Indonesia is a beautiful place filled with wonderful people. If you’ve ever been, you’ve probably felt the same way. But have you told them so? Foreigners aren’t expected to make any effort to learn Indonesian, particularly not in international hotspots like Jakarta and Bali. However, learning just enough of the language to complete everyday interactions and compliment your hosts is a very doable goal that will make your time in Indonesia much more special. Further than that, though, you also need to learn about the culture of Indonesian compliments. How do things work? What might be considered going too far, and what might be expected of you in various interactions? Learning this information and using it well will not only grease the... Show more

Getting angry in Indonesian is a difficult subject to talk about. Indonesians are, by and large, well-known for not getting very angry. The country often seems to tourists like a literal land of smiles. A very important word in Indonesian is santai, meaning "relaxed" or "at ease." If you're stressed or frustrated, and very clearly not santai, then you're probably going to alienate others. How about on TV, though? Have you ever seen Indonesian sinetron soap operas? They're filled with angry outbursts and furious rants at the world. So even though you might not see or hear it much in real life, Indonesian angry words and phrases definitely exist. If you want to take your Indonesian to the next level, you'd better learn them. Table of... Show more

There’s a lot to be said for being able to make good small talk in another language. Conversations can start up and keep going indefinitely with the right people. But what can you talk about? Perhaps you’ve tried talking about the weather and didn’t end up getting terribly far. Or perhaps you’ve already met someone in Indonesia and gotten along with them, but you don’t know what to talk about whenever you hang out. When something big happens in their life, you’ve got the perfect opening. For example, wishing them a happy birthday in Indonesian is a good way to open up new conversation topics (like what they want to do during this next year of their life, if they have special plans, etc.). Well-wishes, or ucapan in Indonesian, are... Show more

Right now, in just five minutes, you can give your Indonesian vocabulary a super-size boost. In just one regular-sized article, we’ve prepared for you a fantastic overview of popular Indonesian adjectives, plus the top 100 Indonesian adjectives you need for any situation. Looking for an example of Indonesian adjectives at work? We have plenty of those, too. With the isolating grammar of the Indonesian language, simply reading a lot of example sentences with these popular Indonesian adjectives is a great way to naturally assimilate syntax and vocabulary. Table of Contents A Quick Overview of Indonesian Adjectives List of the Top 100 Indonesian Adjectives Modifying Adjectives Conclusion 1. A Quick Overview of Indonesian... Show more

Read a couple of pop culture articles in English, and you’ll notice right away that Netflix is a pretty indelible part of Western entertainment these days. It’s almost like if you take a break from catching up on shows and movies, everybody will be speaking a totally different language when you come back. When you study a language, you’re going to be hard-pressed to avoid the pop culture that goes along with it. And on Netflix, Indonesia has tons of movies and TV series for you to enjoy already. But one of the biggest obstacles to people teaching themselves languages is convenience. Try to sign up for an Indonesian streaming service using an American bank card (and with shaky knowledge of Indonesian, at that) and you might want to... Show more

Many Indonesian learners who study Indonesian on their own forget—or rather, never learn—a certain conjunction despite its importance. Conjunctions in Indonesian (or any language, really) aren’t usually a topic of interest to many learners. Usually, they become accustomed to using alternate phrasings without having to take advantage of a conjunction. In fact, I’ve personally noticed that I tend to use one particular structure in all the foreign languages I study. But when writing a formal letter or trying to contact a local university in Indonesia, you’ll always have to go as fluff-free in your writing as possible—which is something you can’t fully accomplish without the use of conjunctions. It just goes to show that if you skip out... Show more

It’s 9 AM. You drive your motor scooter up to your favorite noodle soup place for breakfast, but with a cry of despair you find that it’s tutup—"closed." Scrawled on the sign is a phrase that you manage to make out as being "closed for national holiday." A national holiday? How were you supposed to know? This kind of situation is pretty common in Indonesia for foreigners. And one major cause can be traced to simple ignorance—not knowing how to talk about dates in Indonesian. It’s an easy skill to overlook when you’re juggling a bunch of Indonesian resources to get a handle on the different vocabulary words that seem to fill the air wherever you go. But it’s no less important for day-to-day life, and as it turns out, just a little... Show more

Any language student is going to recognize this assignment: Write a paragraph about your family. Say how old each person is and give their names. Perhaps it’s a ho-hum writing prompt, but it serves a really important purpose. As it turns out, people talk about their families all the time—and they definitely ask others about theirs. In Asian cultures, the family usually plays a much more important role than it does in Western cultures. This makes it practical to know how to talk about the family tree in Indonesian, fluently. Are you aware of all the vocabulary and usage that you’ll need in order to truly understand how Indonesians talk about their Indonesian family tree? Below you’ll find all the information you need about Indonesian... Show more

Everybody knows about the beautiful beaches and temples of Bali. Millions of people flock there every year, and the island is developing at an incredible speed. Did you know, though, that there’s a whole lot more to Indonesia—frequently referred to as the country of 1,000 islands—than just Bali? And the beautiful thing for the tourist who wants to see it all is that the effort to promote the national Indonesian language has been enormously successful. The vast majority of Indonesians are perfectly bilingual in at least one local language as well as standard Indonesian. So the visitor with Indonesian phrases for travelers under their belt gets to avoid the hassle of learning multiple local languages, and instead gets to experience the... Show more

I remember that one of the hardest things for me when I was actually living in Indonesia was using numbers automatically. Anybody can count through the numbers to ten in Indonesian—you can pick that up on the plane ride over. When you actually have to use these Indonesian numbers, though, things are probably a bit more tight. It’s probably hot, and there’s probably somebody behind you in line who doesn’t care at all that it’s your first time in an Indonesian restaurant. Can’t you just feel their gaze on the back of your head? Well, probably not, because Indonesians are famously polite and patient. Nevertheless, it’s not a situation you want to be in. You want to have those numbers down pat. And the best way to learn numbers in... Show more