Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Malay Complete Course (Book + 2CD) (TY: Complete Courses)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is hard to find a decent Malay language course, in particular with audio, so I opted for this one to be send across the Atlantic to me.

The lessons are very helpful to learn everyday Malay step-by-step and to practice pronunciation. Overall this is a good language course. The reference part of the book (dictionary) on the other hand leaves out many words I feel I should know... so buying a real dictionary in addition to this course is mandatory, if you want to get the most out of it.

It is helpful to have a proper textbook of sorts and the cd is ok but there are so many errors in this book it can be really frustrating. The examples often use vocabulary the book has not yet covered. The exercise dialogues on the CD do not always match the book. Even if they are the same as the listening transcripts in the book, the questions are wrong or use different vocabulary in the main text (an example: In a mock job interview the book gives the vocabulary for speaking "unclearly" and "with a heavy accent" but the dialogue itself uses the terms "smoothly" and "softly" and the former is not even in the glossary at the end of the book.)

In one exercise you are supposed to identify the family the speakers are talking about from several pictures but the pictures are wrong (ie a son and daughter instead of two daughters.)The authors frequently ask questions in the exercises about characters who have not yet been mentioned in the book (in a dialogue between Zamaini, Baharom and Davies they ask if "Wong" is married.) I am only in Unit 5 and I have already found errors in English (ie saying "noun" instead of "verb") and possibly in Malay (as in a dialogue which says all the brothers and sisters work already but then says that the youngest brother is 4 years old!!)

Moreover the language in this book seems overly formal, mostly business related and somewhat outdated. (I would assume it is no longer necessary to ask a potential secretary if she knows how to do email, nor is it necessary for most of us to know how to ask that). Teach Yourself Malay does not get to numbers until unit 5 and consistently uses the most formal language rather than what you are likely to hear people say. Thomas Oey's Everyday Malay seems much more accessible and useful although it does not have a CD. There is also a free online web course that covers the very basics with audio clips if you google "Bahasa Malay Course"

The book is not bad at all. However, its too formal. You may need a malay speaker to guide you along with pronunciatian and sentence formation. I speak the language and bought this for my hubby. He finds it difficult to remember, perhaps just the way the book is set up.