I love the warung (roadside food stall) signs - they're like little primers in learning Indonesian for me.
Indonesian is very easy to learn. In fact, it is rated as one of the simplest languages in the world, as there are no tenses, plurals or genders and often one word can convey the meaning of a whole sentence.
Furthermore, it is an easy language to pronounce; there are no tonal complications, and it uses the same Roman alphabet as English - unlike most other languages in Asia (with the exception of Malay on which Bahasa Indonesia is based). It is also a delightfully poetic language - hari is 'day' and mata is 'eye', thefeore matahari is the 'eye of the day', i.e. 'the sun'.
Okay, puzzle over these for a while. Do the cats do the baking in the oven, or are they baked?! And do they sell dog and cat mobiles - cute hanging sculptures with cats and dogs, and maybe even Bengal tigers? Look again:
"Cat" means "Paint" in Indonesian and is pronounced "chat"
"Bengkel" means "Garage"
"Dodog" means "Body Work" (although the English 'body' is also used)
"Oven" means "Oven"
"Mobil" means "Car"
And now you can guess that a Cat Oven is where paint is baked onto cars. And the Dodog Cat Mobil sign is for a body shop that also does painting.
However, my favourite is 'knalpot'. How much more descriptive than our 'exhaust pipe'!
Here are a few Indonesian words and phrases to get you started:
Selamat pagi – good morning
Selamat siang – good afternoon: generally used for the hours from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
Selamat sore – good afternoon: generally used from 2:00 pm until 6:00 pm.
Selamat malam – good evening
Terima kasih – thank you
Saya – me or I (there are several other words for me or I, but saya will do fine)
Anda – you (there are a number of other words for you, but anda will do you fine)
Mereka – they
Kami – we (not including the person being spoken to)
Kita – we (including the person being spoken to)
Dia – he or she (gender is determined by context)
Mau – want
Makan – eat
Makanan – food
Tidur – sleep
Sakit – sick
Pergi – to go
Beli – to buy
Mahal – expensive
Murah – cheap or inexpensive
Ini – this
Itu – that
Saya mau beli ini – I want to buy this
Saya mau makan – I want to eat
Saya mau pergi – I want to go
Pulang – to go home
Saya mau pulang – I want to go home
Rumah – house
Hotel – hotel
Minum – to drink
Minuman – a drink
Air – water
Saya mau minum air– I want to drink water
Bagus – good (like that thing is good)
Baik – good or ok (like he is a good person)
Betul - correct
Laki - man
Perempuan – woman (there are other terms as well, but everyone will understand this)
Belum – not yet
Tidak - no
Kamar - room
Saya mau sewa kamar yang murah – I want to rent a cheap room
Berapa – how much, how many
Apa kabar – How are things?
Cewek – girl
Cowok – boy
Anak - child
Anak-anak –children
Dengan - with
Kamar mandi - bathroom
Now let’s try to put a few words together from the list. I’ll take the words for they, want, and eat. I come up with the sentence – mereka mau makan. I want to eat. Word order is flexible in Indonesian and often depends on the emphasis that the speaker wants, but you can just generally go with the English subject-verb-object construction and you’ll be fine. You should also know that the adjective comes after the noun, so that if I want to say “my dog”, I would say anjing saya with anjing meaning dog and saya meaning my. If I said saya anjing, what I would be saying is “I am a dog.” Get the point?
