Last night, my husband told me.. “Bella doesn’t understand Malay”
and I was like.. “Come on.. That’s ridiculous. She understands Malay! Not so bad you know..”
“But she doesn’t know what mata is!”
Suddenly I feel dizzy…
Then I went to her bedroom.
“Bella, do you know what ‘ainun’ is? It’s a arabic word”
“Eyes, mommy”
“Do you know what is ‘mata’?
She ignored me.. OK that’s it. Who taught her ainun means eyes.. and forgot to teach her it’s also ‘mata’!!
Then I went back to my husband.. “We have to speak Malay to her.. We have no choice..” Hahahaha…
Then I went back to her room..
“Bella.. Tasha, mari tukar baju. Sudah malam, masa untuk tidur”
Hahahaha… what is wrong with my language! But I need to teach her proper Malay language, right? She is only 4 and a half. We still have time before she goes to sekolah kebangsaan… We can do this! Hahaha…
XO
BARELY SUPERMOMMY 
Hahahaha! So funny! Its okay doc, bella is clever, she will catch up fast to speak malay! No worries 😊
This also happen to my friend’s daughter. She can’t understand Malay even ‘makan’ also she don’t know what that is.
auww….that’s cute doc 😍😍
Hihi..so cute..dr.halina pon cute..ckp malay dh mcm bahasa dlm cartoon..😙
Hahaha… cartoon melayu pun tak cakap skema lagu tu… itu bahasa filem tahun 80-an.. “Roy.Roy… hati kau memang keras…” hahahha itu contoh je…
Hehe same situation with us doc! We teach colours in english but when we ask in malay he doesnt know.. Now i need to teach back in malay.. My son same age with bella.. When he was 2years ++ his atok ask him to sit by said “aqil duduk sini” he ignored her atok ..then her opah said ..”aqil sit!” ..he heard then go for sit.. Haha.. Adoiii….
Bersedia la mummy utk jadi kamus DBP bergerak.
Even we speak in malay 24/7..my son (5yo) tetap akan tanya maksud2 perkataan Bm to bm.
Cth “percaya tu apa mama?”,”terdesak tu apa?”
Ehhh byk lagi la..😂
Its okay doc.. Never too late to start…
My boys dah masuk primary automatic boleh ckp melayu fluenly. By age 4 tak faham lg bila age 5 they can understand but cannot speak. Good luck Bella and Tasha
It happens to my daughter doc , she grew up watching Disney Channel and we speak English to her . She was placed in second class when she was in standart 1 because of her low proficiency in BM , now she is in standart 4 and is still struggling but improved a lot . We write a lot of essays together at home to improve her vocabulary and i also make her watch Malay drama 😊
😅mine 4y 4mo..can speak malay,tamil n english..not so fluent n grammar xbrapa betul…i speak malay to her.. husband speak english..tokma n tokba speak tamil with her..pasni plan to hantar class arab n chinese plak…biar satu malaysia…😁😁😁
Doc..im jelous bella can speak english better than me..haha…doc jgn risau..as bahasa melayu teacher…once bella dah pegi g sekolah…nak x nak she must learn bm…persekitaran will help her to speak bm…but english if parent not teach from child might be ssh utk ank learn..
Doc, i started by teaching my son bahasa melayu .I thought he can pick up and will b using English 90% in his life or i would rather define it as ‘Singlish’ . When he was in kindergarten, his English sounds Malay-ish. (lol! dats what the tcr told me). Super kanchiong, i sent him to classes and brush up his English. Now, at the age of 9 his malay bina ayat pun tonggang terbalik. *pening*
OMG!! I’m having trouble with my son too. He’s in std 1 and he don’t understand instructions in bahasa during exams.. I’m almost faint!
I’ve commented something regarding my observation on my students on their language proficiency (it was a long one huhu)….alih-alih hilang isk iskkk…anyway, it’s never too late to teach your little girls 🙂
Ruqayya has just posted on….. Beli pun dapat pahala. Macamana tu?
Doc cuba bagi both of them watching upin n ipin..just an opinion harap dpt membantu utk diorg catch up some words.
my sister’s daughters are named Tasha and Bella too!
mother and daughter r so cute 🙂 do not worry Doc, mother-tongue language will never fade it catches fast in fact. My hubby is a Chinese but never speak mandarin to his boy, and I am a Malay and never speak Malay to my boy hehehe he ended up English as he claimed. At 6years old now , he does speak Malay but English slang… I just don’t get it from where it came from hahaha. Chill Doc, they will learn the mata soon enough.
me and sibling kat uma malay,no option ok..go to schhool..english take over.. i think u should do like that..goodluck!!
Its okay dont worry, nanti kat tadika/sekolah nak tak nak dia sendiri akan pandai cakap melayu dengan kawan-kawan. Kat rumah cakap english macam biasa.. huhu
Hahahahah comel gila!
Takpe doc, ajar pelan2..in syaa allah boleh.. Mcm kes anak saya, org kat rumah gunakan bahasa melayu..tapi sejak umur 2 thn, anak saya gemar guna bahasa inggeris lepas tengok Disney channel. Saya tak halang dia kuasai bahasa inggeris. Jadi setiap kali dia gunakan bahasa inggeris utk berckp atau buat pertanyaan, saya akan terjemahkn ke dlm bahasa melayu apa yg anak saya cakap sebelum membalas pertanyaan dia. Skrg nak masuk 3 tahun alhamdulillah.. dia tahu terjemahkan sendiri any permintaan dia ke dalam bahasa melayu atau bahasa inggeris.. sekiranya anak saya gunakn grammar yg salah dlm bahasa inggeris atau bahasa melayu..saya akan betulkan on-the-spot. Moga cara ni juga dpt membantu ibu-ibu yg lain. ☺
So cute! U should try to have a ‘Bahasa Day’, cakap Bahasa je for one whole day. Once a week. Another 6 days, English.
My son, when he was around 1 - 2 years old, dia faham English je, then balik kampung, atok nenek speak in Bahasa, only. Baru I ajar my son Bahasa. Hahaha. Have to.
Very cute! Think she’ll be fine once she goes to school. Although I will admit at one point, cikgu kata, karangan saya macam translate direct from English. Tapi last-last pun, SPM dapat A1 for BM. So jangan bimbang. Granted now my BM is very bad. Dah lama tak guna, dok kat US.
Doc..few years ago sy pernah solat d surau Plaza Angsana JB and suddenly sorang perempuan berpurdah dengan anak dia same age with Bella and also nenek dia duduk depan sy..They are singaporeans + Johorians..Surprisingly, her lil girl spoke English to her mum (wanita berpurdah) and bila time nak bercakap dengan nenek dia, that lil cute girl akan cakap Malay. She fluent both bahasa OMG!!!
So just alternate both language and not only using English only when communicate with them hehe..good luck!
I dont get why parents are surprised when their kids dont understand certain language (eh malay mandarin tamil etc), when the parents conciously or subconciously only speak English to their children. How can you expect your children to pick up the language? I am not condemning or anything, just my observation.
had the same problem with my eldest son, couldnt understand bahasa. we need to translate to him whenever we read bahasa malaysia story book with him. even his class teacher commented this to me. now he speak bahasa the proper way (what i mean by proper is, bahasa baku, ok). Even with his little brother. hehehe
I read somewhere about a mom who taught her kids Malay again because they are sooo used to English doc. What she did was, she allocated a day for Bahasa in a week. So it’s like every Sunday, their Bahasa Day. They’d speak Bahasa through out the day. But not a Baku one i guess..haha or it’ll sound funny in daily conversation then. haha..All the best B and T
owh Bella took an Arabic class ye. I thought she only enrolled for mandarin language class. Good job Doc (even she does not know malay yet. hehe)
Doc..penglman i dgn my eldest, we send him to kindergarten since 4y/o..of course main language english..when he started his stdr 1 at sek kebngsaan, his exam mmg merosot teruk..english subjeck A yg lain semua aduuhhh…rupanya dia xfaham cikgu ckp..hehehe..even maths pun in malay kan..soalan tanya perbezaan dia xtahu bila kita explain ckp different dia fhm..struggle juga kena start all over balik..beli buku cerita bahasa, pegi library..so, yg adiknya masa masuk 6 tahun saya dftr pra sekolah kt sek kebangsaan..alhamdulillah..
Salam dr,
Sekadar pendapat je…kita melayu kenalah paham cakap melayu. kalau dah semua anak2 kita speak english nanti kemudian hari siapa nak mengaku melayu. saya baca blog dr ajar anak english, arabic, mandarin tapi melayu tak paham. Pada saya pelik..maybe saya oldschool kot. saya minta maaf tapi pada saya kurang molek kat situ. Biar well balance like you said the first 7 years biar diorg belajar semua benda.
kami di rumah memang bercakap bahasa Inggeris setiap masa, tetapi itu tidak menjadikan kami bukan Melayu! Tolong kembangkan minda anda sebelum cuba membetulkan orang lain, and honestly thats the reason why Malays are bad in English, konon2 takut kurang Melayu
Good luck Dr. Good luck to Bella and Tasha too! InsyaAllah, they are smart girls. My son’s teacher told me to teach him Malay first then only English IF I speak Malay at home and people around him speak Malay. So, Alhamdulillah, after knows Malay (reading especially) the moment you want to switch to English will be easier. IF you speak English at home, then now its just about time to make them understand Malay. InsyaAllah All the BEST 🙂
Dear Doctor, I am sure Bella will be able to catchup fast. Insyallah,.. But allow me to highlight my concern regarding this issue. I understand that English is a very important language and nowadays, many malays, especially from the urban area speak English at home (like your goodself Dr.). I must say that most of kids from the urban are having no problem to understand English. But my concern is that how about those who are growing outside the urban area.
mak melayu and ayah melayu mesti la anak2 pandai cakap melayu, klau tak pandai cakap melayu nanti esok generasi baru cakap bahasa asing, masa tu bahasa melayu surah tiada di dunia, berkubur, alangkah sayang nya dibiarkan begitu, orang jepun bangga dengan bahasa jepun
Alhamdulillah I learnt from my friend’s mistake. Orang Thai kawin mat saleh. Nak sangat anak ikut ayah, bahasa Thai tak guna kat rumah. Anak kat rumah cakap English kat sekolah apatah lagi. Sekarang anak dah besar, menyesal tak ajar anak dari kecik cakap Thai Balik kampung susah nak berkomunikasi. Saya ada dua anak angkat bangsa Pakistan. Dua tahun pertama tak pandai sangat cakap Melayu sebab nanny cakap omputih, walau saya cakap melayu. Tahun ketiga ambik maid Indon dan 100% kitorang cakap melayu di rumah. Balik kampung sepupu pun suka sebab boleh berkomunikasi. Anak-anak sekolah antarabangsa sebab menetap di luar negara, tak perlu sangat nak ajar English. Bangga sangat sebab anak Pakistan saya boleh berbahasa Melayu. Sedih kadang-kadang ada bangsa Melayu di luar negara yang bangga anak tak boleh berbahasa Melayu. Bahasa menunjukkan bangsa. Bangsa Pakistan pun boleh!
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Hi Doc. Hope you remember Arissa, Bella’s group mate in Gymboree long time ago. Arissa claimed that she knows three languages. Indeed she speaks the languages separately. It helped that my late husband and I spoke English and Malay separately, and our nanny speaks Malay to the children. Arissa went to French kindergarten in Bern so she speaks the language like a native too. Now that we are back in Malaysia following my husband’s passing I’m clueless to where shall I send her for kindie unless we are moving to Paris (Arissa’s birth place) soon. I’m sure Bella can catch up with Malay. Maybe you can try OPOL (one parent one language) approach.