Unit 5: Listening Task #4
Learning Basic Survival Phrases
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NOTE: The purpose of this listening task is not to learn Malay phrases,
but to use English to ask for information about another language
and make a few basic comparisons with another language and English.
As a warm of for this listening activity you could ask students to think
of any Chinese loan words in English and English loan words in Chinese. |
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Tom is a Taiwanese university student planning to make a trip to Malaysia and Brunei later this year. He is talking with Ray, an older classmate who lived in Brunei when he was in junior high school. Tom: I'm thinking of going to Malaysia and Brunei this summer and am interested in picking up a little Malay.Ray: Well, actually English is widely spoken in both countries, but it could be useful to learn a little Malay . Tom: How different is Malay from Indonesian? Ray: The languages are very close. Indonesian has a stronger Dutch influence than Malaysian. And both languages have many different dialects. Speakers of Indonesian can generally understand some Malay, vice versa. Tom: So is Malay difficult to prounounce? Ray: No - it is a simple language. There are only six vowels, two semi-vowels, and twenty-two consonants. Tom: OK. Let's see if I can learn a few simple words. How do you say "hello" in Malaysian? Ray: Most of the time, people just use the English word "hello" Since Malaysian was a British colony. In fact, there are a number of English loan words in the language. Tom: Such as? Ray: Such as "bas" for "bus", "basikal" for "bicycle", or "tayar" for "tire". Perhaps 10% of all words spoken my younger Malaysians come from English. Tom: One Malay word I have heard from time to time is "Terima Kasih". What's that mean? Ray: "Terima Kasih" means "thank you". Tom: So if someone says this to me, how should I answer? How do you say "You're welcome" in Malay? Ray: That's simple. You say "sama sama". Tom: "Sama sama" - that seems easy to remember. Ray: Yes. Many Malay words are repeated twice. Tom: I guess one word that I should learn to say is "I'm sorry". . . if I need to apologize in Malaysian, what should I say? Ray: One short word will do - "Maaf". Tom: Could you spell that for me? Ray: Yes. It's "M a a f". Tom: Thanks. One final question: how do you say "Good bye" in Malay? Ray: "Selamat Pluang". Tom: Could you repeat that? Ray: No problem. "Selamat Pluang". Tom: "Selamat Pluang" - how's my pronunciation? Ray: Good enough. |
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- Practical English 3 -
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copyright (c) 1999 by Ming Chuan University
Ver. 1.3 - Updated 29 July 1999
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