Indonesia has a huge number of Islamic schools that operate beyond the direct jurisdiction of the Department of National Education (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional). Many of…
Posts published in “Reading EN”
The Indonesian term for “alphabet” is abjad, and for “letter (of the alphabet)” huruf. Both these words are borrowed from Arabic. Just as the English word “alphabet”…
The use of second person pronouns is one of the most difficult areas of Indonesian. Even the few tentative steps we are starting to take…
In English, basically we have just one second person pronoun: “you”. Except in a few exceptional circumstances, “you” can be used to address practically anyone…
Contributed and posted by ‘The Indonesian Way’, a textbook for the Indonesian language by George Quinn and Uli Kozok. Base forms are words that have…
A transitive verb is one that “looks forward” in the sense that it signifies an action that is done to someone or something. An example of…
The word Tuhan is the original Indonesian word with the original meaning ‘Lord’ which nowadays is still preserved in the word tuan ‘Sir’. The Arabic…
Indonesian has thousands of words that resemble English words. Lots of them serve an obvious purpose: they fill a gap in the vocabulary. Examples of these are…
Penari Betawi or Betawi Dancer dance along the Tanjidor Band, the traditional Jakarta music style that has its origin from the dutch. Tanjidor Band consists…
Kepik This tiny, colorful insect is called a ladybird. In North America it is known as a ladybug or a lady beetle. Other countries have…
Angklung is a musical instrument made out of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved so that they have a…
Banjar culture dominates the province of South Kalimantan. Although they are devout Muslims, the Banjar proudly trace their origins to a legendary Hindu kingdom, the…