Hi everyone!
It's me Zarina, your friend from Malaysia.
How are you doing?
I hope you are doing great practising the phrases that I have taught so far.
After all the greetings that we have practised, it is now the time to move on to another part of the conversation.
Today I will be teaching you on how to ask for someone's general condition.
It is normal to ask this to anyone even if that person is a stranger.
But don't walk around repeating this phrases to just about anyone on the streets, okay? :)
Whenever you greet someone with good morning or good afternoon or similar greetings, it is a norm to ask about someone's general condition of the day.
Normally in English, we will say - How are you?
Well, in Malay we would equally say - Apa Khabar?
Again this phrase is a combination of two words which has it's individual meanings. Let's start to know them, shall we?
Apa means What
Khabar means News
Off we go to the manner of pronouncing Apa Khabar.
A - pa
Kha - bar
A is pronounced as A in ‘Amor’ in Spanish. This is because English speakers tend to pronounce A differently than in Malay.
If you learn Spanish , you will find that many pronunciation in Spanish are quite similar in Malay Language.
Pa as in papa. Notice that I did say it as ‘Pe’ not ‘Pa’. In this case, it is more similar to the situation of pronouncing ‘Per’ as in ‘Person’ in English.
Kha can be pronounced as 'Ka', dropping the h or silencing the h.
There is no hard sound in Malay language as in J/G pronounced in Spanish.
While bar, you can pronounced it as ba in baba black sheep song.
You may removed the r sound here. It is more natural not to pronounce the r letter at all.
Although the word Khabar itself is originated from the word خبر in Arabic, however the pronunciation of Khabar in Malay is not as hard as in Arabic.
FYI, there are many words in Malay that are from Arabic language origin.
Allow me to pronounce Apa Khabar a few times, okay?
Repeat after me.
This time, I will combine the phrase that we have learned before in Unit 1 and the other units as well.
Do you still remember what we have learned before?
Selamat pagi. Apa khabar?
Selamat tengah hari. Apa khabar?
Selamat petang. Apa khabar?
What is the reply for Apa Khabar?
It is Khabar baik.
It means, I am fine or I am well or I am good.
There are a few versions of the answer for Apa khabar?:
Khabar baik
Baik-baik
Ok je
Boleh lah
Alhamdulillah
Tak sihat sangat
Biasa-biasa je
Well, this might be too advance for some of you out there but remember that to speak like the natives, you need to nail these phrases down to understand them like locals.
I will say them again, and will wait a few seconds so you may repeat them with me.
After the other person has replied your Apa Khabar? Then you may continue with your needs or requests.
For example:
You: Selamat Pagi.
Person A: Selamat Pagi.
You: Apa Khabar?
Person A: Khabar baik.
You: <Say your needs or requests>
OR
You: Selamat Pagi. Apa khabar?
Person A: Selamat Pagi. Khabar baik.
You: <Say your needs or requests>
How is the lesson today?
It is easy right?
Want to practise speaking Malay Language?
The easiest way is to get someone native to the language to assist you. If you are interested, you may contact me on Preply for an hour lesson to practise speaking Malay and to improve your pronunciation.
Ok then, I hope that this lesson serves you well.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel.
Sampai jumpa lagi!