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How Difficult Is Indonesian? | ||
Tags: Indonesian | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
 arashikat Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 4680 days ago 53 posts - 80 votes  Speaks: Tagalog*, English Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 35 02 March 2012 at 6:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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"Anak" also means "child" (as in offspring) in Tagalog.
"Bahagi" means "to share" in Tagalog, and to a certain extend, "to divide" as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5712 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 26 of 35 02 July 2012 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
I wonder if the professor is in some way or another referring to sweepdecking, which is however a self-study method and not really a rule. I couldn't find anything useful about WMSP either, but I think it could mean something like Writing, Memorizing, Speaking, Practicing. This would be consistent with sweepdecking. I still wouldn't consider that to be a "rule," but it's possible the professor meant that as a general rule to learning Indonesian, one must use WMSP and sweepdecking methods. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| michi Nonaglot Newbie Austria Joined 5304 days ago 33 posts - 57 votes Speaks: Dutch*, German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese Studies: Turkish, Arabic (Written), Serbo-Croatian, Indonesian, Japanese | Message 27 of 35 07 July 2012 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Dear Brian
I am not sure if you are still interested in an answer to your questiao, but I have quite a short one: Indonesian is easy to learn. Also in comparison to e.g. French or German. I have learned it on my own for one year and for two weeks I have attended a language school in Yogyakarta and that was enough to communicate in Indonesian with all the people I have met. I don't want to repeat all the details that already have been put forward, but in any case the pronounciation and grammar is really simple. And in contrast to other Asian languages it uses the Latin script. The only problem is that you have learn the vocabular, which is not Indo-European. However Indonesian has adopted quite a lot of international expressions. For me as a Dutchman is was even easier because many of these words were adopted directly from the Dutch. So if you want to learn an Asian language that is spoken by many people AND easy to learn I can only advice you to try Indonesian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Heavyweight Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4568 days ago 12 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 28 of 35 16 October 2012 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you speak Bhasa Indonesian and go to Bali, will they understand you? Will the Indonesians who has Bhasa as their second language switch to it when they hear you speaking it or will they speak to you in their local dialect?
How widespread is Bhasa? If I go to, say, Sulawesi or Papua do they speak it there as well? In other words, if you want to speak to the people in Bali/Papua/Borne is it better to learn the local dialect or can you make it with only Bhasa? Edited by Heavyweight on 16 October 2012 at 5:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| michi Nonaglot Newbie Austria Joined 5304 days ago 33 posts - 57 votes Speaks: Dutch*, German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese Studies: Turkish, Arabic (Written), Serbo-Croatian, Indonesian, Japanese | Message 29 of 35 16 October 2012 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You certainly won't have any problem communicating with people in Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia) on Bali or any of the more developed islands. Although Indonesia is one of the countries in the world where most languages are spoken, it is Indonesian that dominates public life. Only in the first years in primary school the local language is used and from then on all education is in Indonesian only. It is the same in the media where in practice only Indonesian is used.
I have been on Java and Bali only, but there it was normal for people to speak Indonesian with outsiders. I am not sure when they speak their own language but it must be in a more private context. Even Javanese which has more that 80 million speakers and Balinese that is the mother tongue of more than 90 % of the people on Bali don't seem to play an important role in society.The only time I have heard Javanese spoken in public was in a gamelan mass in a Christian church in Yogyakarta. Maybe it is a pity that the local languages (bahasa daerah) have lost so much ground, but it seems that Indonesians don't have any problems with accepting Indonesian as their national language. A big contrast with e.g. India where Hindi has never been really accepted by a large part of the population. One reason might be that Malay - of which Indonesian is a standarised form - has already been used as a lingua franca for centuries. Another reason is that Indonesian is an easy language and doesn't have the different social levels like Javanese or Balinese. Although foreigners in Indonesia are quite willing to learn Indonesian, I don't think many take the effort to learn another Indonesian language. University students of Indonesian in the Netherlands are obliged to learn Javanese too. On Bali I met an Englishman who lived there and told me he wanted to learn Balinese. However I am sure he really did and I wonder if he could speak proper Indonesian. I don't know how well people in Irian Jaya (the Indonesian part of New-Guinea)speak Indonesian, but there are hundreds of indigenous languages. So if there is any language that is useful it must be Indonesian too. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4473 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 30 of 35 19 October 2012 at 2:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd also like to add that what is difficult at first becomes easier if you keep doing it.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4671 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 31 of 35 26 March 2015 at 4:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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Indonesian is sociolinguistically difficult.
Owing to Javanization, it has become highly diglossic: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27868068?sid=211057805 07151&uid=2129&uid=4&uid=70&uid=3738200&uid=2 http://www.livinginindonesiaforum.org/showthread.php/22145-I ndonesian-Diglossia In order to understand spoken Indonesian (the L variant) as used in pop songs, movies and Jakarta-based soap operas (and exported to all Indonesian islands thanks to TV channels like Kompas) you'll have to learn this variant (the one language courses rarely mention). Standard written/formal Indonesian is not the lingua franca between two Indonesians in informal situations, someone from Manado visiting their friends in Jakarta will use the informal Javanized version of Indonesian (which can, due to, TV- influence be called the generalized L variant of Indonesian)and not standard Indonesian (H) when talking to their friends in Jakarta. Recommended reading: James Neil Sneddon Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian (Pacific Linguistics, 581) 0858835711, 9780858835719 Pacific Linguistics/RSPAS 2006 James N. Sneddon The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society 0868405981, 9780868405988, 9780585484976 2003 Edited by Medulin on 26 March 2015 at 4:36am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Stolan Senior Member United States Joined 4035 days ago 274 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese | Message 32 of 35 03 April 2015 at 7:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
English and Indonesian are not AT ALL on the same level, English is absolutely, positively NOT AT ALL like Indonesian. While English is the easiest Germanic language, English is not just a matter of memorizing vocabulary and idioms, Indonesian is closer to that, but I admit, were it to have a large vowel/consonant range and tones, it would be more complex overall than something like Cambodian or Thai since despite lacking inflection Indonesian has derivation (albeit very transparent and watery in a way) unlike typical isolating southeast Asian language. The difficulties of English are not just a matter of idioms as you claim, this is some sort of equivalence fallacy that people use when they discover there are languages that have less or no inflection than English so as to not harm their preconception that English is the least complex due to having less inflection than some languages. English is more complex than Indonesian, the phonology, syntax, and derivation overall. MUCH MORE. Edited by Stolan on 04 April 2015 at 1:53am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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