Short Introduction using Bahasa Indonesia

For now I would like to post a short introduction that you could do to tell others about yourself in a simple Bahasa Indonesia way:

Halo selamat pagi, nama saya Vince, saya dari Amerika, saya datang ke Indonesia seminggu yang lalu, salam kenal.

And this is how it would be in English:

Hello good morning, my name is Vince, I am from America, I came to Indonesia a week ago, nice to meet you.

You could always change good morning into good afternoon (selamat siang if it's around 12 pm/ selamat sore if it's around 3 pm), or you could say good evening (selamat malam).

You could also change a week ago into two weeks ago (dua minggu yang lalu), three days ago (tiga hari yang lalu), or yesterday (kemarin/ you could also say sehari yang lalu for yesterday but it's not economical), depends on the your arrival.

Now, you could practice with this sentence:

Hello good evening, my name is Jennifer, I am from New Zealand, I just got here yesterday, great to see you all.

Answer to Quiz 1.1 (Simple Present Tense: Part 1)

The followings are the answers for quiz 1.1 (simple present tense, part 1)

1. Saya seorang ayah            : I am a father.

2. Dia seorang pengembara   : He is a wonderer.

3. Kamu anak laki-lakiku      : You are my son.

4. Mereka tentara                 : They are soldiers.

5. Kita buruh                        : We are labours.

6. Ini rumah saya                  : This is my house.

Ok guys, hope you make it right, will make more quizzes in the following posts, keep it fun and simple, no need to rush.

Learning Simple Present Tense in Bahasa Indonesia (Part 1)

As you may know that in English there are several forms of tenses, one of them is Simple Present Tense. In Bahasa Indoensia we don't have this type of complicated grammar, we stated the time frame directly in the sentence in the form of word, i.e 'I am a sailor ---> Saya seorang pelaut', 'I was a sailor ---> Saya DULU seorang pelaut'. DULU means IN THE PAST. The conclusion is, we need to have adequate vocabularies that expresses TIME in Bahasa Indonesia. This time, I would share few examples of simple present tense sentences and its translation in Bahasa Indonesia, they are as follows:

1. I am a teacher ---> Saya seorang guru.
2. You are a lawyer ---> Kamu seorang pengacara.
3. He/She is a farmer ---> Dia seorang petani.
4. They are my friends ---> Mereka teman saya.
5. We are students ---> Kita pelajar.
6. It is my cat ---> Ini kucing saya.

If we break down the sentences in Bahasa Indonesia, then it would be like this:

1. Saya (I) seorang (A) guru (Teacher)
2. Kamu (YOU) seorang (A) pengacara (Lawyer)
3. Dia (He/She) seorang (A) petani (Farmer), we don't differentiate male and female.
4. Mereka (They) teman (Friends) saya (My). Flipped, yess :) Try... Roti (bread) saya (my) ---> ........
5. Kita (We) pelajar (Students).
6. Ini (This) kucing (Cat) saya (My). Another flipped words example, hehehehe.

As you can see, there are no to be in Bahasa Indonesia which could state the time frame, we insert it directly inside the sentence in the form of word or not inserting them because the meaning is already clear. If I am a sailor, then that's who I am no matter what the time frame, no need to explain it if we don't need to. 

Lets have a little test with Quiz 1.1 (Simple Preset Tense), will come with answers in the next posting, sorry if it's not interactive yet, please write down on your on Word processor, i.e Ms. Word:

1. Saya seorang ayah:

2. Dia seorang pengembara:

3. Kamu anak laki-lakiku:

4. Mereka tentara:

5. Kita buruh:

6. Ini rumah saya:

Ok guys, that's all for now, no need to rush, enjoy the process and enjoy learning Bahasa Indonesia. Please refer to second or other references because I am not a linguist and I am sharing this based on my knowledge only, which I believe quite inadequate. Have fun in studying Bahasa Indonesia:)

Ini Ibu Budi (This is Budi's Mother) - My First Bahasa Indonesia Sentence

When I was in the elementary school, the first sentence that I learn is more or less like the title or being expanded into family members, such as the following:

Saat saya di sekolah dasar, kalimat pertama yang saya pelajari lebih kurang sama dengan judul diatas atau dikembangkan lagi mejadi anggota keluarga, contohnya sebagai berikut:

• Ini ibu Budi : This is Budi's mother
• Ini bapak Budi : This is Budi's father
• Ini kakek Budi : This is Budi's grandfather
• Ini nenek Budi : This is Budi's grandmother

Then the list could go to uncle (paman/om), aunt (bibi/tante), big brother/sister (kakak), little brother/sister (adik), etc. 

Kemudian daftarnya memanjang menjadi paman/om (uncle), bibi/tante (aunt), kakak (big brother/sister), adik )little brother/sister), dan sebagainya.

Eventhough I am Indonesian, but my mother tongue is not Bahasa Indonesia, it is Javanese (Bahas Jawa) since I was born from both Javanese parents. So, believe it or not, I was studying Bahasa Indonesia the same as I was studying English, in schools. The differences are, we started to study Bahasa Indonesia earlier, and we are using it as communication media in schools or public offices, or in cities. English is not being studied until we are in junior secondary, and it is rarely being used, even in English classrooms.

Walaupun saya orang Indonesia, tetapi bahasa ibu saya tidak Bahasa Indonesia, tetapi Bahasa Jawa (Javanese) karena saya dilahirkan dari kedua orang tua Jawa. Jadi bisa percaya atau tidak saya mempelajari Bahasa Indonesia seperti mempelajari Bahasa Inggris, di sekolah. Perbedaannya adalah, kami mulai belajar Bahasa Indonesia lebih awal, dan kami menggunakannya sebagai alat komunikasi di sekolah, kantor pemerintah, ataupun di kota-kota. Bahasa Inggris mulai dipelajari saat Sekolah Menengah Pertama, dan jarang digunakan, bahkan di kelas-kelas Bahasa Inggris.

About Mastering Bahasa Indonesia

I first started this blog as a promotion tool of my translation service called Kamoo (means You), as the time goes by I found out that not so many clients came to me may be due to very low impression for this blog. So I decided to change a bit about the nature of this site, the translation service will still be the one point, this is to get me still connected with the real world, if there are any interpretation job, hehehe. The second highlight of this blog is that it will focus on providing information for expats or anyone on how to learn Bahasa Indonesia, hopefully the visitors will increase and then opportunities might come, who knows :)

Saya pertama kali memulai blog ini sebagai sebuah alat promosi untuk jasa terjemahan saya yang bernama Kamoo (artinya Kamu), seiring berjalannya waktu saya menemukan bahwa tidak banyak klien yang datang ke saya mungkin dikarenakan impresi/penayangan blog ini yang rendah. Jadi saya memutuskan untuk mengubah sedikit tentang situs ini, jasa terjemahan tetap akan menjadi poin penting, hal ini untuk membuat saya tetap terhubung dengan dunia nyata, jika ada pekerjaan interpretasi , hehehe. Penekanan kedua dari blog ini adalah akan berfokus pada penyediaan informasi untuk bagaimana ekspatriat belajar Bahasa Indonesia, harapannya pengunjung akan meningkat dan kesempatan akan datang, siapa yang tahu :)

I have five years experience becoming translator for an expat working in education developing agency. I also provide services for companies such as Nyonya Meneer and development agencies in Indonesia.

Saya memiliki penglaman 5 tahun sebagai penterjemah (lisan dan tulisan) untuk seorang ekspat yang berkeja di sebuah lembaga donor di bidang pendidikan. Saya juga memberikan jasa untuk perusahaan seperti Nyonya Meneer dan juga lembaga donor di Indonesia.