The SIMPLEST but HARDEST language to master

In this video, I talk about my experience with learning Indonesian. I found Indonesian simple to learn but hard to really get into it because a lot of Indonesians speak another language with their family and friends.
⭐️ Learning Malay in 2 weeks: • I learned my 11th lang...
⭐️ Speaking only in Malay: • Malay Vlog Challenge -...
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:17 Why is Indonesian simple to learn
01:17 Why is Indonesian hard to master? / How I started studying Indonesian
06:41 Why you should learn Indonesian?
⭐️ Recommended resources (some are affiliate links):
- Italki link (practice speaking): bit.ly/italki-twg
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- How I learn languages: • How to learn languages...
Twitter: / thaiwithgrace

[@mirae9163]

This situation is exactly the same as Mandarin. In China especially in the South China, people learn Mandarin at school and they also have their own languages which speak with family and with friends. Most of these languages are unintelligible to Mandarin. Such as Cantonese, Hokkien or Shanghainese... etc.

[@polyglotgrace]

Hello Mirae, I understand your struggle. Most of the Chinese I hang out with are chinese that live in Thailand so most of them from different places, meaning mostly they communicate in Mandarin. However, few of them come from Kunming (since kunming is very close to Thailand) and they keep switching to Kunming dialect/language. My other chinese friends from other provinces used to ask them to speak in Mandarin so that they can understand too. So, it's not just foreigners who have problem with this, Chinese themselves also have problems. Hope that make you/me feel better. lol

[@elenazaaba7522]

Indonesian language is actually Malay language but was renamed into "Indonesian language". Hence, Indonesian and Malay "languages" have that in common. Easy to learn but VERY DIFFICULT to master.

[@miriamk.5644]

Good point! I had the same experience with Indonesian when traveling Indonesia.

[@Doing_Time]

haha, I haven't tried indonesian yet, but I understand the issue... it's like africa where "everyone" speaks swahili as a second or third language...philippines where "everyone" speaks english as second language...middle east where "everyone" speaks standard arabic as a second or third language...it's not much better than going to europe knowing how to speak latin and hoping to practice it with the locals ;)

[@pohaci1141]

Iya bener banget. Bagi orang asing yang ingin belajar bahasa indonesia emang sangat susah. Karena setiap daerah menggunakan bahasa daerahnya masing-masing. Bahasa Indonesia seringnya dipake di luar rumah, kayak di kantor atau di tempat yang banyak orang dari daerah lain. Contohnya aku di bandung. Di rumah dan dilingkungan rumah, aku ngomong pake bahasa sunda. Tapi kalo di kantor aku pake bahasa indonesia. Tapi bahasa indonesia-nya juga dicampur dengan logat sunda dan ada kata sunda-nya juga. Kalo mau gunain bahasa indonesia mau nggak mau kamu harus berada di luar rumah 😂. Tapi itu juga bahasa indonesia gak baku. Seneng banget grace ketika tau kamu belajar bahasa indonesia. Tetap semangat ya.

[@korawitwoonsin7547]

Saya pun dari thailand yang sedang belajar bahasa melayu and indonesia😅😅😅 saya sangat suka belajar bahasa indonesia dengan lagu lagu indo kerana seronoknya.

[@moysister]

@@korawitwoonsin7547 just so you know. Kata 'seronok' di Indonesia itu artinya kurang baik. But if you're a learner we would understand

[@korawitwoonsin7547]

@@moysister kasih banyak banyak mas😊😊😊

[@moysister]

@@korawitwoonsin7547 can I do a little correction? It should be 'terima kasih banyak, mas' tapi sebenarnya aku bukan 'mas' sih, tapi 'mbak'. Karna aku cewek.. hehe.. tapi nggak apa-apa. sama-sama. ✨

[@korawitwoonsin7547]

@@moysister terima kasih mbak, saya dulu pikir kamu ialah laki laki😀😀😀

[@user-ol3tp6cp2k]

Thank you so much Ms. Grace 😊 Your video is really precise and helpful. I'm currently start to study Vietnamese and have experienced the similar learning challenges too

[@polyglotgrace]

Oh wow, really? I didn't know that about vietnamese. Where are you in Vietnam?

[@user-ol3tp6cp2k]

@@polyglotgrace I recently study in Canada but I have travel to Ho Chi Minh city and Da Nang before

[@user-ol3tp6cp2k]

@@polyglotgrace One of my friends said, the differences between most of the Vietnamese dialects are often smaller than in Indonesia. However, the Nghe An, Vinh city dialect is one of the exceptions 🤔😊

[@johnczech7074]

Great content beautiful lady! I had no idea about this subject. Very interesting. Thanks!!

[@petercarlisle8587]

Good video Grace. The situation you refer to is the same as we farlangs can encounter in Thailand with central thai, northern thai, isaan and southern thai, all of which are very different. My wife and her family even speak a variation of isaan called phu thai. So farlangs learn central / Bangkok thai, cannot understand anything when thais speak those other language and all in Thailand use the common language of central / BKK thai to comminicate. I once spent time working in Southern vietnam. One of my japanese colleagues arrived in Hanoi and the company sent him fulltime to learn vietnamese for one year. He then got sent to his first project, in Southern vietnam. He couldn't understand southern vietnamese so had to speak to the vietnamese staff in english.

[@polyglotgrace]

haha yes. this weekend I saw the สัปเหร่อ movie and they speak mostly Isaan. If they didn't have subtitles in Thai even I would understand so little.

[@hartantahartanta]

Indonesia is like hundreds of countries melted in one. they have their own regional culture and language and are educated at home and at school to be bilingual, local and Indonesian. but you only need to learn Indonesian for everyday life here, the local will adapt it for you :) .

[@cieloruiz4645]

Grace, It’s a Great Video, Thanks

[@eggydwiputra670]

Why u didnt make video to speak indonesian in surabaya & bali? Fyi in Jakarta and some part of Sumatra, Indonesian is 1st language , so u can try speak indonesian in Jakarta ( jakarta has own accent called betawi, but very similar to standard indonesian)

[@robertboender5816]

I'm lucky that a lot of Dutch words are still in the language do spelled or pronounced a bit different. Especially in law a lot of Dutch is still used.

[@alexuqt]

wow that's really interesting

[@heyholetsg0]

Yes, most of us Indonesian learn bahasa Indonesia as a second language. Surabaya is one of the complex situation, their javanese are somewhat different from standart (central java) javanese, and to make it worse the Chinese Indonesian from Surabaya have another form of language as well 😂 I think you won't have the bad experience if you met friends from Jakarta, as most of them (especially the youngsters) already speak Bahasa Indonesia since birth, just need to learn some slang

[@polyglotgrace]

Ah that's a really good information, thank you for that.

[@xiaorenhuangdi]

Indonesia used to be the colony of Nederland, but to my surprise, Indonesians don’t make Dutch as their official languages. And this is quite different from Argentina, Mexico, etc

[@nico-2580]

Having to learn 2 languages to perfectly understand Indonesian people, that’s true! Although, I have to disagree that you can’t foster a deep connection with just Bahasa Indonesia alone! I only speak with my dad in Bahasa Indonesia! Because he’s from another island and speaks a different dialect! One of my best friends is an Indonesian who grew up in Europe, again he speaks no dialects.

[@polyglotgrace]

Thank you Nico! I think it's totally possible to create deep connection with just Bahasa indonesia. Maybe I didn't explain well in the video. It's just that, for me, I find it discouraging when people laugh and make jokes in their dialect. It's frustrating not able to join in the laughter.

[@Peter-dw5xq]

i found the same problem with Thai. I can read Thai but I spent most of my time in the provinces and not in Bangkok. I found the dialects hard to understand

[@polyglotgrace]

Hello, peter, I know how you feel. I also don't understand Thai dialect very well but I think that after few months of living with people in the provinces and actively asking them what they say, I will be able to pick up the dialect. (That's what I imagine though I never had an opportunity to live long term in other province).

[@stoomkracht]

This straight forward learning experience aso applies to Malaysian I guess? So maybe the path can be 1) Malaysian 2) Indonesian but definitely not at the same time ;

[@polyglotgrace]

Hello! Yes, it can be Malaysian first, then Indonesian but not at the same time or else you will get confused.

[@war1963]

น้องเป็นซุปเปอร์เกิร์ลค่ะ เก่งที่สุดเลย ชอบมาก

[@polyglotgrace]

ขอบคุณคะ

[@SuperAykt]

I think the biggest problem with indonesian is the lack of material. There are almost no grammar books, apart from some linguistic oriented reference books which are not convenient for use. I believe there is a book in german , "lehrbuch der indonesischen sprache" which seem to be good but I am not in the level to read that yet.

[@polyglotgrace]

Have you seen this site? I think they have quite a lot of materials. Let me know what you think. indonesian-online.com/

[@IrinaN865]

When in your native language words change depending on time, gender (Russian) I feel lack of information in languages where it doesn't happend (Thai language). But Thai language is very suatable for thai actors who wants to hide their personal life

[@guyfromthai8746]

💙💜💙

[@korawitwoonsin7547]

Tatabahasnya seperti bahasa thai kita ครับ

[@korawitwoonsin7547]

แต่ความยากของภาษาอินโดที่ใช้เป็นภาษากลางคือด้วยความที่มันมาจากภาศาลมลายูที่ผสมกับภาษาชนเผ่าทัองถิ่นมากมาย เช่นชวา ซุนดา ฯลฯ 😂😂

[@mustiemmi]

You are from TAİLAND YA DA TAYLANDLIMISIN çok merak ettimde

[@polyglotgrace]

Yes, I am from Thailand

[@normiewoo787]

It is true that there are many, many Indonesians who don't speak bahasa Indonesia as their mother tongue, but couldn't you just go visit someone for whom it is a mother tongue? According to Univ. of Washington, there are over 19 million Indonesians who do speak it as a mother tongue. I get that that's a small part of the population, and that you'd have to go out of your way to do that, but it is possible.

[@polyglotgrace]

Hello Normie, yes, I think it's totally possible. But so far all the indonesian I know can speak another language as their mother tongue.

[@Sungawakan]

It is impolite of them to speak in another language than Indonesien while you are present