Lonely Planet Indonesian Phrasebook

OK I'm not going to claim to be a student of Indonesian. But for a recent holiday there I realised that being totally unprepared probably wasn't the way to go either. So I picked this up and found it a handy little thing to flick through before and during my trip. Luckily I was with a tour group for much of my time in the country and when I was `flying solo' it was on the island of Bali, which has such a thriving tourist trade many people had far more English than I possessed of Bahasa Indonesia. And it's that latter language, Bahasa Indonesia, that forms the bulk of this book as it is the glue that holds the country together linguistically despite being the first language of as little as 20% of the population. Given that situation this little book also devotes a couple of pages to several of the other major languages of the nation at hand though of course only the most perfunctory of glances can be given to each. Broken up into logical sections and with full phrases and a small Bahasa-English dictionary section at the end this is as good a place to start as any if you are thinking of a holiday in Indonesia though obviously for the more serious student there are other options including formal lessons for those truly dedicated to learning the language in a more fully fledged way. For what it is, this item is pretty useful.

I actually have two Lonely Planet Indonesian phrasebooks: this one (5th edition) and the 4th edition which has a purple cover. Both are great and will help you with the basics of Bahasa Indonesia but they do have good points and bad points. The 4th version has a neat section on some basic grammar which I thought shouldn't have been cut down in the current one. I noticed many of the phrases make use of the prefixes and suffixes which have been wiped out in the 5th ed in favour of using more root words. I've compared the phrases in both versions and the 4th not only uses longer words but sometimes completely different words to the this one when their English equivalents haven't changed at all. I'm not an expert on the language but the assumption is that the 4th edition uses 'proper' Indonesian more akin to grammar books while this is laid back, perhaps closer to normal speech? Assumptions aside, I noticed several reviewers gave their 4th edition phrase books to Indonesian friends and it is important to mention, it does indeed have impressive cultural knowledge tidbits that are vacant in some of the Indonesian courses on the market ("Colloquial Indonesian" by Routledge, which I also own). As I mentioned above, the latest edition has been simplified. The grammar section, although not cut out entirely is reduced by not adding the information about word formation (the prefixes, suffixes etc). The author has replaced it by several pages dedicated to some of the other major languages of the archipelago, namely: Balinese, Benuaq, Bugis, Galelarese, Javanese, Lani, Minang, Sasak, Sundanese, Toba Batak, and Toraja. I don't know how practical they are as there's only 3-4 pages dedicated to each but they're an interesting addition nonetheless. At the very least, you can say thank you "matur suksma" in Balinese to the woman that just massaged your feet and she'll bow her head, laugh that you used her local language and continue chuckling as she walks off, you left wondering whether it was the shock that a foreigner knew Balinese at all or just thinking you're an idiot for using the local tongue (It's too hard to tell!) The next version of this phrasebook would do well to re-introduce the word formation section and keep the small part dedicated to the other languages, why can't we have the uniqueness of both editions? Also to make more of an effort (if possible) to ensure the speaker uses the right tone of language for the right situations. No one wants to use complex language when it's not needed, nor do they wish to sound like a fool for using overly simplified language or coming across as using Tarzan/street/babyish/disrespectful speak. Despite the small criticisms, this book helped me in the most amusing way... my mother was attempting to get a purse made in Bali but wanted leopard print design. When she told the two men who were going to make her purse, they looked at her quizzically and made a cute mispronunciation "lee-o-pard?". The first thing I

Used this book for West Papua and Java. It is particularly good as it has many phrases of the sort we use a lot, referring to trees, birds and animals. Also many useful social phrases that were out of the ordinary, even political! If you get off the beaten path, you will need some help, and this is well worth the money.

I found the phrasebook very good, coupled with an indonesian speaker,to use as an assistant helped greatly. Hopefully money well spent, as I will be in Bali in October (08)and putting my new found language skills and phrases to the test.