How I Learned to Speak Indonesian in 1 Month
By
Tibs
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I'm not a genius and I'm not particularly gifted for learning languages. Before Indonesia, I lived 2 years in Italy and 2 years in Brazil, and yet I can barely speak any Italian or Portuguese. Indonesian, or Bahasa Indonesia as it is called here, is different. It is by far the easiest language in the world . There are no tenses, no declension, no tones. There is nothing tricky about the spelling, nothing complex about the grammar, and you always pronounce the words the same way . You don't even have regional differences: It is spoken identically in Sumatra, in Papua, in Java or in Bali. I arrived in Jakarta in November 2012. After one week, I had learned enough words to get by in all the most common situations : Greetings, introductions, ordering food, buying groceries, asking for directions, expressing basic feelings, etc. After 1 month, I was able to have a normal conversation with any Indonesians. My new skill has proven extraordinary usef
This article about the 10 most important grammar rules in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) is a complement to my guide: How I learned Bahasa Indonesia in 1 Month . By learning these rules, you should improve your conversational skills significantly without putting in too much effort. I'm not a native Indonesian speaker so if you think I wrote something wrong, please don't hesitate to leave a comment. Placing words in the right order in Indonesian Most of the time, you can place words in the same order as you would in English: Subject + Verbs + Object. There are a few exceptions though: Personal pronouns: They are placed after the noun. For instance: "Your cat" = "Kucing kamu" (literally "Cat you") Adjectives: They are also placed after the noun. For instance: "New car" = "Mobil baru" (literally "Car new").
I wrote this list of 250 most useful Indonesian words to complement my article How I Learned to Speak Indonesian in 1 Month . I recommend you to memorize all them by heart. It's a boring process, yet it won't take so much time. Spend 10 minutes on the list every day and you'll know all of them in two weeks. Once you're done, I guarantee you will be able to get by in 90% of daily life situation. A smart and fun way to learn more words is to use the website IndonesianPod101 . They have hundreds of exercises and games (flashcards for instance) with the Indonesian pronunciation. Have a look, a large part of the website is free to use. If you choose a paid plan, use this link IndonesianPod101 - 20 Free Videos to get an extra 20 videos for free!
Learning Indonesian online has never been so easy. There are so many websites, apps and videos available for free that the real problem is to identify the right one for you. Before choosing, you should ask yourself a few questions: How serious are you about learning Indonesian? Do you want to become fluent or do you only want to learn the basics? Do you want free lessons or are you ready to pay for a subscription? The advantage of paying sites is that you'll usually get a complete program that you can follow every day. By investing money, you will feel more motivated as well. Without paying, you'll need to stick to trial offers with a limited number of free lessons. That's fine for a beginner, but it can be annoying as you make progress. Do you prefer learning through an app or a website? If you don't have too much time to spare, using a mobile app is a convenient way to learn. You can practice for a few minutes from everywhere, for instance while comm