How well is the usage of English in Indonesia other than for business purposes? In public schools, is it a compulsory subject or is it a choice? As in Singapore and Malaysia, English is widely spoken but I understand that Singapore and malaysia were once colonised by the British so that explains why English language is common over there. In Thailand, it is a bit difficult to use English. So how about Indonesia? Can you just communicate in English to everyone?

no :p
not to everyone.
in general the english of indonesians suck.

^ 1+

Indonesia, wait, you guys where colonised by the Dutch. So do you get any sorts of Dutch influences?

wait, too fuçkin much!

^ perfect example

heheh. and the funny thing is they dont even know the words are from the dutch language.
they think it's just indonesian!

Dank je wel (kinda like german, Danke Schon), anyway, do you have any examples? I dunnoh just kinda curious.

kakus (kak huis/’rumah berak’/poop house)

BH (bra) stands from bustehouder (milk holder)

ember (pail) from emmer.

onderdil from ondordeel (’bagian-bagian bawah’ or under parts)

duit (batavian language for money) from deewt, a terminology used by the pirates for gold and silver coins

Kios (small store), from kiosk, derived from kiek hoske, (looking at a little house)

Maskapai (Airline), from maatschappij, originally is mee te scheppen, means taking part in.

Tradisi (tradition), from traditie, originally from trouw diets zijn, means faith on this one.

Kado (present/gift), from cadeau or adeuatje, originally derived from ik doe het je that uttered so fast so it became kdoetje, means: I made it for you.

source: http://www2.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0305/31/naper/338038.htm

Handuk (towel) from handdoek, Knalpot, bekleding, vermaak, achteruit, absurd, afdruk, belasting, bestek, bom, bretel, debat, degen, drama, elan, fabel, flop, fotomodel, fraude, giro, gratis, handel, harem, hutspot, inklaring, jas, kabinet, kanker, kansel, krat, lading, loket, marmer, masker, matras, mondeling, nota, oma, onderneming, opa, pan, pat, adopsi, apel, asprak, bagasi, bandit, baterai, bioskop, debil, demisioner, duane, ekonomi, energi, ereksi, finansiil, frustrasi, garansi, generasi, granat, higien, makelar.

hhaha.
and basicly all the words ending with -si and -isme

Hahaha…ya, Blanda should’ve sued the Indo for stealing their words.

And even funnier is when Indo thinks the stolen foreign words to mean
something else altogether like:
absen=present, preman=gangsta/civilian, warning =tobacco brand, hotmix=asphalt,
odol=tooth paste, free sex= sex bebas (not necessarily gratis), stainless steel=merek panci yg bagus.

But I bet English, Blanda n other do pretty similar thing too.

only the older indonesians know how to speak dutch.. when Dutch colonized us I believe only the privileged were given proper education, the rest were left for forced labor (kerja rodi).

As for English speaking Indonesians, not that common. Most Indonesians who live their entire life in Indonesia know only written english but less than perfect conversational skill.

I have a friend whose from indonesia and there english is quite bad. oh man!!!!!!

just wanna noe what do you think of their english: please rate their English. The first batch is Agnes Monica-Nicholas Saputra. They both live and raise entirely in Indonesia. Agnes learned English in LIA course, Nicholas speaks English coz his daddy is a German.
part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXIF3Wbec2o
part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdvXiJwTnNc
part3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sufwGgm6dYY
IMO, she makes some mistakes there, but her accent is okay.

the next one is Mocca, they are all live and raise in Indonesia for their whole life too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHgZGKkrEl8

well duh its good actually. I bet my arse they have good and less rigid teachers or tutors or from a very early age they where already being taught to it.

As for me, 2 years in kindergarten under a tough regimen of Catholic Paulinian nuns did the trick, and had no other "barok" (for us that hard accent) hints on my lines of course if you started early like 5 years old or so. Hence pronounciation is quite easy no "F" and "P" mixing nor the abhorrent "L" and "R" mixing like Engrish or Chinglish.

Hence the key here is if you guys are willing to make you're children speak english, start early. ANd before long they can do the long sought after sponteneous dialouges in english without the annoying pause or "uhhhhhhhhh" as you try to translate you're indonesian word to english. And the later years spent to expand vocabulary adding more rarely used words and USE them at least like "whilst", "asinine", "inane", "albeit", "douchebag", "git", "arse", and many more.

Curious thing though, in my uni, Ateneo De Naga, you can always find a handful of indonesians or koreans always attending english classes here. Hell I never thought it was that popular, nah, maybe just an isolated case.

(well thats it for me, straying too long in Indo chat, so please do pardon my presence.)

Well my friend was studying in Manila some years ago....
He said Phillippines has become popular study destination for Indonesian because the cost is relatively cheaper than other Asian coutry and Australia. And he taught me some tagalog dirty word... which surprisingly a lil bit similar to Indonesian one....





That's okay, had a pleasant stay here in Indo chat...





Panekuk (Pannekoek), Poferces (Poffertjes), hehe food is all I can think of...
I've got that liguistic awakening and realized Indonesian is rich of loanwords back in highschool when studying French...:
Tante, Biro (Bureau), Gratis (Gratuit), Kudeta (Coup d'etat), Depan (Devant).

Actually I remember an old comedy show when they featured Komeng as satay vendor with a Belgian tourist (as themselves), Komeng gave this Belgian woman satay and he said "Nih buat lo..., Gratis!"... (This is for you, its free!) This Belgian looks surprised and tought that Komeng speak French .... And she tried to reply it in Bahasa Indonesia "Terima Kasih!" maybe to reply an appreciation for Komeng attempt to speak her language (Belgian speak French and Germany aren't they..?).

Belgians speak ala French Lite but dont say that in front of them. Them Waloons and Flemish and Dutch.........*shudders*.....I believe there is a dialect near the French Swiss border that does have that unholy French-German combination. Weird.

Bonjour Herr Maja. lol

HHAHAHA! you're kidn me right?
the dutch hate germans for not knowin any other languages than their own, or they refuse to speak english when speakin to dutch.
FYI, germans in general dont know any english (maybe they're evenworse than indonesians) just like any other european country.
AFAIK only the dutch and belgians can speak english. i guess scandinavians too.




what the hell they know "panekuk" as well? hahaha i learned last year they know poferces
bureau is french yea but it's also english and dutch.
tante + gratis is dutch too.
emang "devant" means depan? heheh didnt know.

in belgium they speak dutch n french, not german.
belgia utara = flemish = belgian dutch. they have there own accent and it sux (a real turn off when a girl speaks flemish).
belgia selatan = wallonian = french.

there's also some portuguese words used in Indonesia

armada -fleet (Port. armada)
belanda -Dutch, Holland, any westerner (Port. Holanda)
bendera -flag (Port. bandeira)
beranda -verandah (Port. varanda)
biola -violin (Port. viola)
boneka -doll (Port. boneca)
dansa -dance (Port. danca)
gereja -church (Port. igreja)
keju -cheese (Port. queijo)
kemeja -shirt (Port. camisa)
kereta -chariot/car (Port. carreta)
lemari -closet (Port. armário)

some manado words my parents would use all the time (Portuguese/dutch)

Standard Indonesian - Manado loanword - Language of Origin

kursi - kadera - Portuguese (cadeira)
penyu - tuturuga - Portuguese (tartaruga)
tenggorokan -gargantang -Portuguese (garganta)
saputangan -lenso -Portuguese (lenço)
garpu -vorek -Dutch (vork)
nenek -oma -Dutch (oma)
kakek -opa -Dutch (opa)
Paman -om -Dutch (oom)
Bibi -tante -Dutch (tante)



Danish people are good English speaker if I'm not mistaken

yea i meant denmark also.
but i see now there are 3 different definitions of "scandinavia".
1 of them includes denmark too :p

Once, I was in a restaurant in Jkt. I was tired, so I decided to order in English. The lady who served me could understand me, but replied in Indonesian.

In defence of the Germans, younger generation Germans speak excellent English. Better than dutch youngsters imho.

really? about fuçkin time they do :p

Nicholas father is (was) a German but his Indonesian sucked, so he spoke in English with everyone including his family. I think that's why Nico's English is good. I notice that nowadays little children (from middle class families) speak English very well and they beat the older ones.

Hey Furan I'm curious, is it true that Nico's mom is Ida Iasha...?
My reporter friend said so.
If that's was true, he really succeed to outshine his mom in acting world. I mean public hardly known about Nico's detailed family background.

^ I don't think so... you mean this Ida Iasha rite?



she's just a bit older than Tamara, yanno


Nico's mom is pure Mojokerto woman. AFAIK Ida has 2 children but still in middle school. btw, Ida Iasha is so pretty!

his English is ok la... not to say perfect or that fluent. but is he Muslim, fur?

He never reveals his belief, and Indonesians in general respect that. It's a private matter after all.

true... just curious aja...

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sonnerie gratuite

ok bye!

what the hell they know "panekuk" as well? hahaha i learned last year they know poferces biggrin.gif
sonnerie gratuite

who are "they"? of course we know panekuk lah..we'd been living with the Dutch for 350 years, yanno!

as like dutch know about tempeh, nasi goreng, babi ketjap...