Indonesian/Lessons/Introduction
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^ Indonesian ^ | Why Learn Indonesian? | How to use this Indonesian Wikibook >>
[edit] Why Learn Indonesian
Hi, welcome to this Indonesian tutorial.
You might be wondering why on earth you should learn Indonesian. Allow me to persuade you.
[edit] Demographic Reasons
Studying Indonesian means you can communicate with more than 210 million Indonesians, only a small percentage of whom are able to speak English. Besides, the Malay language is a close relative to Indonesian. You can understand both with ease since there are only some minor differences in vocabulary. Therefore, learning Indonesian translates to the immense access of about 230 million people—including those in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.
[edit] Practical Reasons
Indonesian is derived from Malay, a language of South Sumatra which was broadly used for trade purposes in the Malay World (now Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore) for centuries. When Indonesian start to fight its independence as a nation,the Malay language was renamed "Bahasa Indonesia" (it was renamed in 1928 while Indonesia gain its independence in 1945), while in Malaysia the national language is still referred to as "Bahasa Melayu". Indonesian is not more than a variant of Malay. The pure "Bahasa Melayu" was still spoken by some people in Sumatra.
Not even half of Indonesians are native speakers of the Indonesian language, especially those living in rural areas. Many have as their mother tongues Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Buginese, Batak, Minangkabau, different Chinese dialects, or some other from the diverse array of local languages. But you could hardly find someone who can't speak Indonesian ; it is understandable at least as a second language till the most remote islands.
What a remarkable vehicular language Indonesian is! It is the language of education across the country, from the primary school to the university ; the language of the administration, media, literature and of everyday in the big cities. It is a must for a foreigner living there. And if you are on a business trip to Jakarta, or on vacation in Bali, knowing some Indonesian won't hurt. For those who are just curious language learners or scholarly-oriented people, Indonesian has an immense collection of literature among Asian languages.
[edit] Linguistic Reasons
Indonesian is very easy—honest! Learning it is a valuable experience in itself, and what more: you can pick it up within a few weeks. Here's why it is easy:
- No tenses. Indonesian has no tenses at all. Adding time indicators (like yesterday, next week, etc.) and aspect markers (done, in process, will, etc.) into your sentences will do.
- No genders or cases. Indonesian has no genders or gramatical cases attached to the nouns. This means that there is one less rule to learn.
- Simple plurals. Unlike in say, German, plurals are very simple in Indonesian. You only need to repeat the noun (e.g. buku → buku-buku), or adding quantitative indicators (i.e. many, few, etc.) into the sentence (e.g. beberapa buku → some books).
- Simple conjugation system. Indonesian has a very simple conjugation system. Unlike Indo-European languages such as Spanish or French, words are conjugated to form new words based on the original word. For example: satu means one, whereas bersatu means to unite. This also means fewer words to memorize and you can (sort of) mix-and-match words with known conjugations to form your own word. The catch is that some words cannot be conjugated with some suffixes or prefixes, but you'll learn that it's simple.
- Uses the 26 Latin-alphabet characters, which means that there is no need to relearn the alphabet, or use special software to type.
- Consistent spelling. Indonesian is very phonetic, just like Italian. Every character is consistently spelled the same way in any word, with only few exceptions. If you happen to find a new word, you will always be able to pronounce it correctly.
- No Tones. Indonesian word stress typically fall into the first syllable of the original word. However, no matter where you put the stress on, people will still recognize it.
- Sentence form is similar to English. Indonesian sentence structure is similar to English: Subject + Verb + [Object]. So, you can form sentences in Indonesian easily.
- Everything is regular. Since there are no tenses and no genders, and uses simple plurals, everything is regular. Even the word-forming system is regular with some simple rules. You don't need to memorize anything outside the rules.
Okay, I hope now you can see why Indonesian is worthy to learn.
[edit] The Catch
Now, the catch is that every language has a culture attached to it. Indonesian is no exception. Since the way Indonesian people think differs from most westerners, there are some hurdles in learning it. For example, most western people prefer active sentences, while Indonesians usually prefer passive sentences and hide the subject if it is not important.
Also, in spoken Indonesian, the grammatical rules are often broken by lots of shortcuts, usually specific to the region. Not to mention the slangs and idioms. However, all Indonesians that finished grade school should be able to speak and comprehend proper Indonesian.
^ Indonesian ^ | Why Study Indonesian? | How to use this Indonesian Wikibook >> WHY STUDY INDONESIAN? Indonesian is spoken by roughly 220 million people as either their first or second language. Combined with the knowledge of Indonesian history, culture and customs, Indonesian language skills can become the key to communicating effectively with the large Indonesian communities in both the Australian and Asian settings. With various cooperative forums being established between Indonesia and Australia, more students are recognising the usefulness of their knowledge and skills in Indonesian. Employers like these skills. As one of Australia's closest neighbours, Indonesia is undergoing a tremendous change, and it will be interesting to study the change and to follow its direction.
Introductory Lessons  0.01 Introduction |
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