Learn how to ask "Where is the bathroom?
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Hello and welcome to Indonesian Survival Phrases, brought to you by IndonesianPod101.com This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Indonesia. You'll be surprised at how far a little Indonesian will go. Now before we jump in, remember to stop by IndonesianPod101.com. And there you’ll find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
| Indonesian Survival Phrases Lesson 6. Where Is The Bathroom in Indonesia? |
| And today's lesson we'll cover an extremely important phrase, "Where is the bathroom?" |
| In Indonesian "Where is the bathroom?" is Kamar kecil di mana?. (slow) Kamar kecil di mana?. Let’s break it down by syllable, Ka-mar ke-cil di-ma-na?. Now let’s hear it again, Kamar kecil di mana?. Let's take a look at the components. The first word kamar means "room." Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time. Ka-mar. kamar. This is followed by kecil, which in Indonesian is "small" or "little." Ke-cil. Kecil. So to recap here, we have kamar kecil. Literally this means "the small room" or "bathroom." One small note: typographic [c] in Indonesian is always pronounced "ch" as in "chicken." Now, let's take a look at the final word di mana which means "where?" Di-ma-na. Di mana. |
| So altogether we have Kamar kecil di mana?. Literally this means "The bathroom, where is it?" |
| There is another way of asking "Where is the bathroom?" which is Di mana kamar kecil? (slow) Di mana kamar kecil?. Let’s break it down by syllable, Di-ma-na ka-mar ke-cil?. Now let’ hear it again, Di mana kamar kecil? |
| Since we already have learned the first way of asking "Where is the bathroom?" which is Kamar kecil di mana? this phrase is simply a reordering of the words for "bathroom" kamar kecil and "where?" di mana. This time, we say Di mana kamar kecil? Let’s break it down by syllable, Di-ma-na ka-mar ke-cil? Now let’ hear it again, Di mana kamar kecil? This means "Where is the bathroom?" |
| What's the difference between the two phrases, you may ask? Well, for our purposes here, not much. In fact, in most situations, you can use either. It's just that the first expression Kamar kecil di mana? is slightly more frequent, but just slightly. |
| There's also another word for bathroom, which is WC. (slow) WC. WC. Let’s break it down by syllable, W-C. WC. This is actually the Indonesian pronunciation of the British acronym "WC," or "water closet." This is used quite often, and can substitute kamar kecil in any phrase we've learned so far. |
| Now when you finally get to the bathroom there may be one last hurdle. Sometimes, only the words for "men" and "women" are printed on the doors, and in Indonesian, there are two versions for each. The words for "men" are laki-laki and pria. The words for women are perempuan and wanita. Just remember: laki-laki always occurs with perempuan, while pria always occurs with wanita. |
| And in Indonesia many of the toilets nowadays are the western type. But what if you encounter non-western toilet? Well these are basically squat toilets, and sometimes it’s just a hole on the ground. So you simply squat over the toilet or hole and errrrr, do your business. You’ll also notice a large basin of water called the bak in the room. To flush these toilets you simply take the dipper called the gayung fill it with some water and flush the toilet by pouring the water out of the dipper. Cautions, the plumbing is usually not accustomed to toilet papers. So used toilet paper is disposed off in a small trash can rather than flushed down the toilet. |
| Okay to close out today’s lesson we’d like for you to practice what you’ve just learned. I’ll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you’re responsible for saying the Indonesian phrase out loud or in Indonesian, dengan keras. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer so selamat sukses, that means "good luck!" in Indonesian. |
| Alright, so here we go: |
| “The bathroom where is it?” (Kamar kecil di mana? Ka-mar ke-cil di ma-na? Kamar kecil di mana?) |
| “Where is the bathroom?” (Di mana kamar kecil? Di ma-na ka-mar ke-cil? Di mana kamar kecil?) |
| “The bathroom.” (kamar kecil. ka-mar ke-cil. kamar kecil.) |
| The acronym of water closet. (wc, wc, wc.) |
| Alright, that's going to do it for today! |
| Remember to stop by IndonesianPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. When you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Comments
Hide