go through basic grammar and try to memorize as much common phrases as possible.
In this way, your whole Malay learn program is going to be super effective and easy for you.
Make Your Mind
There’s an old saying which translates, ‘the secret to eternal glory lies above (head)’. In other words, language learning will be extremely easy for you, if you have the right attitude.
The very first steps of learning a new language aren’t confined to getting enrolled in a lengthy tough program, or try to memorize as much common phrases as possible, or to practice the local nouns pronunciation as much as possible.
if you truly want to learn a new language, such as Malay, the first step is to convince your mind. Decide why are you learning this language in the first place. What kind of progress you want to make on a weekly basis? What kind of outcomes are you expecting at the end of this language learning program?
These are some of the questions that must be revolving around your head when you are deciding to make this work. You need to fully convince yourself first that you do want to learn this language not only to speak fluently, but to teach and write like a master as well.
And here’s a trick that will help you get more and more interested in learning a new language. Take some online lessons, understand some basics, and if you haven’t spoken the language yet, try to talk in front of your friends just for fun. but don’t forget to take reviews from them on your spoken skills.
Which one is the best software to learn Malay?
Well, we all are living in the 21st century. A century where everything is getting digital. This is a century where learning Malay or listening to a native speaker of the language online is one of the greatest assets we have.
This doesn’t only allow us to learn Malay from the comfort our homes, but also allows the young generation to enrol in various free online courses to get a better understanding of the Malay words, vocabulary and phrases.
If we take a look at the market today, the market is flooded with such amazing learning software that use audio and visual aid to teach a specific language. Such as Malay.
Such software aren’t only limited to enrolling students in online courses where there is no fun in learning a new and exciting language. But the software are specifically designed to support a complete and effective understanding of basic spoken dynamics, sentences, phrases, words and the vocabulary.
Some of the best learning software include Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, and Duolingo.
Other popular resources to learn Malay
In order to learn Malay, online software aren’t the only option we have got today. According to verified reports, a major part of free online learning is done through app-based education.
A mobile app allows a person to work on his/her pronunciation, subject-object structure, vocabulary, and spoken skills practice through his handheld mobile set no matter where he/she is sitting.
After multiple free learning mobile apps, free online program sets are a great choice to build the overall phrases understanding and learning Malay language through a proper step by step guide.
Most of the Malay words, phrases, vocabulary, pronunciation and lessons are designed with the help of local experts.
These courses are also packed with audio instructions and practice quizzes to help better understanding the sentence structure.
And who can avoid the aid of flashcards in order to better understanding audio file or an upcoming practice.
Whenever we speak about a course that focuses on free to access Malay words and vocabulary, one thing is certain. In order to make you a master of this language, the course will focus on the usage of every extracurricular activity it can possibly arrange to help you understand better.
This will include sound aids from YouTube, quizzes, master manuals, every day use practice questions, etc.