Language Lessons in Bali

Reported: By Mum

We have found over the years if you know a little bit of lingo it can go a long way. We have encouraged the boys along the way to join in with us, with some very pleasing results. They of course can pick this up and more importantly retain these new words and phrases much better than us.

In Bali they speak two languages at least. Bahasa is the language of Indonesia, but in Bali everyone also speaks Balinese, which is specific to this region. Apparently this is much harder to learn, but what the heck...when in Rome, or should I say Bali.

We are lucky to have Yogi at the villa, he works with Nita and they look after us very well. It is common in Bali to have staff and although we found this very difficult to accept we soon got very used to it.

I thought it would be great to have Yogi teach the boys some phrases and he was brilliant, so patient with them and very engaging. They had a great time and couldn’t wait to try out the phrases they had learnt.

The boys wrote down some words they wanted to learn and Yogi made these into a short piece of dialogue. If you want to practice Balinese what better place to do it than in Bali.

The boys had great fun practicing on the staff at the villa. There were quite a few confused expressions at first! Yudi and Dollar, the gardeners, had no idea what was happening. They were so used the boys speaking English I think they thought it was some new language!

After a few attempts they were able to understand what Ben and Tom were saying. It was brilliant watching their expressions change and start to have a conversation with the kids.

Now each morning we greet everyone using these phrases. It is a great way to start the day.