My battle with Verbs - A language so easy it’s difficult

It’s been a while since I did a language study update. I am still keeping it up, with about 20-30 minutes a day each of both Indonesian and Japanese.

While with Japanese I’m mostly studying media, for Indonesian I use duolingo and then practice sentence patterns that I pick up that I think are important. Sometimes I use them with friends and sometimes just on my own. Recently I’ve been studying verbs that can create more complex sentences than the usual Subject-verb-Object sentences. For example:

Berharap - hope

Berpikir - think

Berhenti - stop

I’m starting to think I might need to take a break from duolingo though just because verbs dont stick in my mind the same way adjectives and nouns do. I feel like i need some time to do some serious review. Indoensian verbs are all pretty similar with the same two suffixes ber- and -me. It might seem easier but then they all get mixed together in my mind.

Here are the verbs I need to review:

I think I’ve got about half down.

Huge thanks to @macchiata for giving me a great explaination. She taught me that dia laki laki means he and dia perempuam means she. I thought disnwas just gender neutral like in spoken mandarin.

She also taught me the difference between mengganti andmengubah:

Saya tidak mau mengganti baju saya (I don't want to change my clothes)

Saya tidak mau mengubah penampilan saya (I don't want to change my appearance )

20% payout on this post to her 😜

AND please welcome a new friend to Hive. She is a hip philosophical shoegazing badass mom from Indonesia. She is sharing her drawings and her thoughts, please check her out and give her some advice so she can enjoy this place. @fuziwizzi is her name. She is fun!

Lastly, here is some writing practice:

Saya mencoba mengingat kata kerja. Kata kerja bahasa Indonesia semua mirip. Kamu berpikir itu mudah? Itu sedikit sulit.

(I am teying to remember verbs. Indonesian verbs are all similar. Do you think it’s easy? It’s a little hard.)

Saya membuka duolingo setiap hari. Saya berlatih lima belas menit. Setelah itu, saya melihat kata kata baru. Saya membuat kalimat.

(I use duolingo every day. I review 15 minutes. After that I look at the words. I make sentences.)

Saya ingin mengunjungi indonesia. jika saya berbicara, saya akan ingat. Jika mendengarkan, saya akan ingat. Saya terlalu sibuk. Saya berharap saya bisa pergi ke indonesia.

(I want to visit Indonesia. If I speak, I will remember. If I listen, I will remember. I am very busy. i hope i can go to Indonesia)