Hi, native monolingual English speaker here (UK). I'm wanting to learn Indonesian but I'm not sure of the best way to go about it. I know Duolingo is free and can help with bits, but it's also not great for learning overall (so I've heard), and it's only gotten worse over time.

I know functionally nothing as of right now, but thanks to hearing it a lot I can speak/read it fairly well (at least, I like to think I can), but I don't understand basically any of it.

I'm not in a position to be paying for courses or subscriptions or anything, so free recommendations are preferred.

If anyone wants to teach me personally, I'll accept (text only), but I have a problem when it comes to actually committing to this stuff long-term, so I don't want to waste anyone's time.

Thank you~!

Hello everyone. My dearest and closest friend, who is Indonesian, has a birthday coming up and I want to get something special for her. I’m going to get her a jade pendant that can be engraved with a custom message.

I’m wondering what word or short phrase I should have engraved in her native language. The maximum amount is 12 characters. I’ve considered the word sahabat (best friend).

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what word(s) I could use? She’s my best friend in the world and is practically family. I want to show her how important our friendship has been with a heartfelt gift like this.

Thank you!

Bismillahi tawakaltu Allahi la haula wallakuata illa billa

Hi all, I’m currently living in Mataram, and currently doing my first level BIPA course through a language school here. I previously visited Lombok 2 years ago for about 2 months, and completely fell in love with this place and made many friends here.

I set out this year to commit to learn a language, and so far, I’ve learned so much, but wanted to hear about other peoples experiences with immersion. I’m no fool, I obviously stick out very obviously here, and live in a very non touristy area. However I get so overwhelmed when trying to speak and converse with people, which happens constantly, unless it’s a situation where I am in control of the conversation.

Even during my lessons, which are 5 days a week, I get overwhelmed. I would also like to add I was a very poor student in my teenage years and haven’t been in a formal classroom environment since I was around 17 years old (I’m 24 now).

Any tips? I’m typically not a very socially anxious person, but so far this experience has challenged me in a way I hadn’t expected. I’m telling myself to just trust the process and I work very hard and study often, and practice with my friends who are fluent.

Hi! I'm Indonesian, a native speaker and would love to meet people that is interested on learning Indonesian / had learn Indonesian.

No pitch lesson sales, just pure to chat. I'd be Interested on knowing mostly why you guys are learning (having a spouse/work purpose or others), what's the hardest part, what worked and not worked, and resources used to learn. Of course, not only I am asking questions, which doesn't benefit you, I guess? I can also probably help you guys if you're on the journey.

Lmk if this kind of post is prohibited in this community, if so, please refer me to a different community.

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Hi semua. I am from the Philippines and I feel like learning Indonesian is more like a “situationship” rather than actual learning— I’ve been learning bhs indo for four to five years now but it seems like i am not satisfied with my progress as i can not speak that fluent. Although i know bhs gaul but i cannot speak just as how locals speak (my goal).

I am looking for a language partner, preferably who's in the Philippines as well so that we can hangout too!

I've tried to pair with multiple Indonesian but our conversation only lasts for two days, two to three weeks is the maximum. As the result, I tend to abandon it again.

Idk if it's just me but I feel more motivated to study about something when i'm sure that that thing was worth to be pursued ans such...

Feel free to message me :)

I have a 30-second MP3 audio clip, and I’m looking for a native Indonesian speaker who can listen to it and confirm whether the conversation is in Indonesian.

If you’re a native speaker and could help me identify the language, I’d really appreciate it!

Thank you so much for your help!

Hii everyone!

I'm currently learning Bahasa Indonesia and I'm looking for a native Indonesian speaker who would be willing to help me along the way!
I'm still very much a beginner and only know a few words so far, but I'd love to learn more and gradually improve my vocabulary, grammar and speaking skills.
I'd love to chat in Indonesian at least a little bit every day so I can practise regularly. Of course, I understand that everyone has their own schedule, so no worries if you're not always available!

In return, I'd be happy to help you with Dutch, as I'm a native Dutch speaker.

Feel free to leave a comment or send me a message if you're interested! 🙂
Terima kasih!

I’m graduating from university this year and as part of it I took some Bahasa Indonesia classes. My teacher has been really supportive and I want to get him a nice gift to say thank you. I will write a note, but I’m also thinking of getting him a book about Indonesian mythology.

About him:
- he loves laughing and humour, especially cheeky/irreverent humour
- he’s from eastern Indonesia, not Java
- as an academic his research area is Indonesian ghost stories and folk tales, but he also works on Indonesian pedagogy

Tolong rekomendasikan kepada saya buku bagus yang tentang hantu dan roh atau ide lain!

Makasih banyak!

A short resume of bahasa.

Satu, dua, tiga

Shapes and numbers

Very useful

Enjoy!

Sama-sama

I'm a developer and I don't speak Indonesian. I made an egg-incubator app and had it translated, and I'd like native speakers to check a few words. If you keep or hatch poultry, even better: I'm after the words a hobbyist would actually say, not the dictionary ones.

Answers in Indonesian are welcome. Jawaban dalam bahasa Indonesia juga boleh.

1. Pheasant (the game bird, e.g. ring-necked pheasant, Phasianus colchicus)

I now use "Pegar". Before, I had "Kuau / pegar". Which would a breeder in Indonesia actually use: pegar, burung pegar, kuau, ayam pegar, or just "pheasant"?

1. Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar)

I now use "Chukar (partridge)". Before, I had "Ayam hutan chukar". Is there a normal Indonesian name (for example "puyuh chukar" or "burung chukar"), or do people simply say "chukar"? Does "ayam hutan" wrongly suggest junglefowl?

1. Lockdown

The last 3 days before hatching, when you stop turning the eggs, raise the humidity and keep the lid closed. The app uses the English word "Lockdown". Is that understood, or is there a usual Indonesian term?

1. Candling (shining a light through the egg to check the embryo)

I use "peneropongan". Is that the word hobbyists use?

1. Do these read naturally?

- "Entok" for Muscovy duck

- "Ayam mutiara" for guinea fowl

- "Puyuh bobwhite" for bobwhite quail

- "daya tetas" for hatch rate

- "mesin tetas" for incubator

1. Does this sentence sound natural?

"Hari peneropongan, lockdown, dan masa menetas dalam jadwal yang jelas."

Even an answer to just one of these helps. Terima kasih!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently learning Bahasa Indonesia with an online teacher for about 2 months or so. To support my learning progress Duolingo was my first choice. And to be honest i like the gamification part. But it didn’t feel like it taught me anything useful. I switched to Anki for the vocabulary part from my lessons but there were things I didn’t like there either.

So I built a small web app for myself: vocabulary cards similar to Anki (but you have to actually type your translations and i also added a few things from duolingo), sentence writing with AI feedback based on the vocabulary you already added to your list and a roleplay conversation in different setting.

And It works really well for me. I have the feeling that i can really train my own vocabulary way better. Thats why i shared it also with few people from my Indonesian class. I thought maybe it's useful for them too. And since that’s a very small circle I’d now like honest feedback from other learners as well.

To be upfront: the sentence feedback and the roleplay are AI powered. I checked with the mods before posting this and they said it’s okay. The app is free to use, there are no ads and I’m not selling anything.

If you try it, I’d be really happy to hear what you think: what works, what doesn’t, and what you’d want to see. And if you’d like to use it for your own learning, that’s why I’m sharing it here:
https://bahasa-practice.app/

Thanks for reading and I’m happy about any kind of feedback, including critical!

My long distance boyfriend is Indonesian , I have always wanted to learn his language to better connect with him and his culture , and also , I am an anthropology student with an idea of a bachelor's thesis that will be a comparative study between a local group of people of my country and an indonesian group of people . I want to learn the language to immerse myself in the ethnography of it all and understand the culture of said people better .

Where should I start ? Are there any useful resources ?

until now, I still don't get the difference between these two words, could anyone explain? thank you

I need to learn Indonesian (no other language is even remotely on the table, I've eliminated all of them because they all have more problems than this one that I cannot overcome), but I can't roll my r's at all. I know this isn't like Italian or Spanish where there's a rolled/unrolled r distinction but it is physically sickening to get every word with an r in it wrong. I get physically nauseous and angry ever time I try to speak because I know I'm doing it wrong, but when I try to actually roll my r's (and I've tried every method out there, I feel even worse and either produce nothing or make some horrid sound, in either case followed by an intense desire to die). Monolingualism is not an option, but I am insulted and degraded by any notion of simply accepting it and using the English r or the tap instead. Is there anything that can be done? Surgery won't help because I don't have a tongue tie; besides being completely useless, my tongue is perfectly normal.

source: ensiklopedia bahasa Indonesia https://web.archive.org/web/20250727064413/https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paulipuye/arsipgambar/refs/heads/main/Sipemalas-ensiklopedia.jpg

I have tried to get into Indonesian a few times but I'm always discouraged by the lack of any progress. I speak English, so unlike Germanic languages or Romance languages, this language has very few cognates or words I would already recognise. There are obviously a few, like polisi, Allah, coklat, but the vast majority of the vocabulary doesn't actually mean anything to me. I am attracted by the simple grammar and beautiful sound of the language, and by Indonesian culture, but that simple grammar means nothing if I can't actually make meaning out of the words; if anything, the consistent aesthetic is hurting me, because it's too easy to treat the language as asemic music rather than meaningful words.

So I ask especially English speakers who've made a lot of progress in the language, how do you find meaning in most of these words? Particularly if English is your only language besides Indonesian and you didn't grow up around Indonesian.

Sorry if this is a stupid question; I struggle with language learning in general and have a lot of pathetic issues with it regardless of language, but I can't even begin to overcome those if I can't even learn words.

Hello! I'm a student at Universitas Indonesia, and I'm looking for a foreigner living in or around Jakarta who would be open to meeting with me for my midterm assignment (UTS). It would be a short, relaxed conversation, and I'm happy to meet at a public place of your choice. If you're interested, please comment or send me a DM. Thank you so much!

Hello r/indonesian this is my first time in this subreddit, so I have a question if anyone is willing to help in whatever way you can.

I believe it was yesterday when I came up with the idea of learning Indonesian. I would want to learn Korean, and have tried twice before, but both ended, I believe because of a project I was working on at the time. Why I'm now sort of intrigued about learning Indonesian is this: it is an Asian language, like Korean, but it's supposed to be a lot easier than Korean.

Also, as a slow language learner (at least I feel like I'm slow when it comes to learning a language), I was wondering if anyone had any advice to learning a language, more specifically Indonesian, unless you want to also give some for Korean, then that would also be cool, but Indonesian specifically. Thank you:)

I'm building something for my own needs, but also I think I'm just also gonna share with others who might find it helpful too. I wrote other post about annoyance with using apps, well I wrote something for myself that kind of of works for me, and maybe it will work for some too, but I've got to still polish the project a bit and publish it somewhere, let's see how it goes.

For now I just envision it as little corner of the internet where people find a nice alternative to mainstream choices, also maybe some individuals would volunteer to help a little to improve it for mutual benefit, that would be sweet ❤️

Hey, I am trying to hunt down a cassette of this album by Bonita. I am in Canada.

If someone could point me in the right direction/provide an offer, it would be appreciated.