Learn Hardcore Malay: Kami belajar bahawa kerja susah seperti menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci periuk juga penting sehingga rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa untuk semua orang. - We learn that hard work like sweeping, wiping, and washing pots is also important so that the house becomes a comfortable place for everyone.

In this sentence, kami implies the speaker is talking about their own group (for example, their family, their class, or their team), and the person being spoken to is not part of that group.

What does bahawa do here, and can it be left out?

Bahawa is a conjunction that works like English that in sentences like “We learned that hard work is important.”

Kami belajar bahawa kerja susah... juga penting...
= We learned that difficult tasks... are also important...

If you remove bahawa, the meaning changes:

Kami belajar kerja susah...
This sounds more like “We learned (how to do) difficult tasks...” (practical training), not “We learned that difficult tasks are important.”

So:

To mean “learn that ... is true”, you normally keep bahawa (or in informal speech you might hear yang instead: Kami belajar yang kerja susah...).
To mean “learn to do something”, you don’t use bahawa: Kami belajar menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci periuk.

Why is it kerja susah and not kerja yang susah or something like kerja-kerja susah?

In Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun:

kerja susah = hard/difficult work
kerja berat = heavy work

Kerja susah here is a general phrase meaning “work that is difficult” or “tasks that are hard.”

You could say:

kerja yang susah – more like “the work that is difficult”, a bit more specific or emphatic.
kerja-kerja susah – explicitly plural: “hard tasks / all kinds of hard jobs.” The repetition kerja-kerja emphasizes plurality but is not required.

Malay normally doesn’t have to mark plurals, so kerja susah is enough to cover “hard jobs/tasks” in general.

Does kerja susah specifically mean “housework,” or just “hard work” in general?

Literally, kerja susah means “difficult work / hard tasks” in general.

In this sentence, the list menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci periuk clearly refers to housework, so kerja susah is “hard housework” from context.

If you want to be explicit about housework, you might say:

kerja rumah tangga – housework / domestic chores
kerja rumah – can mean “housework”, but in Malaysia it often also means “homework” (schoolwork to do at home), so context is important.

Here, kerja susah focuses more on the difficulty than on the type (“work that is hard,” namely sweeping, wiping, washing pots, etc.).

What is the function of seperti here? How is it different from sebagai?

Seperti here means “such as / like” and introduces examples:

kerja susah seperti menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci periuk
= “difficult tasks such as sweeping, wiping, and washing pots”

Seperti is used for comparisons or lists of examples.

Sebagai, on the other hand, means “as / in the role of”, e.g.:

Dia bekerja sebagai guru. = He/she works as a teacher.
Kami menggunakan dapur sebagai tempat berkumpul. = We use the kitchen as a gathering place.

You cannot replace seperti with sebagai in this sentence; sebagai would be wrong here.

Are menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci verbs or nouns here? Why do they have the meN- prefix?

They are verbs in their standard active form, using the meN- prefix:

menyapu – to sweep (from base sapu)
mengelap – to wipe (related to lap)
mencuci – to wash/clean (from cuci)

Malay verbs are not conjugated for tense (no -ed, -ing), so the meN- form is used for many active actions: “sweep”, “wiping”, “to sweep”, etc., depending on context.

After seperti, we just list the actions in their normal verb form. In English, you’d probably translate them as gerunds:

menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci periuk
→ “sweeping, wiping, and washing pots”

Why does only mencuci have an object (periuk) but menyapu and mengelap don’t? Is that okay?

Yes, that’s normal and acceptable.

In Malay, if the object is obvious or not important, it’s often left out:

menyapu (lantai) – sweeping (the floor)
mengelap (meja / tingkap) – wiping (the table / windows)
mencuci periuk – washing pots

In this sentence, the writer chose to specify periuk for mencuci to make the example more concrete, but left the objects of menyapu and mengelap understood from context (typical household surfaces).

So the sentence still sounds natural: it’s just a list of common chores.

What does juga do here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Juga means “also / too” and here it emphasizes that these difficult chores are also important (maybe in addition to other things you’ve already learned are important).

In the original:

... kerja susah ... juga penting sehingga ...
≈ “... these hard tasks are also important so that ...”

Common positions:

Kami juga belajar bahawa... – We also learned that...
Kerja susah ... juga penting. – Hard tasks are also important.

You usually put juga before the adjective (penting) or after the subject / topic. You would not usually say penting juga sehingga in formal writing, though it may appear in speech; juga penting is the clearer and more standard pattern here.

What exactly does sehingga mean here? Is it “until” or “so that”? Could we use supaya instead?

Sehingga has two main uses:

until / up to the point
- Dia bekerja sehingga lewat malam. = He worked until late at night.
so that / to the extent that (result)
- Dia sangat marah sehingga menangis. = He was so angry that he cried.

In your sentence:

... juga penting sehingga rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa ...

Here sehingga expresses a result: these hard chores are important to the point that / such that the house becomes a comfortable place.

You could say:

... juga penting supaya rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa...

Supaya focuses more on purpose/intention: “(we do them) so that the house becomes...”.
Sehingga focuses more on the outcome/result: “(they are important) such that the house becomes...”. Both are grammatical, but the nuance is slightly different.

How does rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa work grammatically? Why use menjadi and not just rumah selesa?

Structure:

rumah – subject: “the house”
menjadi – verb: “to become / to turn into”
tempat yang selesa – complement: “a comfortable place”

So literally:
rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa = the house becomes a comfortable place.

If you say just rumah selesa, it’s more like a simple description: “(a) comfortable house.” There is no sense of change.

Using menjadi shows a change of state or result:

Dia menjadi marah. = He/she became angry.
Air menjadi sejuk. = The water became cold.
Rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa. = The house becomes a comfortable place.

In this context, doing the chores leads to the result that the house becomes comfortable for everyone.

Why do we say tempat yang selesa instead of just tempat selesa?

Tempat yang selesa literally means “a place that is comfortable.”

Here yang links the noun tempat (“place”) to its description selesa (“comfortable”), forming a noun phrase:

tempat yang selesa – a place that is comfortable
orang yang rajin – a person who is hardworking
rumah yang besar – a house that is big

You can say tempat selesa, especially in more informal or concise styles, and people will understand it as “comfortable place.” However:

With a simple, short adjective, both tempat selesa and tempat yang selesa are possible.
With longer descriptions, yang becomes more necessary:
- tempat yang sangat selesa dan bersih (sounds natural)
- tempat sangat selesa dan bersih (sounds off / incomplete)

Using yang here is a standard, slightly more formal way to say it, and fits the style of the whole sentence.

What does untuk semua orang mean exactly, and could we use bagi instead of untuk?

Untuk semua orang means “for everyone / for all people.” It expresses who benefits from the comfortable home.

... rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa untuk semua orang.
= “... the house becomes a comfortable place for everyone.”

You can often replace untuk with bagi in this type of phrase:

... tempat yang selesa bagi semua orang.

Both are grammatical. Nuance:

untuk is very common and neutral: “for, intended for, for the benefit of”.
bagi can sound a bit more formal or written in some contexts, and is also used in “from the point of view of”:
- Bagi saya, ini penting. = For me / in my opinion, this is important.

In this sentence, untuk semua orang is the most natural and common phrasing.

Can you break down the whole sentence structure in simple parts?

Yes. The sentence:

Kami belajar bahawa kerja susah seperti menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci periuk juga penting sehingga rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa untuk semua orang.

Breakdown:

Kami belajar bahawa...
– “We (not including you) learned that...”
kerja susah seperti menyapu, mengelap, dan mencuci periuk
– subject of the inner clause: “hard tasks such as sweeping, wiping, and washing pots”
juga penting
– predicate: “are also important”
sehingga rumah menjadi tempat yang selesa
– result clause: “so that / such that the house becomes a comfortable place”
untuk semua orang
– prepositional phrase: “for everyone”

If we simplify the core idea:

Kami belajar bahawa [kerja susah ...] juga penting.
These chores are important sehingga the house menjadi a comfortable tempat untuk semua orang.