Indonesian
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Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia i was declared the official language
with Indonesia's independence from the Dutch in 1945. The Indonesian name for the
language is Bahasa Indonesia (literally, "the language of Indonesia").
The Dutch colonization left an imprint on the Indonesian language that can be seen
in words such as polisi (police) and wortel (carrot). Indonesian words derived from
Portuguese include sabun (soap) and boneka (doll). Some of the many words of Chinese
origin include pisau (knife) and mie (noodles). From Sanskrit came words such as
kaca (glass, mirror) and raja (king). Words of Arabic origin include k(h)abar (news)
and kamus (dictionary).
Indonesian is spoken as the first language by only a small proportion of Indonesia's
large population (i.e. mainly those who reside within the vicinity of the city of
Jakarta), but over 200 million people regularly make use of the national language
- some with varying degrees of proficiency. In a nation which claims more than 300
native languages and a vast array of ethnic groups, the standard version of the
Indonesian language is rarely used in daily communication. Standard Indonesian can
be found in books and newspapers, or in news or television/radio broadcasts, but
few native Indonesian speakers use formally correct language in their daily conversations.
This is mostly due to the fact that most Indonesians tend to combine certain aspects
of their own local languages with Indonesian.1
In the United States, Indonesian is spoken in all fifty states and is the 55th most
frequently-spoken language (out of the 322 identified in the 2000 Census), with
41,840 individuals -- one of every 5,450 people age five and above -- using Indonesian
in the home. Los Angeles County, California has more than double the number of Indonesian
speakers of any other county in the United States. Indonesian is the fifth most
common language spoken at home in Luna County, New Mexico, and the sixth most common
language in Independence County, Arkansas and Henderson County, Kentucky.2
Indonesian is not currently classified by the Defense Language Institute (DLI) nor
by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). In the past, DLI has rated Indonesian as
belonging to the “category two” (on a four-point difficulty scale3).
FSI does not rate Indonesian on its three-point language difficulty scale, but it
does note that it requires 900 class hours to achieve general proficiency in the
language. This identifies it as a slightly easier language to learn, placing it
between categories one and two on its three-point scale.4
Indonesian is one of the ten NLSC Pilot Program languages.
Indonesian is designated as one of the ten pilot languages that the NLSC is recruiting
during its pilot year. The languages chosen were selected based upon the following:
- They meet short- and long-term requirements with emphasis on high-level expertise in languages critical to our national security.
- These languages generally meet the requirements for a pilot such as this based on the number of persons residing in the United States who are proficient in these languages.
- The list of languages includes some whose populations are difficult to locate and recruit.
- Each of these languages has multiple proficiency tests available.
Interesting Resources on Indonesian
- Institut Teknologi Bandung – UPT Pusat Bahasa (Indonesa’s Language Center)
- U.S. English Foundation Indonesian Data Sheet
