Imagine being frozen when you are unsure of how to give a reply when someone asks you a question. You think hard to figure out the words that they are saying by translating them to your native language in your mind but you simply cannot comprehend what the person is saying based on their speaking speed and accent.
This is why effective listening learning plays such an important role to foster a smooth flow and mutual understanding during conversations.
Find out how you can be good at listening and practice it consistently in your everyday life while learning Malay.
Listening- Important language component to master the Malay language
It is absolutely essential to start practising your listening in your everyday life. You can listen to Malay anytime and anywhere you want with the right resources. Whether it is a Youtube video, a radio station, a podcast or even recorded Malay lessons, it is very easy to pick it up.
Next, it is also extremely cost-effective to practice listening in the long run. You can easily access many Malay listening resources from the Internet or when you are watching Malay news or movies on your mobile devices. You can also practice listening when you are doing other things.
Bear in mind that this applies to passive listening examples such as listening to Malay songs or Malay podcasts when you are commuting and not when you are listening intentionally during a language test.
To practice listening in Malay regularly, make sure that various audio files are accessible to you whenever and wherever you are. You can also purchase and download audiobooks or podcasts on your mobile devices. It is important to make sure it is easy to start and sustain your Malay listening practices by making it a ritual in your daily life, in a natural way.
Source: Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
When you are interacting with your Malay teacher or Malay speaking friends, make good use of voice note recordings so that you can listen to the right pronunciations and tones. You can always listen to your voice and they can immediately give you feedback while communicating. As you practice listening, you will also improve your speaking in Malay and overall comprehension skills.
Why does spoken Malay and written Malay sound so different?
A conversation can only go on smoothly when you and the person you are with can listen and give appropriate responses back and forth. If you are not able to comprehend or familiarize yourself with how the Malay language is spoken, you will not be interested to carry on to communicate and let alone, speak fluently as a reply.
Listening is also about elements such as speaking speed, how you pause, how you emphasizee certain words in a sentence. It is also how you respond to various sounds and tones of the language. We also tend to speak faster in our respective native languages.
At times, we might be taken aback when spoken Malay sounds so different from what we usually learn during normal Malay lessons. Conversational Malay language usually consists of a lot of local slang (some are not listed in the dictionary) which is a mixture of “rojak” and Bahasa Pasar.
Sometimes even after months of learning Malay, you may find that you are still unable to understand normal conversations. Don’t be discouraged as it usually takes time for you to develop a knack for listening to a language that is not your native language.
There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, you might not have the necessary vocabulary. Secondly, you may require more pronunciation practice. Start from these two and you will see great improvement in your Malay listening.
Things to avoid while practising listening if you are a beginner in learning Malay
While reading and listening are often done simultaneously, there are many specific ways to enhance your reading comprehension. One thing to avoid if you are just starting to learn Malay is to solely focus on listening to CD or book references as most texts are scripted and may sound "artificial" or formal.
In terms of using media to learn a language, make sure that you do not use them as the main source of your listening practice. It acts as a good bonus listening activity only when you are more confident and accustomed to regular Malay dialogues and phrases.
In the beginning, some Malay language learners may try watching the same movie twice, with or without subtitles or even writing while listening. The first round may seem interesting, but it is not a sustainable and convenient way to begin learning in the long run. You can easily get demotivated, distracted because you have to spend a lot of time and energy while doing that.
Source: BBC
If you love to listen to the news, you should go easy on them as you can be taken aback by media jargon and professional terms used by journalists and news announcers. When you are overburdened with difficult words, you might end up not enjoying the listening session as you initially expected.
How listening acts as a bridge of connection during conversations
Stephen Covey once said, “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” In language learning, both elements are important to create conversations and build meaningful relationships.
To have a good and smooth reply, there is a need to consistently increase your listening comprehension. Sometimes good listening requires you to learn new vocabulary, analyse the sentence structure, identify the key points of the message and even understand several cultural cues.
When it comes to learning Malay, you must incorporate diverse Malay listening practices in your everyday life. The art of listening in a foreign language is built on various factors. Firstly, for the Malay language, there is sound and speech recognition which applies to mastering new words plus their correct pronunciations in terms of syllables.
Secondly, the Malay language is spoken differently in different regions in Malaysia and South East Asia, leading to various accents of the same language. Next, there are also different styles of speaking for various occasions and even informal slang that is used by native speakers.
There are several listening techniques that you can apply to improve your listening in Malay.
Get started with tuition in Malay on Superprof!
Difference between active listening and passive listening in language learning
Active listening and passive listening are equally important when learning a language. Active listening is used when you need to acquire specific information, answer questions and for analysing information. For instance, when you are working at a restaurant and taking a delivery order or when you are listening to a lecture or class. If you are interested to work in the service industry one day, you need to have great listening skills.
Similarly, active listening is essential for you to communicate effectively when you are learning the Malay language. One way to exercise active listening is to summarize the content according to important themes and ideas of what you have listened to. You can do this more than once if the listening content is around 30 minutes.
On the other hand, passive listening does not require giving a response and it is mostly used when you are multitasking. Start practising passive listening by listening to normal conversations when you are doing something that does not require a lot of attention.
Source: Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels
The key is to make sure you are familiarised with Malay words, sentences and conversations. You can do the Maths, if you practice passive listening for 30 minutes per day, in one year you will have already listened to 10950 hours of real-life conversations. In the long run, this will help to increase your vocabulary retention, as you will also get to match different vocabularies with contexts and settings.
If you still prefer to watch a Malay drama or movie for listening exercise at home, you can choose to pay attention to your favourite scenes and pick them up naturally when you are doing other stuff. Another good way is to listen to music and watch short clips on Youtube on your favourite topics such as cooking, DIY or travelling.
Experience comprehensive Malay learning with Superprof
With the help of a Malay teacher, you can discover systematic and effective methods to improve your listening skills comprehensively and help you to go forward from a beginner to an intermediate level.
Also, regular assessments will be given for each language component. This means when you are taking your Malay lessons, you will not just be taught to read well but also how to write effectively in Malay. Whether you are preparing for an examination, or you are learning Malay as a second language for personal growth, you can get a comprehensive learning experience that is flexible and effective.
During your lessons, you will also get to practice your speaking and listening skills for various situations. Your Malay teacher will be your best Malay practice partner to improve your conversations.
As you converse with your Malay teacher, you can receive immediate feedback about your pronunciation, grammar and overall fluency. For instance, you can improve greatly in these two language components by participating in role plays, where you get to practice some of the most commonly used phrases or dialogues for various settings.
Become a master of listening and understanding in the Malay language by starting your Malay lessons with Superprof today!
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