Indonesian—An Austronesian Language
In Indonesian, the Indonesian language is called bahasa Indonesia. It is essentially the same language as Malay (Bahasa Melayu) or Malaysian (Bahasa Malaysia). Bahasa Indonesia is the national language of Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia is the national language of Malaysia and Brunei, and one of four national languages of Singapore. In 1928 Indonesian nationalists declared... Read More >...
Authentic Indonesian Conversation Starters
There is no question whether a learner should be taught authentic Indonesian or not. Yet, many textbooks and Indonesian language Internet sites teach Indonesian phrases that no Indonesian would ever use. For instance, it is quite common to find textbooks that translate ‘good bye’ as selamat tinggal. Selamat tinggal is the reply to selamat jalan.... Read More >...
Susu (in Indonesian and Samoan!)
A few weeks ago I had to sit in a Samoan language class for evaluating purposes. The teacher explained that in the Samoan language susu is the word for ‘milk’. It is hence exactly the same word as in Indonesian. Samoan and Malay—Two Austronesian Languages Samoan and Malay (Indonesian) are both descendants of the same... Read More >...
Voice Recording
We have added yet another feature to The Indonesian Way. Almost every lessons has one or more exercises which are always named like Exercise 04-01 etc. To many of these exercises we have added a voice recording feature. In the exercise a certain task is given, which contains the instruction to record a few sentences.... Read More >...
Quizzes and More to Come
Dear all, There are four announcements today: Testimonials – Terima Kasih This is number one. I don’t know if you have ever looked at our testimonials, but we, the «Indonesian Way» team, feel truely honoured that we have received so many wonderful testimonials. It is hard to believe, but so far «Indonesian Way» has received... Read More >...
New Dictionary
I would like to call your attention to a brand new dictionary that has become available through the Internet as an Open Access Publication: Title of Publication: A Dictionary of Indonesian Prepositional Constructions Authors: dr.Totok Suhardijanto (Universitas Indonesia, Depok), Miel Slager, m.hum. (formerly Utrecht University, the Netherlands) Date: 22 October 2019 Download link: https://zenodo.org/record/3515813#.Xa7A3uj7SuA I... Read More >...
Important New Features
A few weeks ago, Stuart, one of the indonesian-online subscribers, wrote to me complaining that “it is quite difficult to keep track of what lesson has been completed and get an understanding of how you are going.” No doubt, Stuart is right, and this shortcoming has bothered me for a long time. So I took... Read More >...
Street Children in Indonesia
We’ve achieved another milestone! – interesting that even in 2020, more than a century after the mile was replaced by the kilometre, we still use this ancient expression. Indonesia actually adopted the metrical system very late. It was introduced in 1923 but became compulsory only in 1938. Before that they used the imperial system and... Read More >...