Learning Bahasa Indonesia (Introduction)

Why should we learn Indonesian Language? Indonesian language (or Bahasa Indonesia) is the official national language of Indonesia. It is based on a version of Malay from the Riau islands in western Indonesia. It was first declared the official language with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, following the 1928 unifying-language declaration in the Indonesian Youth Pledge.

Almost 100% of Indonesia's 240 million inhabitants speak the language and it is one of most widely spoken languages in the world. Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are fluent in another regional language or local dialect (examples include Minangkabau, Batak, Atjeh, Sundanese, Javanese, Madura, Balinese, Papua, etc) that are commonly used at home and within the local community.

Over the years, the Bahasa Indonesian, mostly through trade contacts, international media and international relationship, have been influenced and expanded by foreign languages such as Sanskrit, Tamil, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch, and English. By having the ability to communicate in Bahasa Indonesia, foreigners, travellers, business people or whoever will feel so helpfull to relate to the Indonesian people, get comfort where you want to go, and get safe much more out of visits. Moreover, there are a lot of beautiful natural tourism destinations in this country, not just BALI.

So, learning Bahasa Indonesia should be very enjoyable, due to the fact that it is simple language to learn. Almost many of the words are spelled and read as they are. The basic word order/syntax in Bahasa Indonesian is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). There are not any changes of the VERB in a different adverb of time.


For example:
I read a book (Saya membaca buku)
Alice reads a book (Alice membaca buku)

I am reading a book (Saya sedang membaca buku)
Alice is reading a book (Alice sedang membaca buku)

I read a book yesterday (Saya membaca buku kemarin)
Alice read a book yesterday (Alice membaca buku kemarin)

I will read a book tomorrow (Saya akan membaca buku besok)
Alice will read a book tomorrow (Alice akan membaca buku besok)



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Is it so simple? We will come back……
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Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language
http://www.bahasakita.com/
http://pusatbahasa.diknas.go.id/kbbi/index.php
http://kamus.orisinil.com/
http://bahasa-indonesia.com/index.html
http://www.asia-atlas.com/maps/indonesia-map.jpg
http://www.digitcom-tech.co.ae/world_big.jpg