learning the language

[Kimbar]

May be a good site to help learn the local lingo.. :lol:

http://www.byki.com/download/fpg/Indonesian.shtml

[FreoGirl]

Have you tried it out? Is it any good?

My personal experience living in Indonesia was that while it is very useful to be able to speak Bahasa Indonesia, to really get into life there I needed to learn the local language (i.e. the language everyone actually speaks on a day to day basis in the place you are living).

I wonder how that is for other expats? Is that your experience too? or do you get by with some Indonesian only?

[BaliLife]

freogirl..

i'm, as u know from perth... but my wife is indonesian.. we speak 50% english and 50% indo at home.. our kids are bilingual.. you could not be more right.. learning the colloquial is what lets you integrate and connect with people, whereas proper bahasa will just make u look like some dude who studied the language in their own country.. i can figure my way slowly through formal bahasa, (when i rarely have to read a newspaper, etc), but when i'm in surabay or bali, i only speak colloquial (in sby a lot of javanese, but i don't know the local bali dialect so it's just the regular colloquial there for me i'm afraid).. but what i love about the language is that even within colloquial dialects there are so meny levels of appropriateness depending on who ur speaking to..

ya wis, ya..

ct..

[matsaleh]

I tend to agree with you, FreoGirl. While most people do speak Indonesian, the Balinese tend to speak to each other in the local dialect.

From past experience, I've found that the easist way to absorb a language is to listen to locals speaking to each other and take note of pronunciation, inflection, sentence structure and the use of idioms, etc. Not so easy to do when bahasa Indonesia is not the preferred language!

In fact, over the past 6 months I think I've learned nearly as much basa Bali as I have bahasa Indonesia. The problem is, now I sometimes confuse the two. :roll:

[bolli]

May be a good site to help learn the local lingo.. :lol:

http://www.byki.com/download/fpg/Indonesian.shtml

yes, got it from iBopp too. :lol: :lol:

[Tinkerbelle]

I would really like to learn either Indonesian or the Balinese language but not sure what is more used in Bail? Any help as to which one I should learn?. Do most of the Balinese know both languages. I might go and do a course in one of them not sure where though.

[FreoGirl]

Glad to see I'm not alone. I should point out that Balinese language is not a dialect of Bahasa Indonesia, but a separate language in itself. So would be the language spoken in Surabaya (perhaps a dialect of Javanese? or is it a whole language in itelf).

Sasak, which my husband and all his family speak, is quite a difficult language - and I've not seen it written. I've also heard several dialects of that language, my knowledge of it is mostly 'beach slang' spoken around Senggigi and Mangsit in Lombok. Sasak is also spoken in some parts of Bali around Padang Bai.

I'm with you Mats - after living in Lombok for a year, I learned as much Sasak as Indonesian - but I often don't remember which is which! except for those really hard Sasak words, they are unmistakable. :roll:

Tinkerbelle, I've never heard of Balinese language being taught in Perth - you can do Indonesian language courses at Central Tafe.

[BaliLife]

Unless you only want to be able to communicate with balinese, just learning balinese will limit u quite a bit.. But then again bahasa will make you sound like a person who's learnt the language from books alone.. A good trade-off is to learn colloquial indonesian.. It overlaps with bahasa and often with local dialects and EVERY indonesian speaks it.. There's 3 levels in indo that I'm aware of.. There's bahasa, then there's colloquial, then there's the language of the region, for example bahasa jawa, bahasa sunda, bahasa sasak, bahasa bali, etc.. I don't know much about other dialects (if that's what u choose to call the regional languages although there are credible arguements that these are not just dialects but rather languages of their own), but bahasa jawa has many levels within it.. I.e, a master would speak to their pembantu in the most kasar (the lowest respectful dialect), while the pembantu would speak to the master in the most respectful dialect.. I hate that but that's the culture I guess.. My wife who was born and raised in sby, but went to australia in grade 10 doesnlt even understand all of the javanese dialects.. Sometimes if her mom is blasting one of the servants, she doesn't understand because of the dialect.. But I suggest learning colloquial indo, not bahasa, and then tie that in with balinese or whatever regional language u wanna learn..

Ct

[Jimbo]

I agree with Balilife. I never learned FORMAL indonesian and I have travelled extensively around the whole of indonesia. For me Bahasa Pasar (Market language ) is the one most likely to get you by.

My wife speaks also Torajan but it is of limited use outside that community. IMO anyone staying in indonesia for any length of time should learn colloquial Indonesian as it is the lingua franca of Indonesia and is designed to have communication between all local dialects.

[Ipanema]

Ok my two cents worth. I am learning Bahasa Indonesian through a private tutor.

What I have been told, people learning it at TAFE etc can converse in writing or text messaging but often find it difficult when they have to actually speak, but our teacher tells us that is because we are adults and the way adults learn.

When I have used Bahasa Indonesian I have found everyone understands me as opposed to using English. When we do business in Tegalalang I have quite a few suppliers who do not speak English but understand Bahasa Indonesian and me speaking it eventually.

Our driver want us to learn Bahasa Balinese but it is too confusing trying to learn two languages, it's hard enough to learn one.

One day (hopefully) next year I hope to travel to other island and I think my best bet is learning Bahasa Indonesian.

Tina