Nydave wroteI only managed to get to lesson 2,,then I stopped,in that lesson they say that apa kabar means whats new or whats news,,something like that,yet if I use google translate it gives a meaning of how are you,
Is it possible that the Indonesian language has different meanings to the same words,
One thing I really don't understand is why Indonesians will ask you ,,can you speak Bahasa,the word Bahasa means language,so yes we all speak Bahasa of some kind,but probably not Bahasa Indonesia,which is how I feel the question should be asked in the first place,
I have asked some natives why they ask the question like that and all I ever get is ya I know but I cant really explain it,
Bahasa Indonesia does in fact have a lot of words and phrases that can mean different things Nydave.
Some single words in Bahasa Ingris can have several words in Bahasa Indonesian to describe the same thing depending on the context of the use of that word.
e.g. Bahasa Ingris: When. When? In Bahasa Indonesian, "When" in future tense, as in "when do I need to go is 'kapan'. Past tense, 'waktu' e.g. "when I went to" and 'kalau' which can be used in different contexts but can also mean 'if' in other sentences.
Apa kabar is a generally accepted greeting for "how are you?" However, "how are you" is more formally "bagaimana yang anda?" or shortened to "bagaimana anda?
Anda:You can be replaced with the more familiar word 'kamu', so once again you can see that there are different words used in differing situations. There is a formal way of using the language, a way of using it when (kalau) in a more familiar situation and then myriad abbreviations of sentences, words and phrases.
e.g. "thank you", "thanks" : "terima kasih", "makasih".
Then there are the nuanced regional differences of the language throughout Indonesia and the reason for that is because Bahasa Indonesian is a young language that was only instituted as a National language in 1928 but there are hundreds of languages spoken across the archipelago with Basa Bali, for example, being the mother tongue and Bahasa Indonesia the 2nd language for Balinese.
So...context, formal/informal, slang, abbreviations and situation can all determine the use of words when speaking and that brings me to "do you speak Bahasa?".
Presuming that the person asking you this question is Indonesian then the thinking is that you know what particular "bahasa" the questioner is referring to, hence the dropping of the word "Indonesia".
I hope this has helped make things as clear as mud Nydave. Selamat belajar Bahasa Indonesia.
p.s. Forget google translate all together. Try sederet.com
