Indonesians, by and large, are nice people. They treat foreigners very well, to be sure. Indonesia isn’t one of the hottest Asian travel destinations for nothing! But there is one area where they could treat foreigners a little nicer: the Indonesian language itself. They’re glad if you can speak it and will treat you well because of that, absolutely. They just don’t think you can get good. They’ll tend to always simplify their speech and never tell you about the many mistakes you’re making. To avoid this misfortune, you’ll need to prove yourself with an Indonesian language proficiency test. Even then, it’s no guarantee that Indonesians will take your skills that seriously. After all, there are thousands of foreigners in Bali... Show more

You may be surprised at how fast you can start speaking Indonesian. Once you get a good stock of vocabulary, all you need to memorize is a handful of customizable Indonesian sentences. Then, you can easily make people think you’re good at the language. In Indonesian, there are some fascinating grammatical aspects concerning verbs, but for communication purposes, you can leave them out entirely—plenty of Indonesians do this, too!  So picking up Indonesian through patterns is pretty easy. In this article, we’ll outline ten different sentence patterns ready for your plug-and-play use. By the time you get to the end, you’ll probably start noticing these patterns (and more) all over the place in your studies! Table of Contents ... Show more

Nobody really sets out to memorize a bunch of adverbs. It might even be the least exciting part of speech – but there must be a reason we learn them! The reason is, if you ever want to describe something with any kind of detail, you’re going to need adverbs. Indonesian adverbs are easy, and for every one you memorize, you’ll open up a world of language possibilities. Table of Contents How Do You Do It? Numbers and Amounts Why Did You Do It? How Often And When? Showing Tense A Lot Or A Little? Like This or Like That? Where Did You Put it? How Likely Is It? Conclusion 1. How Do You Do It? This is the classic adverb format – you modify a verb to explain how you’re doing... Show more

You asked, so we provided—easy-to-follow instructions on how to set up your electronic devices to write in Indonesian! We’ll also give you a few excellent tips on how to use this keyboard, as well as some online and app alternatives if you prefer not to set up a Indonesian keyboard. Table of Contents Why it’s Important to Learn to Type in Indonesian Setting up Your Computer and Mobile Devices for Indonesian How to Activate an Onscreen Keyboard on Your Computer How to Change the Language Settings to Indonesian on Your Computer Activating the Indonesian Keyboard on Your Mobile Phone and Tablet Indonesian Keyboard Typing Tips How to Practice Typing Indonesian 1. Why it’s Important to Learn to Type in Indonesian Learning a... Show more

Indonesian verbs are both very different from English verbs and very easy to learn. How can that be? Well, it turns out that Indonesian syntax is pretty close to English syntax, and the verb complications simply add extra shades of meaning—we're not dealing with huge differences here. Since verbs are indisputably important to everything you want to say in Indonesian, here's a list of the most common Indonesian verbs, divided into categories based on both grammatical function and meaning. We're not even going to explain very much here about the grammar. By the time you get to the end, you'll be amazed at how much you’ve picked up! Ready to learn Indonesian verbs? Let’s get to it. Table of Contents Warmup: Common... Show more

Is Indonesian easy or hard? Both. It’s hard because the structure and organization of the language is quite different from that of English or other European languages. But it’s easy because you don’t have to remember a lot of complicated rules—you can pick up most of the differences just by looking at examples. Take Indonesian pronouns for example. You can actually get further in Indonesian without pronouns than you might imagine. When people talk to you, though, this is something you’ve really got to know. And Indonsian language pronouns are different from those in English, by a wide margin.  Is that going to be hard? Only one way to find out. Table of Contents The Standard Indonesian Personal Pronouns Using... Show more

Do you remember the moment you fell in love with languages? Do you desire to learn or advance in Indonesian quickly and effectively? Then you need a Indonesian tutor. A common question that first-time language-learners ask is "Where do I begin?" The answer? Guidance. For native English-speakers who want to learn Asian languages, for example, timelines provided by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute can appear discouraging. However, defeating these odds is not unheard of. If you want to beat the odds yourself, one of the best learning options is a subscription to Premium PLUS from Innovative Language. As an active Premium PLUS member of JapanesePod101.com and KoreanClass101.com myself, I have an enjoyable experience learning at an... Show more

There's a sort of balance between the different languages of the world. Some have extremely complex systems of verb changes and noun changes, requiring you to think about every last little detail of who does what in the sentence so that you can get all the endings right. Others say to themselves, "You know, all those extra grammatical endings aren't for me." So they simply put their words in a line and never change them. The tradeoff is that these "simpler" languages have very inflexible word order. So what does this look like in Indonesian word order?  Well, if you switch the position of a few words in a sentence in, say, Russian, the grammatical endings will keep you informed about what you need to know. If you do the same in... Show more

*ring ring* That’s your alarm clock. It’s time to learn Indonesian! Hey, do you know how to say that phrase—or, really, any phrases about time in Indonesian? You should! If you’re learning Indonesian for travel, you’re definitely going to want to know how to ask about time. Good luck getting on buses or trains at the right time if you don’t know how to ask when they leave! And if you’re planning on a longer stay there, well, that’s even more of a reason to learn how to tell time in Indonesian. Imagine making a restaurant reservation or calling to ask when a store closes if you don’t know how to talk about time. Pretty tricky, right? This article is definitely for you. Table of Contents Asking for the Time Talking... Show more

Did you get lost again? In the sweltering heat of an Indonesian dry season, it’s no fun to not know where you’re going. (The rainy season is arguably worse!) Going to Indonesia and learning some of the language to help you prepare is an excellent step you can take for a great trip. But did you remember to learn about directions in Indonesian too? Suppose your motorcycle taxi driver has heard of your guesthouse, but never actually been. Or suppose your class is starting in ten minutes and you’re still wandering around the same university streets. Table of Contents Basic Cultural Notes and Phrases Pull Out Your Map and Learn the Compass Points City Vocabulary and Reference Points Phrases for Directions in... Show more