Better Than Babbel0 (0)
Recently we received a number of encouraging testimonials. Especially heartening are the reviews that compare us favourably to our much more expensive competitors like Babbel, Duolingo etc. Uli P. first purchased the Basic membership, and then upgraded to the Student edition. Uli writes: “The structure and approach to learning are better than Babbel’s, which I tried first but never really liked.” A learner from Australia, who also started to learn with a similar online program, but then switched to «Indonesian
The Indonesian Plural4.6 (5)
May be you have heard it already that forming the Indonesian plural is very simple. You simply reduplicate the noun. So anak is child and anak-anak are children. Unfortunately, this is not correct. In the Indonesian language, every noun can be either singular or plural. So mobil saya can mean both ‘my car’ as well as ‘my cars’, and saya beli pisang can mean both ‘I bought a banana’ as well as ‘I bought bananas’. Only if it is not
Quizlet—Studying with Flashcards0 (0)
My wonderful teaching assistant, Ruri from Bengkulu, made me aware that The Indonesian Way (TIW) no longer shows a link to the Quizlet flashcards. Apparently the links “dropped” in the process of restructuring TIW. Then I found out, that besides for TIW, there are also Quizlet cards for AnekaBaca and BacaYuk!, our learning materials for intermediate Indonesian, According to Wikipedia, “Quizlet is a mobile and web-based study application that allows students to study information via learning tools and games. It
Greek Loanwords in Indonesian0 (0)
Many Indonesians are confused: which is the correct spelling: photo, foto, or poto. In fact we can find all three variants. The official spelling is foto, but, as many Indonesians cannot pronounce the sound /f/, the word is often rendered in pronunciation, but also in spelling as poto. The spelling photo mimics English usage, but is wrong. English has a number of redundant letters or letter combinations (graphemes), and English is also a very conservative languages in regards to its
Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru0 (0)
The Indonesian language has borrowed extensively from European languages, particularly from Dutch, but also from Portuguese. The word for Christmas has been taken directly from Portuguese and it is spelled and pronounced the same way: Natal. Where Portuguese greet each other using Feliz Natal! Indonesians greet each other with Selamat Hari Natal! or simply Selamat Natal!. The word selamat, which simply means ‘safe (from calamities)’ is an Arabic loanword. Here are some usages of selamat: Selamat tahun baru!Nappy New Year
How to ask for Directions0 (0)
You arrive in a new city and you don’t know the way to your hotel or a specific restaurant. How do you ask for directions? And if you are in a bus, how do you ask where to get off? Permisi, Pak. Di mana Hotel Garuda? Excuse me, Sir. Where is the Garuda Hotel? Numpang tanya, Bu. Kalau ke Rumah Makan Sederhana saya bisa naik apa? Excuse me, Ma’am. If to the Sederhana Restaurant what can I take? Permisi, Bu.
Do you speak Bahasa?0 (0)
When people ask me “Do you speak bahasa?” my answer is “Of course!” Almost every human being speaks a language! It also happens quite often that I get a request to translate a text into “Bahasa“. Bahasa means ‘language’, and nothing else. So what “Bahasa“, please? The word bahasa is derived from the Sanskrit language, and is used for many Indian and Southeast Asian languages, but most commonly for Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia), Malay (bahasa Melayu), and Malaysian (bahasa Malaysia). So,
Hati5 (1)
Sambal Hati Petai The word hati means ‘liver’. Indonesians love eating liver, especially chicken liver which is often prepared with chili, fried potatoes, and petai, which in English is named ‘stink bean’. It indeed has a strong smell that is not everyone’s cup of tea (but I personally love them!). You can find hundreds of recipes of this very popular side dish by searching for sambal hati ayam petai. In Indonesia, the liver (hati), and not the heart (jantung), is
Genit0 (0)
Genit is one of those words in the Indonesian language for which there is no easy translation available. Genit is an adjective that describes a girl or woman (and occasionally also a male person) who acts in an unusual way to attract the attention of usually the opposite sex. Possible translations are ‘coquettish’, ‘flirtatious’, ‘whimsical’, ‘kittenish’, ‘playfully coy’, and ‘fanciful’. The KBBI (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia) defines genit as bergaya-gaya ‘to show off in a stylish or playful way’, and