When you travel to a foreign country for the first time, one of the main attractions is the restaurants. Even if you start with something familiar like a fast-food chain, foreign restaurants always have something intangibly different about them. That makes them excellent places to practice your language skills. Besides satisfying your cravings, ordering food in a foreign language is the perfect hurdle to clear on your way toward proficiency. It’s authentic language usage, but in a small and controlled environment where you can be forgiven for making mistakes. In this article, you’ll learn about the many tasty Indonesian foods on offer, as well as some practical restaurant phrases to help you get by. Table of Contents What... Show more

You might have heard that Indonesian is an easy, accessible language, but have you ever wondered why? Since you’re considering learning Indonesian, you probably want to know what’s involved with the process. Are you going to have to memorize long declension tables, write out conjugations a zillion times, or cram adjective endings into your memory? None of the above. Indonesian grammar doesn’t require you to think in the ways that European grammar does. Instead, it’s a different challenge that people find refreshing and stimulating. In this article, we’ll break down some of the major Indonesian grammar rules that make it particularly interesting to learn (and not particularly challenging!). You’ll soon see that understanding... Show more

When you start learning Indonesian, being able to read popular books or watch famous speeches might seem a lifetime away.  All those words you have to learn! All that new grammar to wrap your head around!  Fortunately, there’s a shortcut.  By studying interesting Indonesian quotes with English translations and equivalents, you’ll start to see the connections between the two languages. (Not to mention that you’ll also start to sound very well-read!) Table of Contents Quotes About Success Quotes About Life Quotes About Time Quotes About Love Quotes About Family Quotes About Friendship Quotes About Food Quotes About Health Quotes About Language Learning Conclusion 1.... Show more

These are beautiful times for language learners. Even ten years ago, language learning materials on the Internet were nothing like they are today. We’ve had YouTube for a decade and a half, and only in the last several years has it become possible—or even likely—that someone could learn a language mostly through YouTube. If you’ve set out to learn Indonesian, YouTube may have you feeling left out at this point. Why should other language learners get all the fun? Never fear, though. Today’s article is going to introduce you to the top ten YouTube channels for Indonesian learners! Later, we’ll show you why IndonesianPod101’s channel is the best source for learners at every level. → Before starting, check out our vocabulary list... Show more

Many aspiring learners wonder whether the Indonesian language is easy to learn, and if so, why more people don’t speak it. You see, Indonesian is not a very commonly learned language for most of the world.  Sure, there are people in Southeast Asia that pick some of it up, it’s a growing subject in Chinese and Japanese universities, and it’s long been one of the most popular foreign languages for Australians—but you hardly see it on lists of languages people want to learn.  That’s a shame, really, because learning the language opens you up to so many wonderful things. Visiting the country when you can speak the language is much, much more freeing than being limited to an interpreter or dealing with whoever can speak some English. ... Show more

There’s a certain face that people make when they can’t understand what you’re saying. For many people, it’s a screwed-up grimace of concentration. For Indonesians, it’s more of a quiet smile and a slow drift of attention. Indonesians are polite folks, to be sure. They’re not going to tell you very much about your mistakes in Indonesian when you’re speaking with them. That’s up to you. If you want to hold up your end of the Indonesian conversation, you’ve got to make sure you’re speaking Indonesian that’s beyond just "comprehensible." It must be pleasant to listen to, and with as few mistakes as possible. But what types of mistakes tend to be the worst for Indonesian-learners, and how can you get around them? Table of... Show more

Would you describe yourself as a curious person? If you’re learning Indonesian, we imagine that you probably do!  You can make that curiosity work for your Indonesian skills, too! When you talk to people, they’ll be interested in who you are and what’s driven you to learn their language. And the bread and butter of that is questions. Statistically, questions make up a big part of conversation in any language. By preparing yourself with the most common Indonesian questions and answers, you’ll become familiar and comfortable with these conversational keystones and come off as a skilled conversationalist. Table of Contents Your Name Your Origin Story Language Matters Traveling Around A Personal Question A Taste of... Show more

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