learn basic Indonesian language before you arrive in Bali

Learn basic Indonesian language for your holiday or your stay in Bali.

The official language here in Bali is Indonesian, however they speak Balinese as well.

The reason why I recommend to learn Indonesian and not Balinese (to begin with) is that most of the people living in Bali do not speak Balinese, they came from Jawa or other Islands and their common language is Indonesian.

To listen to some words and get the sound of it I have found this interesting website with some

Free Travel language guides

Listen to this conversation (first in English then in Indonesian)

I started to listen to this conversation a few times, then I wrote down the words and their translation.

Our friend told us he learned the language by writing down four words at the time and only when he was confident to use them he wrote down the next four. I followed his example but then I was missing the pronunciation so we decided to get a CD language course.

Every lesson is not more then 30 minutes and there are conversations on it. The best part is that I can listen to it first, then I can speak one part of the conversation (and learn the pronunciation) and later the other part, so it adds up words quick!

I believe there are many language courses available online, some are free, some cost a lot of money.

After being in Bali for a year I decided I wanted to learn more and go deeper into structuring whole sentences and hopefully learning to have a simple conversation with the Balinese people, they really enjoy it when we speak their language and try to teach us as many words as possible!

I learned a lot of words with this language course so I can recommend it, especially if you learn easier by listening.

Read here to find out why I love this language Course

I like to listen to the right pronunciation but I also want to know the writing so I am both a visual and acoustic learner.

That's when I got hold of this Book, it looks like a children's Book and for me that means it is for absolute Beginners - that's for me!!!

Almatsier, how to master the Indonesian Language

What I like best about the structure to learn the language with this Book is - it gives you a very good idea how to pronounce the words, look at this examples:

Simple explanations and very good examples, you cannot fail in learning this!!

Every lesson starts with a small text, then some words and pronunciations, then some exercises (build your own sentences) and at the end there is a vocabulary to learn, I manage one lesson a week and it is amazing how much I start understanding in conversations, I still have to improve my speaking, but I really enjoy this Book!

I was trying to find it, the only place I did find it is in Amazon, so if you want to learn basic Indonesian, here it is:

Amazing Bali on Facebook

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