Bahasa Indonesia
Nov 19th, 2007, in News, by PatungAustralians don’t want to learn Indonesian.
Australian ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said in Surabaya on 16th November that in recent years the demand for studying bahasa Indonesia in Australian schools had continued to fall.
When Indonesia was ruled by Suharto learning Indonesian in both Australian elementary and high schools became somewhat popular but in the last 10 years languages such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Hindi had pushed Indonesian into the background.
Bill Farmer.
Farmer said this was because more and more immigrants were coming to Australia from China, Korea, Japan, and India, at least according to the report. suarasurabaya
Ever the diplomat, he said the decline in interest for learning Indonesian had nothing to do with Indonesia’s reputation in Australia worsening or otherwise, but was simply based on immigration trends.
According to a March 2007 report only 15% of Australian final year high school students study a foreign language, and of those only a little over 1% study Indonesian. abc
158 Comments on “Bahasa Indonesia”
-
dewaratugedeanom says:
Pena Budaya said
Indonesia and Malay government should work together to pursue United Nations to admit Indonesian-Malay as one of UN official languages. Otherwise, don’t expect too much for Australians or other countries to learn our language!
Most Australians visiting our country believe that the term ‘jiggy jig’ is bahasa Indonesia. When using it all of them pretend to be understood, some of them even got what they want. Therefore I agree that we should strive to have our language admitted as an official UN language, because it would undoubtedly promote peace, love and understanding among the nations and cultures of the world.
Thank you, terima kasih, matur suksema. -
Teng says:
hat absolute bull-s**t. I felt able to speak Indonesia after 2 month too. Actually I knew nothing.
Now I studied Indonesian intensely for 5 years and have been living in the country for 15. Got a master in Indonesian language and civilization. Dated hundreds of Indonesian girls. Never met any westerner who speak better Indonesian than I do (sorry to say that). And I still fell my Indonesian is not that good.And of course all the Indonesian I meet here tell me I speak better Indonesian than they do. They cannot make the difference. Total nonsense. There is a difference.
True Indonesian is a difficult language because of the lack of rules, it is a very contextual, “bahasa hati” language. You need years of intensive practice to really “master” it. So don’t tell bules they speak good Indonesian because they know 200 or 300 words please”¦
I have to agree with this post. I studied it for five years, speak it for about 11 now, am married to an Indonesian woman and I feel the same way as you Bas.
Only thing I slightly disagree is the “lack of rules”. Just like any other language there are rules, the rules are just almost “invisible” for Westerners. This mostly has to do with the fact Indonesian has the tendency to often be Object-related (instead of subject) yet places the object in the place Western people put the subject.
This creates the illusion of an “active” sentence without proper grammar rules while in fact it is a “passive” sentence where the object is in the place of the subject. -
Pakmantri says:
I have to agree with Bas and Teng on this subject.
To learn conversational bahasa Indonesia is easy, as Bas said due to “lack of rules and bahasa hati”, as long as you have the verb and the noun most people will understand what you are saying.
But to learn the proper bahasa Indonesia is a different matter.
I am an Indonesian born and raise in Indonesia and have spoken bahasa Indonesia for all my life and yet during my school days I remembered I always got 9 and 10 for my English and German classes, but never passed 6 in my bahasa Indonesia (tata bahasa) class. 🙂 But I am proud to say I speak way better bahasa Indonesia than our former president Suharto ……… 😀
Most westerners, beginners, bahasa Indonesia learner have difficulties with prefixes and suffixes. -
(Hehehe, again, big score here.)
Well, 2-3 month will only get you communicate. For a person like Tuan that thinks Indonesia is an easy language to learn the 2-3 month will get him the easy part. What is the main intention of a language, to communicate. But admit it, compared to English and Latin rooted languages, bahasa is very easy. We don’t have different words for past, present, future, such as ‘eat-eating-ate-eaten’. We don’t have the feminine-masculine objects. We don’t differ words just because it is plural except saying it twice (one child = anak. Children=Anak-anak). Most of Indonesian don’t know why there should be 10 words to describe water falling from the sky (hujan) in English unless they lived in England.
Lots of expats thinks that they can speak Indonesia? Lots of Balinese think that they can speak English and Japanese.
Now if you talk about languange as using the proper grammar and structure, that is a different story. It is difficult for foreigners to learn the prefixes and suffixes. That will take you another couple of years and numbers of homestays, or like pj_bali says, live in a secluded area where nobody speaks english (then you will have a certain dialect instead of the Bahasa Indonesia Baku).
Bas, languange comes with the culture. Why not try embracing the culture (pick one culture out of thousands). Then understand how the mind works. Then live their lives. Now it sounds difficult, doesn’t it, because Indonesia is diverse. Because very, very seldom expats, if not none, learn the culture like Snouk Hurgronje. So, feel happy that you master Bahasa Indonesia at school and you are the number one Indonesian-speaking bule’ that exists on earth because that is as far as you can get.
Likewise, I won’t master English. To be able to dream in English is more than enough. Same with my Japanese.
And we do appreciate you learning the language, a bule’ that can use proper bahasa with the prefixes and suffixes and talk to the authorities is, really, quite impressive.
-
Arema says:
Some interesting discussion here 🙂
Never met any westerner who speak better Indonesian than I do (sorry to say that). And I still fell my Indonesian is not that good.
I don’t know how good you speak Indonesian, but I know one missionary from the States who speak formal Indonesian really really well, but I don’t know how good he is on normal conversation though… But it’s good to see you’re so humble about it.
And of course all the Indonesian I meet here tell me I speak better Indonesian than they do. They cannot make the difference. Total nonsense. There is a difference.
True Indonesian is a difficult language because of the lack of rules, it is a very contextual, “bahasa hati” language. You need years of intensive practice to really “master” it.They must be referring to your formal Indonesian. Maybe your speech is more grammatically correct than theirs, so they said you’re better than them.
But I agree that Bahasa Indonesia is much more than just grammatically correct. There’s a lot of emotional and contextual factors involved in the tone, volume, and pace of your speech. Even gesture play a big part too. Bahasa Indonesia is easy to learn, but hard to master.
I am an Indonesian born and raise in Indonesia and have spoken bahasa Indonesia for all my life and yet during my school days I remembered I always got 9 and 10 for my English and German classes, but never passed 6 in my bahasa Indonesia (tata bahasa) class.
That’s the case for most of us, Pakmantri. I got 9.50 for English in EBTANAS but just 7.00 in Bahasa Indonesia. And the stunning part is, 7.00 is actually the highest Bahasa Indonesia score among top 10 students with highest EBTANAS score in my school. Most of them got 6.xx and some even get 5.xx.
But to be fair, at any given time during our schooldays, the level of difficulty in Bahasa Indonesia and English differ by a mile. When we were taught how to write essay in Indonesian, we were only taught to make simple sentences in English. I think this huge gap in difficulty level play a part too (although I’m also aware a lot of students are struggling with English). If we were taught English poetry or composition writing that time, I’m sure we won’t score as high.
Likewise, I won’t master English. To be able to dream in English is more than enough. Same with my Japanese.
Yeah Parvita… I also never dream to master English and its accent. To be able to deliver my message across is good enough for me… although I admit I’d like to be able to speak English and Japanese well, I’m afraid I can’t unless I spend a few years in the UK and Japan.
And we do appreciate you learning the language, a bule’ that can use proper bahasa with the prefixes and suffixes and talk to the authorities is, really, quite impressive.
*nods in agreement*
-
Oigal says:
Bahasa Indonesia is easy to learn, but hard to master
Very true,
Although some here are being a bit arrogant about it all. I agree certainly everyone who is here a visitor for awhile should learn try and learn the language but its not a competition unless that all you have.
And why shouldn’t someone tell bules (how I hate that term) they speak good Indonesian because they know 200 or 300 words please”¦ since when did encouragement become a bad thing. Jeez I guess I was lucky I didn’t meet some of the nay sayers and sour sacks when I was learning.
-
Janma says:
I learnt Indonesian when if first came to Indonesia while I was working because my co-workers didn’t speak english. At first I had a hard time because I didn’t like the sound of bahasa Indonesia. I had just been studying bengali for four years, and the sound of bengali is really melodic. But as I couldn’t stand not being able to communicate I buckled down and started to learn. I never went to a class or got a book, I learnt from the people around me and from the news and newspapers.
The first word that I learnt was Terimakasih… I couldn’t for the life of me remember that word! And then I equated it with an english phrase that I could remember that would remind me of that word… that phrase was ‘tear up me carseat’ said really fast with an australian accent! LOL, it worked though. Then I still made mistakes like once asking a co-worker to open a window… I asked him to ‘buka celana’ instead of jendela. Everyone in the room looked expectantly at this poor lad who stood bewildered wondering what my meaning was…. ‘ayo, panas saya! buka celana’!
Now after so many years my indonesian is to say the least lancar! I hardly ever speak english at home, and the kids say when I talk in my sleep it’s in indonesian. But sometimes the mistakes can go the other way, in that I sometimes forget english words and replace them with indonesian words, like once when offered a drink of scotch whiskey by an australian friend (I don’t usually drink because it affects my stomach) I responded “you want me to sakit?” and his face was just priceless…. a picture of indecision. -
Achmad Sudarsono says:
To me, the funny thing is Oigal’s vocubulary: “heh mas, satu bir!” and “kamu mau berapa” and “jig-i-jig.”
-
Janma,
There was once a journalist here called, “Terry McCarthy”
-
So don’t tell bules they speak good Indonesian because they know 200 or 300 words please”¦
“¦ since when did encouragement become a bad thing.
Oigal, after living here for years, Bas doesn’t recognize that most Indonesians are friendly and polite (ramah dan sopan), especially to foreigners 😀 Kind of difficult to expect more than to learn the language without knowing what kind of people speaks it, ay Bas? Hehehehe…
-
Chris says:
I have lived in Indonesia for four years, and have picked up quite a bit of Indonesian.
However, I don’t really get much opportunities to practice it because most Jakartans say only “Hellomisterwhatisyourname!” or “Hellomisterhowareyou!” to me, or talk to me in English. On the rare occasion that I get a half decent question or conversation in Indonesian (and I don’t mean “Where are you from?”), they are shocked that I can/want to speak Indonesian.
So it cuts both ways.
-
Most bules only know enough Indonesian to score at Blok M bars.
-
Hey Ass Mad is back.. Sorry all three phrases incorrect..geez 100% failure rate, bit like your mom and her kids really but because I am kind hearted soul..
Firstly its “Dua bir lagi” only sad things like yourself drink alone, second its (this phrase you would hear a lot Ass Mad)”kamu mau berapa untuk diam lima minute ” and third “jig i jij”, I honestly have not heard that since asking a friend what on earth Indonesia did to deserve someone like you..his reply..jij-i-jij gelek
-
Foreigners who learn Indonesian usually have specific purposes. My friend’s boyfriend works for the embassy and he speaks bahasa Indonesia Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan. So it’s kind of funny listen to him asking, “Apakah kamu akan mengunjungi saya?” while the rest of us don’t speak that way. My French boss could speak several Indonesian words because he usually puts them in his speeches, a very effective way to warm the crowd up. Those who are patience enough to learn Indonesian are usually in finance and in religious mission. Never I met people in oil&gas who master our language. As I said before my friends who are really good at Indonesian are mostly Dutch. My British friend who’s been in Indonesia for over 5 years and could carry a conversation in Indonesia quite well, sometimes still sends me texts asking what some words or some sentence mean (or what the girl means by saying that).
My favorite words when hang out with those ‘bule‘ are when the say “one for the road” (for the last beer) and they just translate it as “satu untuk jalan“….
-
@Janma: I couldn’t stop laughing reading your posting. It’s very funny! 🙂
-
Actually, most people ask me to shut up for good, Oigal, not just five minutes ! 🙂
-
Ihaknt says:
Yeah Janma that’s very funny. Good on you though. I think it’s great when people can speak and understand more than 1 languange.
-
Friend,
Most people writing here can’t even speak English properly. Look at all the sins of syntax like dangling modifiers, noun-verb disagreement, improper use of apostrophes etc. Oigal is one of the worst offenders because he’s permanently drunk and writes from Blok M, but he’s not the only one.
Achmad.
-
Bas says:
Sorry Parvita, I dont agree with you when you say Indonesian people are “ramah dan sopan”. It is just a myth to me (even if politeness/politess is a relative matter). Please deh! Can’t you see the reality of this country and its people?
For me they are more like “kasar, tidak tahu malu, tidak tahu diri, penuh basa-basi (basih!)… dll.”. Read any newspaper any day for the full list. Well may be that’s because I live in the real world and not in a school book or a promoting brochure for the wonderfull Islanf of Bali… I am talking about strangers, people you don’t really know, those you interact with in the street… Well as an Indonesia girl it’s normal you want to promote Indonesia in the eyes of foreigners.
Next time you meet a foreigner don’t forget to tell him: “you speak so good Indonesian” with a big smile 🙂 For sure you will look “sopan dan ramah”. But I am not certain that will be enough to make him believe Indonesian people really are that friendly and polite…
-
spew-it-all says:
I suspect there is a conspiracy by the discredited AFP and ASIO to discredit our suave language
I don’t think discrediting Indonesia language is AFP and ASIO priority. The decline of Australians interest in learning Indonesian language does necessarily not depend on the Suharto’s leadership-albeit authoritarianism might be inviting enough for young Australians to study.
At academic level, some asian studies program have been cut off in universities, not only Indonesia as well as Thai. In Sydney university, for instance, Thai studies is no longer available but Indonesian studies still exist. In general, this might have related to a bigger geopolitical scheme after the end of Cold War. Area studies is no longer appealing and some authoritarian regimes underwent a more democratic reforms.
I reckon there is enthutiasm in Australia to know more about Indonesia, particularly in the wake of Islam politics post-reformasi. At academic level, Islam in Indonesia is becoming popular subject of study. Some schools are still teaching Indonesian language.
-
Mr. Ono said,
There was once a journalist here called, “Terry McCarthy”
And? I don’t know what you mean?
-
I am with Bas on the characters. Many of my friends agree too. Kebanyakan basa basi ga jelas!
-
For me they are more like “kasar, tidak tahu malu, tidak tahu diri, penuh basa-basi (basih!)”¦ dll
I’m sorry you feel that way. You should travel around Indonesia more.
Western people do basa basi, too. Have you heard the phrase “being polite”? There is nothing wrong with basa basi, it’s part of being polite ala’ Indonesia and politeness shouldn’t be undervalued. If you don’t like people being polite to you, it’s your problem.
Well may be that’s because I live in the real world and not in a school book or a promoting brochure for the wonderfull Islanf of Bali”¦
An expat male living in a real world in Indonesia sounds like an oxymoron to me.
-
An expat male living in a real world in Indonesia sounds like an oxymoron to me
I don’t know about this statement. I have plenty of western friends who live in indonesia in the real world….. some of them have been here a long time, for example one grew up in jakarta because his father taught in JIS, he is living in the real world. Lots of guys who have been here for years and have many local friends, this group mainly surfers. But maybe they couldn’t be described as expats then? Is an expat someone who is here to work for a company?
-
parvita says:
Janma, define ‘real world’ for me. Real world is relative. My world is real for me, might not be real for you, vise versa. Surfers’ world are real for them but not real for me. I mean, I can say, living by the beach surfing and doing nothing else, that’s not real. But then they can also say that fighting the traffic and sit in the office looking at computer screen all day long is not real.
Expatriate is when you move away from your native country to reside in another country, that’s what the dictionary said. Because of your job, assignment, exile. Tourist is not an expatriate. If your visa is tourst visa, you’re not an expat. You have to have KIMS (or KITAS? I get mixed up), work permit. I might be wrong, maybe someone can elaborate better.
When you are being treated differently in a place than where you are from, are you living a real world? The phrase ‘real life’ or ‘real world’ is misleading and subjective. What is real world? Does it mean anything?
Where is our concerned english teacher?
-
I think there is a huge difference between western’s basa-basi and Indonesian. In western countries you talk about weather, politics, social happenings, anything impersonal. In Indonesia people will ask where you work, how much money you make, are you married, why are you married/not, how many kids do you have etc. One of my Singaporean-Indian friend went to Tanjung Lesung with a group Caucasian friends and we had a bunch of school kids doing research and asking questions (and taking pictures, aduh!), and one of the questions directed to him was, “Mister, why are you so black?”
@Bas, I don’t agree. At least in Indonesia and other Asian countries, you’d get smiles and friendly services in shops and restaurants. Not like in most places in Western countries. The first time I had my lunch in Amsterdam the waiter practically threw the plate from 1 meter away to my table, and we had to wait 30 minutes at the till just to pay (I was so tempted just to leave without paying). Unless you go to 5-star places which also sell great services.
-
Ibu Janma Yth,
You said terima kasih. Terry McCarthy used to get giggles because it sounds like terima kasih. 🙂
You know, friend ?
-
You said terima kasih. Terry McCarthy used to get giggles because it sounds like terima kasih. 🙂
You know, friend ?
ummm….. nup… got no idea…? Terima kasih sounds like Terima kasih? Sounds logical to me…. am i missing something?
parvita, i mean by the real world, means they have been absorbed into the local fabric of life. they have indonesian friends or family, they see indonesia as home even though they are not indonesian per se. -
Arsenist says:
Australians don’t want to learn Indonesian. Of course. Who needs to learn indonesian when the most common (and also currently popular) language is English, Mandarin and Japanese. I don’t see any functionality in Bahasa Indonesia at all except in Indonesia.
Unless Indonesia becomes the world super power then people will start taking an interest in bahasa Indonesia. But i don’t think thats going to happen for quite some time to come with all the corruption going on in the government there. Poor country but rich government servants…Ironic isn’t it.
Comment on “Bahasa Indonesia”.
Copyright Indonesia Matters 2006-2025
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact
“Tuan Amerika Muslim, the best way to learn a language is to date one. Single expats that I know can speak Bahasa Indonesia in 2-3 months compared to the married ones (unless they are married to an Indonesian).”
That absolute bull-s**t. I felt able to speak Indonesia after 2 month too. Actually I knew nothing.
Now I studied Indonesian intensely for 5 years and have been living in the country for 15. Got a master in Indonesian language and civilization. Dated hundreds of Indonesian girls. Never met any westerner who speak better Indonesian than I do (sorry to say that). And I still fell my Indonesian is not that good.
And of course all the Indonesian I meet here tell me I speak better Indonesian than they do. They cannot make the difference. Total nonsense. There is a difference.
True Indonesian is a difficult language because of the lack of rules, it is a very contextual, “bahasa hati” language. You need years of intensive practice to really “master” it. So don’t tell bules they speak good Indonesian because they know 200 or 300 words please…