Thread: Bahasa Indonesia teaching volunteer

Since I'm learning russian here, I want to give back something . I haven't see any Bahasa Indonesia section here, I propose myself to teach this language if it's possible to do it here . If the moderator/admin don't mind, please give a section for Bahasa Indonesia and I'll give some tutorial and also answering questions there. FYI, Bahasa Indonesia or Bahasa Melayu currently is in use in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

Here are some introductory words :

English <-------> Bahasa Indonesia
------------- -----------------------
Thank you <----> Terima kasih
My name is Pinczakko <----> Nama saya Pinczakko
Where are you from <----> Anda berasal dari mana ?
Good morning <----> Selamat pagi
Good night <----> Selamat Malam

Bahasa Indonesia, is just like Russian in terms of the way to write it down.
What is spoken in Bahasa Indonesia is also what is written for it, no different pronounciation.

Thx .

Neat! Do you have a microphone, so we can hear how a native pronounces it? About MasterAdmin making another forum, I doubt it, as most all of the foreign language forums are stagnating, sadly enough. Do they use the Roman alphabet to write Bahasa Indonesian? It'd also be good if you could break down sentences and show us how each part works.

I really sorry, I'm at work right now (part time job). I don't have microphone here. Due to no space at all available, we'll just learn about it in this thread. The alphabet is just like in english, I presume that this is what you call roman alphabet, I mean the alphabet used in english textbooks and also here . In bahasa Indonesia, there are no tense like in the western language, i.e. english.

as for the language component, I really sorry I'm not a language expert so I'll just explain what I know. In general, you only need to know the indonesian term for an english word and indonesian like me will understand, even if the word's position in the sentence sounds odd. The only rules that you have to know is something called "imbuhan". I don't know the exact term for this in english, I'll look it up first. But now, we'll take a look at one sentence :

Bahasa Indonesia <---> English
----------------------------------------------------
saya belajar tentang komputer <--> I am learning about computer

saya is the bahasa Indonesia for I (no counterpart for am)
belajar is the bahasa Indonesia for learning
tentang is the bahasa Indonesia for about
komputer is the bahasa Indonesia computer

So there are no verb conjugations or tenses? Awesome. It reminds me of Thai, actually. What about plural forms of nouns? Does it have any of those blasted noun classifiers like in Chinese or Thai?

no tenses at all. Bahasa Indonesia basically is a vocabulary based language. Of course there are certain rules, like where to put nouns and verbs, but it is also interchangeable by applying somekind of prefix and suffix to the verbs. As for the classification of nouns, there's no such a thing in Bahasa Indonesia . If you want to say something plural, just prepend it (is this right ? I mean say it prior to) with the word "banyak" like this :
English <--> Bahasa Indonesia
------------------------------------
car <--> mobil
cars <--> banyak mobil

Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia are similar but there are differences. Like

English - Indonesia - Malaysia
Car Mobil Kereta
Cars Mobil-mobil Kereta-kereta

Just repeat the singular noun and 'wala' you have plural. It's that's simple. Bahasa Malaysia tend to follow the English language while the Indonesian language follows more of Dutch.

Malaysians pronounce the roman alphabets just like in English. Indonesians pronounce them differently, like thus,
A - aa
B - beh
C - say

So the word 'top' would be pronounced 'tay oh peh' in Indonesian.

Hope it's not too late to revive this thread.

So are you talking about regular Indonesian? Or are there several language language spoken on all those island island?

I had two dog dog, but they kept chewing up all my shoe shoe. So I decided to buy two fish fish.

Am I speaking Indonesian now? (just kidding!)

Bahasa Indonesia is THE official language in Indonesia. It is a rather new language, spoken throughout the islands. There are many other languages or dialects in Indonesia, but almost everyone understands the official language.

When you understand dog-dog and cat-cat you are almost there in your quest to speak Bahasa (language) Indonesia and Malaysia. Between these 2 or 3 (if you include Brunei) countries there are more than 200 million speakers. Not to mention Singapore too to a certain extent. It is also one of the official language of Singapore.

And Bahasa Malaysia is THE official language in Malaysia. Of course most people in Malaysia speaks English to a certain degree of proficiency.

These languages (loosely called the Malay language) is well spoken and understood in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. If you are only visiting Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei then you would not even need the Malay language as English is widely spoken in these 3 countries. However, it would be better if you understand a little Malay if you are spending some time in Indonesia.

Originally Posted by tohca

Bahasa Indonesia is THE official language in Indonesia. It is a rather new language, spoken throughout the islands. There are many other languages or dialects in Indonesia, but almost everyone understands the official language.

When you understand dog-dog and cat-cat you are almost there in your quest to speak Bahasa (language) Indonesia and Malaysia. Between these 2 or 3 (if you include Brunei) countries there are more than 200 million speakers. Not to mention Singapore too to a certain extent. It is also one of the official language of Singapore.

And Bahasa Malaysia is THE official language in Malaysia. Of course most people in Malaysia speaks English to a certain degree of proficiency.

These languages (loosely called the Malay language) is well spoken and understood in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. If you are only visiting Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei then you would not even need the Malay language as English is widely spoken in these 3 countries. However, it would be better if you understand a little Malay if you are spending some time in Indonesia.

Very interesting. I had a good friend in college from Singapore. He spoke English as a first language, and Chinese as a 2nd. To my knowledge, he didn't speak Indonesian. My former boss was from Indonesia, and of course spoke Indonesian. But I didn't know anything about it.

That's true. English is the first official language, Mandarin - 2nd, Malay - 3rd and Tamil (Southern Indian Language) - 4th.

It's quite unique. When you arrive in Singapore, you'll see most of the posters at the immigration in these 4 languages. Also when you are in the other government buildings.

That's an interesting thread but let's not make a forum yet. The thread should be enough at this time.

Selamat Malam! Saya berbahasa (sedikit) bahasa melayu (saya pelajar di NUS di musim panas akhir di Singapura dan Malaysia). Tetapi, saya tidak bercakap baik-baik.

Lol Malay is really cool, I wish I'd had more time to learn it; I was in Southeast Asia all last summer with UNC on study abroad, and it's pretty hard to keep up with the little bit I know in the US. It's a nice break from Russian grammar.