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:)