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

This has to be one of the very best language-study books ever written. I particularly like the way it helps you learn vocabulary. It gives you a long list of new words in every chapter, but it doesn't simply let you sink or swim after that. Instead, it follows up with abundant drills by repetition, until the words, and their proper usage in plausible sentences, are practically branded into your memory. For me, at least, this seems to be the most effective way to learn a foreign language. I am tempted to recommend this book even to language buffs who are not particularly interested in Indonesian, because it is that good. It is so effective that you can't help but learn, and learn comprehensively. It is calculated to turn a merely casual interest in Indonesian into devotion. I enjoy learning languages, and I only wish that more language books would follow this one's technique. I started out trying to learn Indonesian from the book entitled "Teach Yourself Indonesian," but was soon discouraged. Try this instead.

As with the first order, the book came in new condition and is easy to use.

No pretenses are made that this book is written for the serious student. If you are just looking to spend a few weeks in Bali and want to pick up some phrases to get by, this is not the language book for you. There is in fact very little material in the book that would be useful to the average tourist. The goal of this book is to help the motivated student build a strong foundation in Indonesian grammar. It is assumed that you will read more on your own as your understanding of the grammatical structure of the Indonesian language enables you to do so. Vocabulary will therefore be built by repeatedly referring to dictionaries. What I like most about the book is its step wise towards helping students master increasingly complicated sentence structures. I took the author's advice to heart and mastered the material page by page. As I look back, I am actually surprised at how far I have come from where I had begun. Even though you probably cannot read an article from say [...] without painfully looking up the majority of the words from a dictionary after finishing book one, it becomes possible to do so whereas it would have been very unlikely for those who have not been introduced to the Indonesian language to get the sense of what the text in any news article says. It is a great text for those who care to make the long journey.

I'm really satisfied with this book! After three months of self-study, I was already able to communicate about everyday life issues in Bahasa Indonesia! It's well articulated and well done, really! You shouldn't miss this book! A+!

This book is ideal for the absolute beginner who wants a systematic introduction to the Indonesian language without overload. The 18 chapters are carefully structured so that each text can be understood with the words and grammar that have been covered up to that point. There are lots of exercises involving word substition that help the student to gain fluency. (I found this very useful, as I was learning on my own without a teacher.) After you have completed the book you are able to ask questions, tell the time, and say a lot else besides, and you get a good grounding in grammar including, for example, the object focus (kind of passive, very often used in Indonesian) which will stand you in good stead later. By the very nature of the book, the quantity of vocabulary covered is not overwhelming, but there is a 24 page Indonesian to English mini-dictionary at the back, and the second book (Bahasa Indonesia : Book 2 : Introduction to Indonesian Language and Culture) makes up for this deficit.