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Indonesian- REALLY that easy? | ||
Tags: Indonesian | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5784 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 1 of 4 05 July 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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A friend of mine recently made a big attempt at learning Indonesian.
He read it was very easy indeed and desperate to be a show off and show he spoke more languages he decided to try and learn it. The results were apparently rather bad. He didn't get very far with it at all and then got bored and gave up. This got me thinking. A lot is made about Indonesian apparently being very easy. It's practically cliche to say how easy it is. Yet...is it really that easy for a European to learn? I mean...purely going off the grammar rules and all that there- yes, it probally is. Assuming a alien from another planet who is just looking for the most easy language then that's what he would plump for. But its just so darn alien and 'pointless' (no offence intended here) to Europeans. I mean...sure. Maybe Norwegian is technically harder than Indonesian. But for a English speaking European? A lot of the grammar rules and vocabulary is alrady there. If he's a German then he practically speaks it already. And then there's the culture too. Norwegian culture is just a subset of north european culture which is one of the central points of the west. The way Norwegians think about the world isn't too different to the way a Welshman does or even a Spaniard or even still a Russian. Perhaps. Indonesia meanwhile...Sure. Its not the dodgy 19th century colonial stereotype of people in mud huts clicking at each other (...hey...aint that Namibia?) but its a very alien place. Everything in its history has a disconnet to ours. Even comparing Indonesia to another alien country and it could perhaps be rather alien. Take Japan for instance. Despite coming from a very alien place Japan is very modern and has many western influences upon it. You can understand some of the thinking there. Or at least I can. It just doesn't seem that alien to me. Perhaps this is due to the media? You get lots of films, computer games, etc... coming from Japan and China. We in the west know about them and have them as part of our culture just as some guy out in Nigeria has a David Beckham poster on his wall. Indonesia meanwhile...not too much in the way of cultural exports to be seen over here. Hell, outside of the Biljmer you don't even seem to get many Indonesian people around Europe. Its a very foreign country indeed. Any thoughts? Am I just over thinking this? Edited by Tyr on 05 July 2010 at 5:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5576 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 4 05 July 2010 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't speak Indonesian, but I think you're overthinking this... learning any language is hard. Any label of 'easy' would be relative. From what I know of Indonesian, having traveled extensively in south-east asia, it is significantly easier than other local languages. But it's still an entire language in and of itself!
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| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6142 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 3 of 4 05 July 2010 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||
That's pretty accurate, what people tend to forget that simple grammar rules don't help you remember very foreign vocab. However, Indonesia isn't as remote as you try to paint it; they know who David Beckham and "Bradgelina" are (football is massive in Indonesia and they were the first Asian team to compete at a World Cup in 1938) I have Irish heritage and live a stone's throw from Wales but my circumstances make Indonesian, Thai, Lao and Urdu much more important to me than the Celtic languages. One person's "most useless" language is another's raison d'être. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5354 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 4 05 July 2010 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was not aware that Indonesian was considered an easy language to learn until now, so this topic intrigues me. Maybe sometime I will have to take a look at this language and learn some of it, despite the fact that I really never had a large desire to learn many languages outside of the ones spoken in Europe.
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