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How Difficult Is Indonesian?

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35 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5  Next >>
brian91
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5447 days ago

335 posts - 437 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 1 of 35
09 July 2010 at 9:10am | IP Logged 
In comparison to, say, French and German. I want to experience Asian culture, without having to pull my hair out
learning Mandarin. So has anybody here learned Indonesian? According to the FSI, Indonesian is a category one
language, like Spanish and Italian etc, so I think I could manage it, but I'd like to hear your opinion first.
Also, does anyone here know of a good Indonesian course? So far Teach Yourself seems to be the best course I've
found (book and two CDs).

Thanks!
brian91

Edited by brian91 on 09 July 2010 at 9:11am

1 person has voted this message useful



ericspinelli
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
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249 posts - 493 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Italian

 
 Message 2 of 35
09 July 2010 at 10:11am | IP Logged 
brian91 wrote:
I want to experience Asian culture

What is "Asian culture"?
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brian91
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5447 days ago

335 posts - 437 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 3 of 35
09 July 2010 at 10:19am | IP Logged 
ericspinelli wrote:
brian91 wrote:
I want to experience Asian culture

What is "Asian culture"?


Okay, there's Indian culture, the Middle-East etc, so I guess south-east Asia. Not to overgeneralize.
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newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
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1598 posts - 2174 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 4 of 35
09 July 2010 at 10:56am | IP Logged 
Here are some threads that may be useful:

Indonesian courses

Indonesian
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brian91
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5447 days ago

335 posts - 437 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 5 of 35
09 July 2010 at 11:35am | IP Logged 
Thanks, Eric.

Something that put me off was this quote from the antimoon.com forum about the difficulty of Indonesian:

"I hate to contradict all of you, but you are misguided. I am a professor of linguistics and Southeast Asian
Languages at the University of Michigan (Flint). Indonesian (and Malaysian) are very difficult to learn and perfect
due to the wmsp-sweep grammar rule."


Is this guy joking? What is the wmsp-sweep grammar rule? :D

Edited by brian91 on 09 July 2010 at 11:35am

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liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6232 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 6 of 35
09 July 2010 at 12:50pm | IP Logged 
brian91 wrote:
In comparison to, say, French and German. I want to experience Asian culture, without having
to pull my hair out
learning Mandarin. So has anybody here learned Indonesian? According to the FSI, Indonesian is a category one
language, like Spanish and Italian etc, so I think I could manage it, but I'd like to hear your opinion first.
Also, does anyone here know of a good Indonesian course? So far Teach Yourself seems to be the best course I've
found (book and two CDs).

Thanks!
brian91


There are no such things as HARD languages as much as there are EASY languages.   Seriously! It's as
hard as you make it. Some people consider Spanish and French( both level 1 languages) extremely difficult
because of their gender, complex verb forms etc. while others consider spoken Mandarin very easy! Don't be
put off by a language because somebody tells you it is "hard" or purposely study one because it is supposed to
be "easy". Study it because you want to! ( and believe me , there are 1000 reasons why you would want to study
a language)

That being said, most experts agree that Indonesian is a relatively painless language for English speakers to pick
up. Of course, even "easy" languages will have a few aspects that will trip you up, but thanks to a fairly
straightforward grammar and a latin script you should be alright.

These links should still be working for a very intensive Indonesian course

Indonesian:
http://rapidshare.com/files/271959174/DLI_Indonesian_Course. zip.001
http://rapidshare.com/files/272080467/DLI_Indonesian_Course. zip.002
http://rapidshare.com/files/272094315/DLI_Indonesian_Course. zip.003

If not let me know and I can re-post them.

Good Luck!
6 persons have voted this message useful



brian91
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5447 days ago

335 posts - 437 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 7 of 35
09 July 2010 at 12:53pm | IP Logged 
Thanks, liddytime. Motivation and persistence seem to make up most of language-learning. It's a great life lesson.
:D

I'm still scared of that so-called wmsp-sweep grammar rule though. D:
1 person has voted this message useful



liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6232 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 8 of 35
11 July 2010 at 4:03pm | IP Logged 
brian91 wrote:

I'm still scared of that so-called wmsp-sweep grammar rule though. D:


I have absolutely no clue what that is!! ;-)

No worries!!!   Even the hardest grammar "rules" if you use them enough they will become second nature. ( even
though I still have to tell myself "i before e except after c" every time I spell those words... ok that's spelling, not
grammar, but you get the point.....)


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