Bahasa Indonesia: Book 1 : Introduction to Indonesian Language and Culture

by Yohanni Johns, Robyn Stokes

This two-volume set presents graded courses in Bahasa Indonesia. It is used by universities all over the world and is accessible to those who wish to master the language through self-study at the intermediate and advanced levels.

Genres: Language

388 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 1995

Reviews

[Hattivat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book teaches you the old-fashioned, official version of the language that nobody ever uses in natural everyday communication. This kind of language is only used in formal writing and speeches. You will hardly ever hear two Indonesians use this variety of language to communicate. You guess that will make your speech sound overly formal and at times even funny, and it's not something we want when we learn a new language, is it? Learning this kind of language for the purpose of basic communication is somewhat akin to learning Classical Latin in order to speak with Italians.
The book provides many examples and exercises, which makes it useful nevertheless, but I strongly recommend that you take its advice with a grain of salt and not use it as your only source of information, buy some "Colloquial Indonesian" to compliment it.
And in case you are misled like so many other Westerners: No, Formal Indonesian is not the "correct" version and Colloquial Indonesian is not a stigmatized "slang", they are both varieties of Malay, equal in every respect other than official endorsement. My former landlady prefers to speak in Colloquial Indonesian and she is a middle-class women in her 70s. Yep, seventies. A language spoken by seventy-year-old ladies cannot be considered "slang", can it?

[Tracy Duvall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This newer edition is a reprint of the 1977 edition, as far as I can tell. But it's the best single source for learning Indonesian grammar that I have found. It's clear and quite comprehensive, with a fair amount of exercises. Unfortunately, many of the exercises have no answer key, and apparently the recording to go with the book are no longer sold, so it won't help anyone's pronunciation very much.

While this book covers much grammar and vocabulary -- way more than books for travelers -- it does not teach how to order in a restaurant, find the bathroom, etc. So, ideally, a learner would switch between "Keren!" for colloquial Indonesian and this one for a more accurate presentation of grammar.

Finally, it's terribly outdated some ways. For example, it doesn't present the second-person singular term, 'Anda,' in this volume at all.

[Will Buckingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely clear and well set-out. True, I did end up speaking a slightly comical literary kind of Indonesian that needed the edges taken off it for everyday use, and so it is worth being aware that this is some distance from the colloquial language, and therefore not relying solely on the book. But for clarity and a systematic approach to Indonesian grammar, I've come across nothing better.

[Irwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was using this as a reference when teaching Indonesian at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.