2016 Language Learning Log - Indonesian, maybe a little Russian

[Adrianslont]

Hi Blue. I'm glad you enjoyed Thomas. As well as being comprehensible I think the amount of dialogue and narration is great, too. Some cartoons or dramas have lengthy silences or music - with Thomas it's all talk!

I like the pictures of the book covers. They break up the wall of text you get in forums.

[Melaleuca]

Hi Blue,

I'm about to start learning Indonesian. I like the book cover pictures in your posts. Great to see you've made such good progress!

[Blue]

Thanks, Melaleuca. Good luck with your Indonesian study. I've enjoyed it so far. Its a very fascinating country. I envy you Aussies for being able to visit much cheaper and easier than I could. Lots of good resources have been mentioned in this log. If you have any questions, I check this log pretty regularly.

[Melaleuca]

Thanks Blue! I haven't been there yet- and yet, my relatives who live in Europe have been. I looked through the first lesson of the Indonesian Way today and listened to a course recording in the car. The course is called Lancar Bahasa Indonesia. I like the sound of Indonesian so far - the intonation and double words.

Thanks Adrianslont too. Great link and ideas from both of you.

[Blue]

Some of my plans for the weekend were cancelled and the weather is horrible, so I took the opportunity to do a serious amount of listening practice. So far I've neglected my listening and speaking in relation to reading, something I suspect is common for first time language learners. But I am rectifying that.

Inspired by Adrian's suggestion, I looked for more Thomas and Friends dubs on YouTube and found a bunch, including a couple of hour-long movies. I also found a great companion for Thomas videos: http://ttte.wikia.com/ It's a wiki with an extremely detailed plot summary of every movie/episode. The summaries are a almost scene-by-scene description. I could already follow Thomas well, but knowing in advance the topic of every dialogue enabled me to hang on every word. I watched 3+ hours yesterday. Earlier today I watched the Disney movie Cars. My comprehension wasn't as good as Thomas, but it was still fairly good.

The problem with these cartoons is that Indonesian is a very diglossic language, and the dialogue in a cartoon like Thomas and Friends is a lot different than casual conversation between adults. But I'm planning to use it as a bridge to more advanced and realistic material. After a few more hours of Cars-like shows, I'll move on. There are a couple of native Indonesian animated series aimed at an older audience that use a lot more slang and real conversational speech. That will be my next step.

I've done no reading since my last update. But I'll get back to that either before bed tonight or tomorrow evening. One of my HelloTalk partners and I have decided to use lang-8 together. I've dabbled with it, but not used it consistently. One of the problems with that site is people who put absolutely no effort into giving corrections. But now I have a native speaker who I know for certain will go above and beyond in giving me feedback. I expect to make great progress in my writing.

[Adrianslont]

I'm glad you're getting good use out of Thomas. It's a limited vocabulary but good, basic useful stuff I think. And I like how the voices are relatively close to normal voices - well at least a little closer than most cartoons.

I have not actually watched both of those movies. I rip the audio out of them and LISTEN in the car on my commute. Jagoan Rel was pretty straightforward but I am not always sure what's going on with Raja Jalan Kereta Api. I think I need to actually watch that one or read the wiki entry.

Like you, i am currently focusing on more formal Indonesian but well aware of Bahasa Gaul and picking up bits and pieces here and there.

Thanks again for the fivecolleges culture talk videos. I was listening to some in the car today and I really like them.

Did you find Cars on YouTube? Please let us know about any other good resources you find.

Did I mention that YouTube has LOTS of cartoons to teach kids about Islam? Just search kartun Islam Bahasa Indonesia. I'm not crazy about them - the subject matter doesn't appeal to me - but ymmv and they're worth at least a quick look. The mother explaining halal and haram to her son at the supermarket is quite sweet.

[Blue]

Hey Adrian

Cars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfr1lCZ ... VQ1BGJDkmp

Cars 2 -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJke4dWlCd8&list=PLgP8BZ36n7zuLGA1Ud4_Jvx9e5tbEWk-E

I have some good news. I've located audio books. https://listeno.com/

Hopefully you're an Android user since I don't think they have an iOS version. I've had no luck finding texts to go along with any of the audio, but if you find any online I'll name my first-born after you haha.

[Adrianslont]

Hey Adrian

Cars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfr1lCZ ... VQ1BGJDkmp

Cars 2 -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJke4dWlCd8&list=PLgP8BZ36n7zuLGA1Ud4_Jvx9e5tbEWk-E

I have some good news. I've located audio books. https://listeno.com/

Hopefully you're an Android user since I don't think they have an iOS version. I've had no luck finding texts to go along with any of the audio, but if you find any online I'll name my first-born after you haha.

Blue

Thanks for the Cars heads up.

And for the buku suara app discovery. Unfortunate that they don't have an iOS app for me! If you get into it, let me know how you go. I haven't seen any ebooks online but if you want to buy paper books to match the audio book titles, you might try the Periplus or Gramedia websites. I don't know if they deliver overseas, though. I contacted a DVD distributor recently about shipping overseas but they didn't get back to me so they probably don't.

I made a discovery this morning. There are a number of TEDx talks in Bahasa Indonesia. Just go to YouTube and search TEDx plus Jakarta or Bandung. I looked at the start of two talks but had to go to work. They looked promising though. One guy spoke pretty slowly and another quite quickly but they both spoke clearly. You get English subtitles but don't seem to get Indonesian. I think a few of those talks will be going on my phone for playing in the car.

Indonesian is not a "major language" like Spanish, German, French etc but it's incredible what you can find with a bit of searching and pooling discoveries. But it does take time to find good, interesting stuff at the right level. I feel like I now have heaps to be working on for months to come - I like to work both intensively and extensively. BUT do keep sharing anything good you find and I will, too!

[Blue]

Its unfortunate you can't use the ebook app. But it's streaming-only which makes it a bit less useful. I'm getting my listening practice from cartoons and other videos at this point, so I probably won't be using it soon unless I can find corresponding texts. Indonesia isn't big on copyright enforcement, so there are definitely ebooks available online. Of course not like major European languages, but more than enough for me at this point. Once I'm ready to consume advanced adult media for pleasure I may ask a friend from Indonesia to ship me some stuff. But if you do find a company that ships overseas, definitely let me know. I'd much rather do that than impose on someone.

Thanks for the tip on Ted Talks. I will definitely remember that. I've never watched anime before, but I've been doing so lately. Its not as immature as Disney type cartoons, but it's still comprehensible for a learner. And there are many hours of it available online. I'll share some links with Indo animation when I'm on my computer (on mobile now).

I'll do an formal log update with the stuff I've been reading and watching in the next day or two.

[Blue]

I've been very productive with my language study lately, so I've decided to break my updates into two. Today I'll talk about listening/speaking. I'll talk about reading in a few days when I finish my next book. First, a couple links for Adrian and anyone else who is interested: http://film-animasi-indonesia.blogspot.com/ and http://www.indoaink.com/

As mentioned earlier, I've been watching Indonesian dubs of anime. I watched ten 20 minute episodes of a series called Ghosts at School. Good listening practice, but I'm bored with it. I also watched half of Cars 2. For future viewing, there's a much more extensive anime series with good reviews called Hunter x Hunter. Hopefully I can get into that. I'll try it next. I'm anxious to get past animation, but I'm making good progress with it. If Hunter x Hunter doesn't entertain me, I'll move on to adult shows/movies that either have Indo subtitles or lots of clear narration.

While commuting, I listen to BBC Indonesia, and I've also done 2 more Pimsleur lessons while driving. I didn't care for using Linguaphone in the traditional way, but I might have a use for it yet. I'd like to try shadowing with it. Lots of positive posts about that method on the old forum. I'm no longer planning to use the Api di Bukit Menoreh audio books as I've realized they're littered with Javanese words.

That's it for now.