The website BahasaKita.com, translating to ‘our language’, is managed by Wieke Gur, an Indonesian citizen currently residing in Perth, Australia. Coinciding with the establishment of Indonesian Online, Wieke launched bahasakita.com, marking the beginning of a close and collaborative partnership between Indonesian Online and BahasaKita.
The website boasts a comprehensive section on grammar explanations, with a noteworthy highlight being the extensive coverage of colloquial Indonesian by Dr. Tim Hassell, a Senior Lecturer in Indonesian (Associate Professor in US terminology) at the Australian National University. Additionally, Dr. Joseph Lovestrand, a linguist, has also contributed a series of articles on various aspects of the Indonesian language.
The authors of “The Indonesian Way”, George Quinn and Uli Kozok, also contributed a substantial amount of articles on different facets of Indonesian language and culture.
Despite being academic in nature, these articles are written in accessible English, making them easily understandable even for non-specialists.
Indonesian language reading and listening texts
A prominent feature of BahasaKita.com is its extensive collection of readings in Indonesian, primarily tailored for beginners and intermediate learners. Carefully selected for manageable length, each reading, while lacking interactive exercises or vocabulary lists, is complemented by an audio recording.
The range of subjects covered in the readings is extensive, ensuring that everyone can discover a reading that suits their preferences. The website also offers an in-depth section on correct Indonesian spelling and punctuation usage, also presented in Indonesian.
Indonesian Language Quizzes
While the readings themselves lack interactive exercises, BahasaKita compensates with over 100 quizzes resembling interactive exercises. However, it’s worth noting that these quizzes are not fully interactive. For instance, a quiz on reduplication in Indonesian presents words like gula and gula-gula, accepting ‘sugar’’ as the correct translation for gula but not allowing ‘sweets’ or ‘candy’ for gula-gula. This lack of flexibility is compounded by the absence of a button to reveal the “correct” answer. Another problematic example is the quiz’s assertion that pura-pura is the reduplication of pura ‘temple’, which is inaccurate.
Despite areas for improvement, over the years, BahasaKita has evolved into an outstanding resource for enthusiasts and learners of the Indonesian language. We highly recommend BahasaKita.com to anyone who is either a learner or a lover, or both, of the Indonesian language.
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