Learn to Speak Indonesian

If you are looking to learn a widely spoken language with a guaranteed chance to apply and practice your language skills, Indonesian, or Bahasa Indonesian is a safe bet. With approximately 250 million people speaking Indonesian as first language in the forth most populous nation in the world, Indonesian is the unifying language for a huge number of people across a wide geographical range. As one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, Indonesian was declared the official language after Indonesian independence in 1945.

Indonesian is based on the Riau form of the Malay language, which a language closely related to languages spoken in southern Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. Because Indonesian is spoken by such a diversity of people across such a wide area, the language has been kind of like a sponge as it's evolved over the years, soaking up influences from Sanskrit, Tamil, Chinese, Arabic, Dutch, English and Portuguese. Indonesian is also actually one of the easiest languages for adults to learn because its relatively simple grammatical structure. In fact, unlike almost all other languages, Indonesian does not require the conjugation of verb tenses, nor participle, plural forms, articles or gender distinction for third person pronouns. Indonesian is also a non-tonal language (unlike Chinese where how you pronounce a word greatly effects its meaning), and now uses the Latin alphabet, again making it easier for English speakers to quickly learn Indonesian.

There is a plethora of ways to learn how to speak Indonesian. Because the language is so widely spoken, a great way to quickly learn Indonesian is through total immersion. A few weeks speaking Indonesian everyday could be worth more than a year in the classroom. If you would rather get started by learning a few basics on the language in a classroom setting, you can check with your local community college to see if they offer classes in the language. If they don't hiring a private tutor or investing in language learning software is another option. Programs like Rosetta Stone can help you get started by teaching you basic grammar and vocabulary while helping you with pronunciation.