Malay

I would like to learn Malay so I can better converse with people. I know a few greetings and a couple phrases but that is it. It is hard to know what I want to learn to say. Plus, at school we all speak English since it is an International School and not all people speak Malay. It is hard to practice during the day since I am busy teaching and working in an English speaking environment. When I am talking to people though sometimes it is hard, and we have to have another person come help translate some of the words. On the other hand I feel like sometimes people can switch to Malay when they have something private that they want to talk about and don't want me to understand. Sometimes I am glad I don't know what it going on. Just like at other school I have taught at, even though we all spoke English I am not one of those gossiping people, and I was left out of the loop, which was fine with me. I have to also remember that it will take me probably a couple years to speak, read, and write another language fluently, so I must be patient with myself.