Job Discussion Forums

[gajasimha]

Hey all. I'm going to be getting my CELTA in Thailand in less than a month, and the prospect of jobhunting is looming large. I know that I have plenty of options, but I've decided to try to aim things toward my future goals. I intend on getting an MA in Malay Studies at NUS in Singapore, and possibly a PhD in their new Cultural Studies program. (Yes, English teaching is more of a backup skill, though if I didn't really like it, I wouldn't be doing it.)

So... I'm hoping to be able to live and teach somewhere where I can work on bringing my Bahasa Melayu skills to a higher level. Unfortunately, that's trickier than it sounds.

Malaysia is out as I'm under 25. (From what I've read -- and my sources could be mistaken -- that's the lower limit for a work visa.)

Brunei is out as I only have 6 months of classroom experience.

Singapore is a huge question mark. It would be my first choice of a place to live and work. I speak near-fluent Tamil in addition to my okay Malay and had an absolute ball as a tourist. My cousin, who did a year as an exchange student at NUS, has encouraged me to try my luck. However, snooping on the boards here has given me mixed signals. (I'm going to post there anyway.)

Thailand's south has a significant Malay-speaking population. Yes, they speak a bizarre dialect (vis a vis the 'standard') but something is better than nothing. (Perhaps this is changing with TV/radio/internet from the metropoles, too.)

Indonesia has similar advantages and disadvantages. It would probably look better on a CV, though.

Does anybody living in these places have any thoughts? Of course, I would like to be making more money than not, but I live frugally and get to bed at a sensible hour. Nightlife is a non-issue. As to quality of city life... After living in India and Cambodia, I'm pretty hard to faze. A modicum of safety would be nice -- I'm prickly and streetwise, but I still have hips and white skin under my baggy attire.

Dunno if anybody's going to respond to this, but I figured I'd cast my line anyway.

[Serious_Fun]

[Hod]

I speak intermediate German, so I'm not a total language learning numpty. But after years and years in Malaysia and even having a Malaysian other half, my Malay still sucks the big one. The trouble is that most Malaysians speak decent English and aren't interested in conversing with some whitey in Malay. It just ain't gonna happen.

Saying that, you'll have better luck practising Malay on the East Coast, but it's such a yawnfest there you'll likely bus it to KL every weekend anyway.

I noticed, was jealous even, that people who'd previously lived/worked in Indonesia spoke Bahasa far better than I ever will. Go there.

[ghost]

I studied Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia for 8 days intensive in Yogyarkarta. It is a very good school, and cheap.

Try this: http://www.puribahasa.net


Yes, in Indonesia, you will 'acquire' Bahasa skills much faster compared with Malaysia, because the level in English in Indonesia is much lower.

I was only in Indonesia for 3 weeks (first time), and can now get by in Bahasa at a decent elementary level. People in Indonesia will be delighted to speak with you in Bahasa Indonesia, or any other regional language they possess.

I am intrigued by your fluency in Tamil. I spent a few weeks in Sri Lanka, and found Tamil a very difficult language to learn. Did you learn to read the script? How long did it take you to acquire fluency in Tamil and where did you study the language? There are very few caucasians who speak fluent Tamil. That is a rare skill.

Ghost in Korea

[Jati]

Why don't you do your Malay studies degree in Malaysia? The National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM) has a Malay studies department. By studying there, you can also take their Intensive Malay classes. I know several people who have taken the intensive classes and although not as well run as in the west, these people have become functionally fluent within a one-year period.

I took a six-week intensive course at the Universiti Malaya back in 1996 and it got me jump-started in Malay. It wasn't until I moved to the east coast in 2000 (yawn-fest ), that I began to improve my Malay rapidly. After several years hearing and using Malay daily, I now am fluent enough that I teach three engineering subjects in Malay to Malay college students. They may laugh from time to time at my choice of words, but a few have said that they like my creative use of their native language.

While it is true, as some people have posted, that it is difficult to get an English-teaching job here due to the local competition, it is not impossible. My college has often looked for a foreigner who could stand the east coast living conditions, but very few appear interested, and the one woman that they hired lasted only six months. (Amazingly, she was 15 years inside Malayisa and married to a Malay, but not yet assimilated into the Malay lifestyle.)

I would be wary of studying in Singapore due to the higher cost, and the prevalence of English. Of course, you could find some Malays in Gelang district to practice with, but English-teaching jobs may be harder to come by in that Big Mall at the End of the Peninsula.

I would also caution against studying Malay in Indonesia if you want to end up in Malaysia, or else truly want to learn Malay. The Malay language derives from the southern part of Sumatra and the islands around Batam and became the base for both Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia (literally, national language of Indonesia and Malaysia). But, the two -BI and BM- are only about 60-70% cognate (related words) and a Malaysian can immediately detect that you studied Malay in Indonesia. (And they mostly look down on Indonesians.) Something to consider.

Just my opinion.

Teak