Learn how to ask, "Can you speak English?"
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| 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 7. Do You Speak English? |
| In this lesson we'll cover another extremely important phrase, "Can you speak English?" Using this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you're speaking to doesn't understand English at all, at least they'll be able to understand what you're asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot respect to show that you took the effort to learn even a little bit of the language, and for these reasons and many more, we're going to cover this phrase. |
| In Indonesian "Do you speak English?" is Apa bisa berbahasa Inggris? (slow) Apa bisa berbahasa Inggris? Let’s break it down by syllable A-pa bi-sa ber-ba-ha-sa Ing-gris?. Now let’s hear it once again, Apa bisa berbahasa Inggris? |
| The first word apa means "what." Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time. A-pa. Apa. |
| This is followed by bisa, which in Indonesian is "can" or "be able to." Bisa. Bi-sa. Bisa. |
| The next word berbahasa means "to speak a language." Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time. Ber-ba-ha-sa. Berbahasa. |
| The final word Inggris means "English". Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time. Ing-gris. Inggris. |
| So altogether we have Apa bisa berbahasa Inggris? Literally this means "Can you speak English?" Now let's try a different language. How about Japanese? So,"Can you speak Japanese?" is Apa bisa berbahasa Jepang? (slow) Apa bisa berbahasa Jepang? |
| The word for Japanese or Japan is Jepang. Let’s break down this expression and hear it one more time. A-pa bi-sa ber-ba-ha-sa and Jepang? Here, just the word for the language changes. The rest stays the same. |
| Now in Indonesia, English is studied at schools, so the number of speakers is increasing; however, there are still many people who don't speak English. Here’s something extra you might wanna think about. The proper name of the Indonesian language in Indonesian is Bahasa Indonesia. Not Bahasa. |
| You’ll find that many people make the mistake of referring to Indonesian as Bahasa. You can show them the proverbial light by explaining to them that the root of berbahasa “to speak a language” is bahasa. Which simply means language. We’ve already gone through some examples such as bahasa Inggris “the English language” and bahasa Jepang “the Japanese language”. So whatever you do don’t make this mistake yourself. |
| By the way Japanese is also popular foreign language for Indonesians to learn. In fact, the last time I was in Bali, which was a couple years ago, it seemed like every other person was studying Japanese to some extent. |
| 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. |
| All right so here we go! |
| “Can you speak English?”. (Apa bisa berbahasa Inggris? A-pa bi-sa ber-ba-ha-sa Ing-gris? Apa bisa berbahasa Inggris?) |
| “Can you speak Japanese?”. (Apa bisa berbahasa Jepang? A-pa bi-sa ber-ba-ha-sa Je-pang? Apa bisa berbahasa Jepang?) |
| All right, 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. |
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