Bahasa

About a month ago we began taking language lessons in Bahasa, the language spoken by the majority of Malaysians. This is ALSO a part of our relocation package. Our teacher's name is Yamunah. She comes to the house one or two times a week for two hours at a time. Quite simply, she is killing us!
Don't get me wrong, she is a precious woman and is working hard to make us very literate in the Bahasa language. Her enthusiasm is just A LOT greater than ours is about the entire process. The first day she arrived and started giving us sentences and words in Bahasa, we would repeat and write them down. THEN she would quiz us on them about every 30 minutes. UGH! She left on that Monday and said she would return on Wednesday--maybe we will have a quiz. Really?? So we were faithful students that first night, studying, making spreadsheets, flashcards, etc. We felt "prepared" when she arrived on Wednesday to quiz us.
Now I must interrupt here to discuss the OTHER member of my class--Jeff. Come to find out, he is REALLY good at memorizing the words and phrases. And don't even get me started with how our teacher thinks he is doing! She has often looked at me and said "clever student" or "brilliant student" when he answers her questions correctly. I keep telling him to just slow down with the answer--I'll come up with it eventually, just not as quickly as he can. He has graciously offered to "tutor" me on the side:)
To be fair, we have found that the basic knowledge of the language has been very helpful. In Singapore EVERYTHING is written in English; not so across the bridge in Malaysia. Almost all signs and storefronts are written in Bahasa. As we have learned more and more words, we find ourselves pointing them out on signs as we travel in Johor Buhru. Also, we do have English speaking t.v. stations here, but they all have Bahasa subtitles. We will spend most of our time trying to match up the spoken word with it's Bahasa match at the bottom of the screen. (Yes, we have no life in the jungle:)
The most helpful things have been sentence structure and vowel sounds. In Bahasa, the verb comes first, then noun, then pronoun or adjective. For example: What is your name? is Apa (what) nama (name) kamu (yours)? Another example: What is the price? is Berapakah (What is) harga (price) ini (this)? With vowels: a=aw; e=er; i=e(long); o=o; u=oo. We can sound out pretty much any word we see now, even if we don't know what it means!
Our cultural training teacher said that you don't need to be fluent in Bahasa, but the local people appreciate you at least trying to say a few words. The words we use the MOST are: Terima kasih (thank you), and sama sama (you're welcome or same-same). I have also found "di manakah tandas?" to be important--"where is the toilet?".
The majority of the people we come into contact with over here speak English to some degree. We bought an "English=Bahasa/Bahasa=English" dictionary, and it has been wonderful for filling in the gaps when we actually do need to communicate with some of the workers around our property and in the local stores. We are, however, continuing with our lessons on a weekly basis. Our language teacher's dream is that her two students learn to read AND write in Bahasa by the end of our time with her. OUR goal is to survive the lessons and pick up what we can along the way.