Indonesian can be hard to find resources for online – so this list will get you prepped in no time. Whether you’re travelling for work or vacation take a look at these Indonesian learning resources.
Overview of Indonesia
The Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia/Oceania that contains over 17,000 islands. Java, which is the most populous island holds more than half of the country’s population. (Approx 279 million people)
According to Wikipedia 87% of the country practices Islam while 10% are Christian. The capital is Jakarta.
There are over 700 regional languages in Indonesia but the only official language is Indonesian.
The first Europeans to arrive in Indonesia were the Portuguese in 1512, soon followed by the Dutch and British. The Dutch took control of Indonesia around 1602.
Indonesia received it’s independence from the Netherlands in 1945. (Recognized in 1949)
The Indonesian Language
Indonesian is part of the Austronesian language family, and is considered to be a variety of the Malay language.
There are 43 million native speakers and 156 million second language speakers. They write in the Latin/Roman alphabet. (Same as English)
Indonesian’s word order is subject-verb-object (SVO) which is similar to most European languages. They don’t mark grammatical case or gender.
Where to Learn Indonesian Online
Live Lingua (Beginner to Intermediate)
You can take free beginner Indonesian courses here. There are currently 6 to choose from and contain 44 ebooks and 190 audio files. Choose between Indonesian and Bahasa Indonesian course sets here. Each consists of 3 books/courses.
Indonesian Online (Beginner to Advanced)
This seems to be the best paid resource right now. You have three options to choose from: Beginner access for 2 years at $90, Advanced access for 3 years for $120 or both Beginner & Advanced for 5 years at $195. You can start from an A1 level and go all the way to C2. This seems to be a pretty great deal.
Leocsen (Beginner)
If you just want to get your feet wet with some vocabulary and phrases, this free site gives you that. The website does seem to be outdated (kind of like the previous one) but the content is solid. If you don’t mind a mid 2000’s looking interface, then I recommend you give this a go.
50 Languages (Beginner)
This site has a free phrasebook that you can use to get started with. They have paid content as well, but I’m only mentioning them here for the free content. It seems quite basic so I wouldn’t pay for anything here personally. The free stuff should give you enough info that you can save your money for more advanced, harder to find resources.
UKBI (Advanced)
The UKBI is Indonesia’s official language proficiency test. This isn’t a resource but rather a link to their page if you’re curious. If you want to prove your skills, you should check out their site. This is for advanced learner’s as the site is completely in Indonesian.
BIPA (Advanced)
Prepare for the Indonesian proficiency test with official materials. I have linked the official materials website here. If you are living outside of Indonesia I would see if I could find these books online. Somewhere like Abebooks might have what you’re looking for.
2000 Word Vocab Practice (Beginner to Intermediate)
If you just want to expand your vocabulary for free, use the Memrise app. This linked resource will give you access to the words along with spaced repetition practice. Memrise is absolutely worth making a free account for, and has many other languages too.
Indonesian Pod 101 (Beginner to Intermediate)
There is paid content on this site, but I’ve instead linked a free 4 hours video basics course. They have a ton of material you can consume for free and if you need more, check out their site. Youtube in general will have a lot of tips and tricks videos. Add in videos to your daily study routine.
Kamus (All Levels)
It’s always good to have a language-specific online dictionary to look up words for. The largest English to Indonesian dictionary is Kamus. Look up words and hear their pronunciation too.
Free Exams from Goethe (Intermediate to Advanced)
If you’re trying to exam prep, get some practice in with Goethe tests. They offer many languages and I have linked their Indonesian practice tests here.
Easy Languages (Beginner)
This youtube channel is offered in a variety of languages and my favorite thing about it is that it layers the subtitles in both languages. You might need to replay their videos to get every last bit, but the practice you get by doing this is worth it.
Omniglot (Beginner)
An old fashioned looking site that has some good info on it. I’ve linked their page about the alphabet and sounds. Scroll down though and you’ll see a bunch of other beginner friendly resources.
Latihan Soal UKBI (Advanced)
This is the only online test prep book I could find. There are likely much better materials if you live in other parts of the world, so I would mainly grab this if you can’t find anything else. The book seems to be monolingual so your level should be pretty high if you’re considering this.
Where to go from here
If your goal is the get good enough to pass the UKBI, I recommend getting professional instruction. There are tons of people you can search for from iTalki to help you out. Additionally you can go ask specific questions at HiNative. You can try and get contact info from foreign student scholarship program directors, and ask them via Whatsapp. (Darmasiswa)
If you’re outside of the country and live somewhere where this language is uncommon, you might have a hard time finding materials. (I’m US based and can hardly find any). You might need to rely more on interacting with people to in order to learn, and focus on getting yourself to Indonesia.