Choosing between learning Indonesian or Malay depends on your goals, interests, and the context in which you plan to use the language. Here are some factors to consider for each:
Indonesian
- Number of Speakers: Indonesian has a larger number of speakers, with over 230 million people using it as a first or second language.
- Cultural Exposure: Indonesia is known for its rich cultural diversity, beautiful landscapes, and vibrant arts. Learning Indonesian can deepen your understanding of Indonesian culture, literature, and traditions.
- Simplicity: Indonesian is often considered easier for English speaker
Choosing between learning Indonesian or Malay depends on your goals, interests, and the context in which you plan to use the language. Here are some factors to consider for each:
Indonesian
- Number of Speakers: Indonesian has a larger number of speakers, with over 230 million people using it as a first or second language.
- Cultural Exposure: Indonesia is known for its rich cultural diversity, beautiful landscapes, and vibrant arts. Learning Indonesian can deepen your understanding of Indonesian culture, literature, and traditions.
- Simplicity: Indonesian is often considered easier for English speakers due to its straightforward grammar and pronunciation. There are no verb conjugations, and it uses the Latin alphabet.
Malay
- Regional Importance: Malay is spoken in Malaysia, Brunei, and parts of Indonesia (especially in Sumatra), as well as in Singapore. If you plan to travel or work in these areas, learning Malay might be beneficial.
- Cultural Links: Malay culture is rich and historic, with influences from various ethnic groups. Learning Malay can help you connect with these cultures and their histories.
- Similarities with Indonesian: Malay and Indonesian are mutually intelligible to a significant degree, so learning one will give you a good foundation for understanding the other.
Considerations
- Purpose: If you aim to engage with Indonesian culture, travel in Indonesia, or work in industries related to Indonesia, go for Indonesian. If your focus is on Malaysia or broader Southeast Asian contexts, consider Malay.
- Resources: Consider the availability of learning resources, such as courses, books, and language partners for each language in your area.
In summary, both languages have their merits, and your choice should align with your personal interests and practical needs.
First a bit of preamble that might shed light on your situation right now… I’m a Canadian white guy who learned French in French school as a kid, and although I am told I spoke it quite fluently as a small boy, I cannot recall that at all. I lost it quickly, then had to learn it all over again in grade school, but I was too lazy and unmotivated to really get immersed, so my knowledge of French was, in the end, pathetic. I also have a recalcitrant memory that only seems to work when I’m in a great mood or really engaged in the moment. This tends to happen in short bursts for me.
So I never thoug
First a bit of preamble that might shed light on your situation right now… I’m a Canadian white guy who learned French in French school as a kid, and although I am told I spoke it quite fluently as a small boy, I cannot recall that at all. I lost it quickly, then had to learn it all over again in grade school, but I was too lazy and unmotivated to really get immersed, so my knowledge of French was, in the end, pathetic. I also have a recalcitrant memory that only seems to work when I’m in a great mood or really engaged in the moment. This tends to happen in short bursts for me.
So I never thought of myself as remotely likely to ever learn a second language.
In ’89, I was in Cairns, Aussie, all set to board a yacht, as crew, headed for Papua New Guinea. The skipper changed his mind the day before we were to depart; I was off the boat, and without a plan. I was crushed.
In my haste to get anywhere in Asia, I bought a one-way ticket to Kupang, a city in W. Timor, just an hour’s flight north of Darwin. On board, I sat next to a young Kiwi guy who’d been to Indonesia before. He told me straight up, ‘Mate, learn some Indonesian and you’ll have a 100% exciting experience and be laughing it up with the locals everywhere you go, vs. not knowing what the hell’s going on 99% of the time and feeling isolated and alone.’ He told me few people spoke much English outside of the tourism hubs.
I sat there and thought, ‘What an absolutely top-notch idea! I’m going to take it upon myself to learn Indonesian.’ We hung for a few days in Kupang, and he taught me what he knew. I found the language to be extraordinary, beautiful sounding, incredibly interesting, utterly addictive, and I fell into my task straightaway. It fired up my imagination in a way nothing else had. I became obsessed with learning it, and did so through all my waking hours. I bought a tiny dictionary and would read it for hours, try out words and phrases on kids, vendors, strangers in the street, anyone — Indonesians were universally hyper-friendly and seemed to have all the time in the world for a confused stranger struggling in their midst.
Then I got an idea: I cut out a piece from a cardboard carton, sized to slide easily in and out of the back pocket of my money belt, which was always around my waist. This was a revelation. I could whip out my card, write down a new word or phrase, using my own alphabet, in completely phonetic (there are only a few pronunciation rules that differ from English, and you can master them in no time), logical pronunciation, and found I could remember words easily. In a week or two, I’d have memorized everything on both sides, all in tiny writing, and would throw the card out and start a new one.
Three weeks after arriving in a country, the language of which I knew not a single word, I was firing off in bahasa like a machinegun. I knew hundreds of words, had mastered most of the phrases needed to get through the day, no matter what I was up to.
I soon discovered that grammar didn’t much matter; a rich vocab was the key. People understood my clumsy sentence constructions, my psychotic metaphors, my retarded jokes and rhymes — and they ate it up! I was laughing, being laughed at, and winding people up everywhere I went. More to the point, I was able to order meals, bargain in markets, book travel or a hotel room, and flirt with girls (Indonesian women are the world’s flirtiest, funniest, silliest, most exquisitely sarcastic, and the warmest; I’m now married to one, and was delighted to discover her entire Sundanese extended family are flat-out comedians).
I spent four months in Indonesia, then went to Singapore, only to discover that Malay people understood me, too. Problem was I could not follow them at all easily — likewise in Malaysia after that. So I did the same thing with the cardboard and learned a bunch of new Malay words. I would mix them up with Indonesian words and everyone would look at me funny initially, then laugh when I said, ‘Ma’af, aku belajar bahasa melayu di Indonesia’ (Sorry, I learned Malay in Indonesia).
If you make a Malay or an Indonesian laugh, they’ll do anything for you. Laughter is their cultural cement.
I then entered Thailand, a wholly different cultural-linguistic bath. At first I didn’t pick anything up, because English was widely spoken, but after visiting Laos, where no one spoke English but some did speak French and understand Thai (TV in Laos was all from Thailand), I did the card thing, the dictionary thing, the French thing, and also bought a small phrasebook. Same result: Inside a week, I was yammering in Lao, which, with a few adjustments, also made me understandable to Thais later on.
And they laughed at me too. This was because I spoke Thai in Bangkok like a Laotian, which struck them as utterly WTF? — akin, say, to a South Asian guy speaking English to you on the street with a full-on Mexican accent.
As to your question, I’d learn Indonesian — as others here have stated, it’s the key to literally hundreds of cultures, on thousands of islands in the above three countries, plus Brunei, the southern Philippines and, apparently, even parts of Cambodia and Vietnam. Find an Indonesian who’s fun and funny, if that’s possible where you are. Pay them, take them out, use my card method. Carry it everywhere, practice. Much better to go there, of course, stay where no English is spoken, and start swimming in it.
I’ve since used my system in Mexico, Italy and other countries and it’s been brilliant without fail. Good luck.
Simply put: math. But your “every day” can look wildly different, from analyzing loss and premium trends to estimating catastrophe exposure and more. Trust me, you won’t be bored.
In today’s world, protecting yourself and understanding the many areas and angles in which risk can affect you is a necessity. And that's where actuaries come in. We do the math to find truth in data to propose solutions to the C-suite, so the cost fits the risk. Ultimately, we're the math minds behind the business— many of the most cutting-edge businesses across the world depend on actuaries. Actuarial pricing models
Simply put: math. But your “every day” can look wildly different, from analyzing loss and premium trends to estimating catastrophe exposure and more. Trust me, you won’t be bored.
In today’s world, protecting yourself and understanding the many areas and angles in which risk can affect you is a necessity. And that's where actuaries come in. We do the math to find truth in data to propose solutions to the C-suite, so the cost fits the risk. Ultimately, we're the math minds behind the business— many of the most cutting-edge businesses across the world depend on actuaries. Actuarial pricing models help people put price tags on products or services. Like the wizard behind the curtain. No magic involved—just math skills and expertise.
I am a Senior health actuarial analyst close to earning my ASA with the Society of Actuaries. But actuaries have a wide range of industries to choose from. We work across health and wellness, property and casualty, finance, and more, informing decisions that businesses, governments, and individuals may make about their future and the future of the world.
Take this for example: when you need to consider healthcare and review a variety of health insurance premiums, remember that an actuary helped to create those packages.
That’s one aspect of what an actuary does. We inform decisions through data and calculated risk factors. The reason that you’re able to pick and choose how much you can pay and how much coverage you want is because an actuary put the work in so you can have options.
Ethan Codia
Senior Actuarial Analyst
ConcertoCare
I speak native Indonesian, fluent English, and passable Malay. I have lived in both Singapore and Indonesia. I am Indonesian, so there will be some bias in my answer.
If your angle is "which language is more interesting to learn?", then the answer is none. Both languages have almost identical structure, almost identical pronunciation, but have significant differences in vocabulary. The difference is more than British vs. American English, but less than Spanish vs. Portuguese.
However, if you are interested in the difference in what can you gain from learning the languages, My recommendation woul
I speak native Indonesian, fluent English, and passable Malay. I have lived in both Singapore and Indonesia. I am Indonesian, so there will be some bias in my answer.
If your angle is "which language is more interesting to learn?", then the answer is none. Both languages have almost identical structure, almost identical pronunciation, but have significant differences in vocabulary. The difference is more than British vs. American English, but less than Spanish vs. Portuguese.
However, if you are interested in the difference in what can you gain from learning the languages, My recommendation would be Bahasa Indonesia. Here are the reasons:
Access to cultural diversity. Bahasa Indonesia is the national language of Indonesia and spoken by around 240 million Indonesians. However, only 10% of Indonesians speak it as their mother tongue. The rest speaks Indonesian as second language. In fact, the language is created so that Indonesians that have 250 different languages can talk to each other. Learning Indonesian will give you access to hundreds of different cultures of Indonesia. Countries who speak Bahasa Melayu also have many different cultures, but they are nowhere near the diversity of Indonesian's
Books. Indonesia produces 24,000 titles per year. All of them in Indonesian. Malaysia produces around 15,000 titles per year, 80% in Bahasa Melayu. This is from Wikipedia. When I visited large bookstores in Jakarta and KL, my impression is that Indonesians produce 10 times more titles rather than 2 times. But hey, let's stick to the statistic.
Usability when traveling. Most Malaysians and Malay Singaporeans speak some English. You will survive there even if you don't speak a single Malay word. If you don't speak Indonesian, on the other hand, you won't go further than big cities in Indonesia.
A little bit about Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu. Hongwan Liu is correct. Both are standardized Malay. Malay is the language of the people who live along the coast of Malacca strait and it's extension to Java sea. Malaysian standardizes Malay to Bahasa Melayu, Indonesian to Bahasa Indonesia. In standardized format, both are mutually intelligible. However the colloquial format can be very different from each other. So, they are not exactly "the same thing". Also, both Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia are NOT tonal language. You won't change the meaning of the word if you change the pitch. In fact, especially for Bahasa Indonesia, the spelling and the pronunciation has almost 1-to-1 relationship. It's much less random than English or French.
Also, I agree that when spoken formally, Bahasa Melayu is easier on the ear compared to Bahasa Indonesia. But that's a matter of taste.
I found that Bahasa Indonesia is more pleasant to hear, sound softer tonally (I thought the Thais speak soft enough but it cannot topped the beautiful sounding of Indonesian language), rich of vocabulary and can be understood throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. It is quite standardized throughout the country itself even though different ethnics have their own language or slang. The more important is the government managed to force every different race and ethnic to speak one language which creates unity.
Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu got it standardized version. But East Peninsular speaks littl
I found that Bahasa Indonesia is more pleasant to hear, sound softer tonally (I thought the Thais speak soft enough but it cannot topped the beautiful sounding of Indonesian language), rich of vocabulary and can be understood throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. It is quite standardized throughout the country itself even though different ethnics have their own language or slang. The more important is the government managed to force every different race and ethnic to speak one language which creates unity.
Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu got it standardized version. But East Peninsular speaks little bit different in slang and not very identical to the standard version and they goes up to Pattani Malay in Thailand. North Peninsular speaks different and many words would be difficult to catch if you only master the standard version. People in Negeri Sembilan IMHO speak a lot more different that I sometime do not understand them especially the older people. Borneo people also have their own slang. Malaysian can understand the standard version but you will be hustling to understand them, but don’t worry they can soften their tongue to your liking. Unfortunately the government were too soft to enforce this language because some races refuse to abandon their mother tongue primary schools. They still cling to their forefather identity from faraway land. As a result you will even find some Malaysian who speaks English and their mother tongue better than their national language. The government did abolished Jawi writing form (the most stupid decision ever), the old writing system of the Bahasa Melayu just to encourage them to learn easier by using Roman alphabets. Still did not work.
These two languages indeed was one before divided by European colonials. It was once lingua franca that cover a really vast area. Some 20,000 hundreds years old hand written Malay manuscripts still being kept in foreign libraries like in Rusia, Algeria and German that were stolen during all the wars and invasions.
I believe it is important to master Bahasa Indonesia because of the volume of the speaker and they are aiming to be the 4th or 5th economy superpower in few decades. Recently they moved their capital from overcrowded Jakarta into geological more stable land in Kalimantan. They got all the ingredients ready.
I live in indonesia and i lived and travel to Malaysia quite often for bussiness or leisure, I speak Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Javanese, Mandarin and English.
Bahasa Indonesia and malaysia originated from the same root which is bahasa Melayu. the biggest difference is both language absorb other language vocabularirs. Some say it's different languages, but all linguist agree it is still a same language with different dialect, standardized bahasa Malaysia and indonesia is mutually intelligible
bahasa indonesia is mixed of Malay 90 percent + Arabic + Dutch + portuguese + English + Java
I live in indonesia and i lived and travel to Malaysia quite often for bussiness or leisure, I speak Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Javanese, Mandarin and English.
Bahasa Indonesia and malaysia originated from the same root which is bahasa Melayu. the biggest difference is both language absorb other language vocabularirs. Some say it's different languages, but all linguist agree it is still a same language with different dialect, standardized bahasa Malaysia and indonesia is mutually intelligible
bahasa indonesia is mixed of Malay 90 percent + Arabic + Dutch + portuguese + English + Javanese + Hokkian + other local language like sundanese
while bahasa Malaysia is mixed of Malay 95 percent + English + Arabic + Portuguese + Hokkian + local malay slang. The first most noted is Indonesia has alot of Dutch and Javanese that bahasa Malaysia doesn't have.
No wonder most of bahasa Malaysian word is also exist in bahasa indonesia dictionary and vice versa. But in term of pronounciation, to indonesian ear bahasa Malaysia sound funny and vice versa. Most indonesian will think bahasa Malaysia is ancient like poetry because bahasa Malaysia still preserved alot of old malay vocabularies. while bahasa indonesia changed old malay word with Dutch or English loanword. but in some extend, some word in bahasa Malaysia absorbed more English than bahasa indonesia for example size in bahasa Malaysia is saiz but in bahasa indonesia still use the malay word : ukuran
If you can speak standardized bahasa Indonesia you will be able to understand standardized bahasa malaysia, but you must learn some word that in bahasa Indonesia is not used for example office in bahasa Malaysia is Pejabat, in bahasa Indonesia is Kantor (Dutch Origin). Because it is quite common for indonesian or Malaysian to speak slang or mixed language with local dialect, speaking standardized bahasa is a must to understand each other.
I suggest you learn Bahasa Indonesia as most Indonesian can not speak english, most indonesian speak bahasa Indonesia, Indonesia has 260 million population and 17 thousand island, the economic is growing and Government of Indonesia ensures Bahasa Indonesia is the only official language
Malaysia has around 30 million population 55 percent malay, 30 percent chinese, 8 percent indian. only Malay speaks Bahasa Melayu in daily life but most malay can speak english really well and malay people in the office setting are proud to speak english then malay. While malaysian chinese / indian will more likely to speak mandarin cantonese for chinese or tamil for indian. Everytime chinese people meet foreigner the will more likely to speak english as their malay skill is so low even some chinese malaysian can not speak malay at all. Malaysian government ensure English and bahasa malaysia as their official language but most people love to speak english then malay especially for bussiness. So when i lived in malaysia i speak english with everyone and mandarin with Chinese Malaysian, I less speak malay there because i am indonesian (I am afraid of prejudice of being Indonesian in Malaysia, as most indonesian who work in Malaysia are blue collar workers with negative stereotype)
Another problem learning bahasa malayu is harder than bahasa indonesia is the pronounciation problem. Bahasa indonesia is like Spanish the vocabulary is pronounced as it written with tend to be in flat tone. But malay is like french , what written will be pronounced differently with specific up and down tone.
so just learn Bahasa Indonesia and you will see a new world of nusantara
Where do I start?
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Where do I start?
I’m a huge financial nerd, and have spent an embarrassing amount of time talking to people about their money habits.
Here are the biggest mistakes people are making and how to fix them:
Not having a separate high interest savings account
Having a separate account allows you to see the results of all your hard work and keep your money separate so you're less tempted to spend it.
Plus with rates above 5.00%, the interest you can earn compared to most banks really adds up.
Here is a list of the top savings accounts available today. Deposit $5 before moving on because this is one of the biggest mistakes and easiest ones to fix.
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Have a separate savings account
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Personally as a speak of bahasa malaysia or melayu. I do find that bahasa indonesia opens doors to a wider cultural experience. Speaking wise i would say bm is easier as they speak slower and more relaxed kind of feels like you're drifting on a canoe in venice. BI on the other hand is like a gattling gun they speak really fast but the good thing they are pronounced as spelt. Since more indonesian dramas get aired in malaysia and singapore as compared to vice versa. You'll find more people understanding indonesian than Malay. I guess that's all i have to say although this thread must be really
Personally as a speak of bahasa malaysia or melayu. I do find that bahasa indonesia opens doors to a wider cultural experience. Speaking wise i would say bm is easier as they speak slower and more relaxed kind of feels like you're drifting on a canoe in venice. BI on the other hand is like a gattling gun they speak really fast but the good thing they are pronounced as spelt. Since more indonesian dramas get aired in malaysia and singapore as compared to vice versa. You'll find more people understanding indonesian than Malay. I guess that's all i have to say although this thread must be really old
A little bit background about me to correlate to my answer. I'm an Indonesian (nationality) who grew up and study in Indonesia and now work in Singapore for the last 17 years (2020)
My experience about Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu (Malay) is that I can understand (above 90%) of what Malay speak about, however on contrary Malay (the people) in general only perhaps understand 50–60% of what I s
A little bit background about me to correlate to my answer. I'm an Indonesian (nationality) who grew up and study in Indonesia and now work in Singapore for the last 17 years (2020)
My experience about Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu (Malay) is that I can understand (above 90%) of what Malay speak about, however on contrary Malay (the people) in general only perhaps understand 50–60% of what I say in Indonesian.
Both language derived from Malay but as time goes by it diverge quite a lot. There are many exact same words that Indonesian would understand but Malay wont, such as:
1. Boleh. In Malay it means "can" as in I can go now. However in Indonesian, it means "may" as in you may go now.
2. Bisa. In Malay means poison or venom. In Indonesian, it can have 2 meaning: 1) poison the same as what Malay would underst...
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I am a Malaysian, but I recommend for you to learn Indonesian. Simply because people who use Indonesian are a lot more than those who use the Malaysian language.
Apart from that, the nature of the Indonesian language itself which is approximately the same as Malay will make it easier for you to communicate with the Malays. You can be in Malaysia but speaks Indonesian - not be a problem.
The grammar and vocabulary of Indonesian language are also far more perfect and much “stable” compare to the Malay language where the language is still twisted and mingled.
So if you really want to learn between t
I am a Malaysian, but I recommend for you to learn Indonesian. Simply because people who use Indonesian are a lot more than those who use the Malaysian language.
Apart from that, the nature of the Indonesian language itself which is approximately the same as Malay will make it easier for you to communicate with the Malays. You can be in Malaysia but speaks Indonesian - not be a problem.
The grammar and vocabulary of Indonesian language are also far more perfect and much “stable” compare to the Malay language where the language is still twisted and mingled.
So if you really want to learn between the two languages, I suggest that you choose the Indonesian language as it will benefit you more than the Malay language.
I am from Malaysia. But I certainly would recommend you to learn Indonesian. Why? Simple.
- Most of us would understand them anyway
- Some of their vocabulary is influenced by other language for example: Participation in Malaysian is Penyertaan but in Indonesian would be Partisipasi
- Most of us understand English though not fluently
I know this is a disadvantages to our language but it's the truth. If you want to get the best experiences, learn Indonesian. Learn Malay language only if you decided to live in Malaysia.. (If you want, it's your choice)
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If you are more familiar with English, I would recommend you learning Malay as it has many English loanwords in contrast to Indonesian, which utilises Dutch loanwords. This being due to the fact that Malaysia was colonised by the British, and Indonesia by the Dutch.
Once you capture Malay you should have no problem with Indonesian. Some may say it's harder going from Malay > Indonesian than Indonesian > Malay but I would like to disagree. I'm a Malay speaker and Indonesian was a breeze. I'm talking however about standard Malay and standard Indonesian, not the colloquial versions of each langua
If you are more familiar with English, I would recommend you learning Malay as it has many English loanwords in contrast to Indonesian, which utilises Dutch loanwords. This being due to the fact that Malaysia was colonised by the British, and Indonesia by the Dutch.
Once you capture Malay you should have no problem with Indonesian. Some may say it's harder going from Malay > Indonesian than Indonesian > Malay but I would like to disagree. I'm a Malay speaker and Indonesian was a breeze. I'm talking however about standard Malay and standard Indonesian, not the colloquial versions of each language which possess its own localised slangs.
p/s Sorry to hear about your depression by the way. I've been through many phases of depression and I'd just like to encourage you to keep pressing on as you go through this journey.
I am Bahasa Indonesia native speaker, lived in Singapore for 12 years where most of the locals knows some, or a little of, Bahasa Malaysia and they are aware of the difference between the two.
I suggest learning Bahasa Indonesia first, it has a certain grammatical structure and rules that makes it exciting and easy to learn. I wanted to say that Bahasa Indonesia also has a wider vocabulary, that will make it easier to understand Bahasa Malaysia.
Based on my observation, if you speak Bahasa Indonesia in Malaysia, most people will get what you mean. If you speak Bahasa Malaysia in Indonesia, most
I am Bahasa Indonesia native speaker, lived in Singapore for 12 years where most of the locals knows some, or a little of, Bahasa Malaysia and they are aware of the difference between the two.
I suggest learning Bahasa Indonesia first, it has a certain grammatical structure and rules that makes it exciting and easy to learn. I wanted to say that Bahasa Indonesia also has a wider vocabulary, that will make it easier to understand Bahasa Malaysia.
Based on my observation, if you speak Bahasa Indonesia in Malaysia, most people will get what you mean. If you speak Bahasa Malaysia in Indonesia, most people thought they understand you but they might understand it differently.
An example, if you want to ask for less sugar in your tea, in Bahasa Indonesia you will say “sedikit saja gulanya” and the Malay will pick up “sedikit” (a little of, few) and “gula” (sugar). In Bahasa Malaysia, you will likely say “kurang gula” as a direct translation of “less sugar”. In Indonesia, people say “kurang gula” to tell there’s too little sugar in their drink and usually people say that if they wanted more sugar. So the Indonesian will perfectly understand the statement, but you’ll end up having them give you the opposite of what you wanted :-)
I believe Bahasa Indonesia would have a better foundation in terms of learning the basics/fundamentals of these two different but almost similar languages. I am a Filipino who lives and works in Indonesia for 10 years, I can speak, read and write (basic) bahasa Indonesia mainly because of the nature of my job managing organizing an all Indonesian team. Though I didn't get formal lessons, I learned B. Indonesia by reading the “koran” news papers, watching the news on (TV), listening and conversing with my team in B. Indonesia. I find it easier because there’s quite a number of words similar to
I believe Bahasa Indonesia would have a better foundation in terms of learning the basics/fundamentals of these two different but almost similar languages. I am a Filipino who lives and works in Indonesia for 10 years, I can speak, read and write (basic) bahasa Indonesia mainly because of the nature of my job managing organizing an all Indonesian team. Though I didn't get formal lessons, I learned B. Indonesia by reading the “koran” news papers, watching the news on (TV), listening and conversing with my team in B. Indonesia. I find it easier because there’s quite a number of words similar to tagalog or Philippine regional dialects like; Ako — Aku, Pasok — Masuk, Mata — Mata, Kami — Kami, Makan(Ilocano/Kapampangan) — Makan … etc. We've been on holiday runs in Malaysia a few times and we seem to figure out the Bahasa Melayu around 50%. My daughter who uses a more formal form of B. Indonesia because of school, is very fond of trying out B. Melayu. But like what others have suggested it would be better to actually know where you want to go or how will you apply the language. Terima Kasih
Well, i will answer Indonesian. Not because Indonesian is my native language, but once you fluent in Bahasa Indonesia, you can understand 70–80% Bahasa Melayu. Actually, our language is somewhat similar.
When i learned Indonesian at school, we read many old Indonesian literature. The language in the old Indonesia literature is much similar with Bahasa Malaysia. We don’t speak like that anymore, eve
Well, i will answer Indonesian. Not because Indonesian is my native language, but once you fluent in Bahasa Indonesia, you can understand 70–80% Bahasa Melayu. Actually, our language is somewhat similar.
When i learned Indonesian at school, we read many old Indonesian literature. The language in the old Indonesia literature is much similar with Bahasa Malaysia. We don’t speak like that anymore, even though if you speak like that the majority of the people will understand you (but may be they will smile, or laugh).
The weakness of Indonesian Language is we are quite difficult to see the grammatical rule of the language on daily conversation, too many slang phrase/word. So if you see many indonesian video in YouTube, most of them use informal language. We hav...
Interesting discussion. I don't understand either Malay or Indonesian though I am interested in Indonesian. I speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien-Taiwanese and some Teochew as well as Thai. What I can add is that the "how similar is X to Y" is somewhat subjective and depends on experience. My Teochew speaking friend tells me that he could understand Hokkien fairly well the first time he went to Taiwan. I can say about anything to him in Hokkien and he understands. He tells me his Mom is quite the opposite, she can't even understand the varieties of Chaozhou. My own Mom was like this too. She ha
Interesting discussion. I don't understand either Malay or Indonesian though I am interested in Indonesian. I speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien-Taiwanese and some Teochew as well as Thai. What I can add is that the "how similar is X to Y" is somewhat subjective and depends on experience. My Teochew speaking friend tells me that he could understand Hokkien fairly well the first time he went to Taiwan. I can say about anything to him in Hokkien and he understands. He tells me his Mom is quite the opposite, she can't even understand the varieties of Chaozhou. My own Mom was like this too. She had a very hard time understanding non-native English speaker whereas I had very little difficulty. There are two factors: experience and talent. Some people are more linguistically rigid and they are going to have difficulty adapting. This tends to get worse the older you get. The same thing applies between Thai and Lao. Thai is the big language and they tend to have more trouble understanding Lao than vice versa. Here the reasons are Thai is the big language from the rich country, they don't have to try so hard to learn Lao, whereas for Lao's it's more important that they can understand Thai. Last thing to add is Mandarin to Cantonese to Hokkien. All 3 are so different that if you know 1 and want to know one of the others you won't find your study time cut all that much. Maybe 20% or 30% of your time investment at most. Between Hokkien and Teochew there is substantial commonality (both are Minnan languages) so the situation is similar to Portuguese and Spanish, or Indonesia and Malay or Lao and Thai. So to get back to Indonesian and Malay, how hard one is to know if you know the other depends on what your talents are, how old you start and how hard you try.
If by Indonesian and Malay, you mean Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu, then there is a difference. The two languages are only just about mutually intelligible [1]. Bahasa Indonesia is the official language of Indonesia, while Bahasa Melayu is official in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. I'm from Singapore, so what little information I can give you is about Bahasa Melayu.
Personally, Bahasa Melayu sounds more pleasant, but that's just a personal preference. I think you'll make a great choice with either one: Malay (in both forms) is an intriguing language to study. First of all, it's closer to
If by Indonesian and Malay, you mean Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu, then there is a difference. The two languages are only just about mutually intelligible [1]. Bahasa Indonesia is the official language of Indonesia, while Bahasa Melayu is official in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. I'm from Singapore, so what little information I can give you is about Bahasa Melayu.
Personally, Bahasa Melayu sounds more pleasant, but that's just a personal preference. I think you'll make a great choice with either one: Malay (in both forms) is an intriguing language to study. First of all, it's closer to English than many other languages in the region: it's not tonal [2] (got to disagree with Jon Mixon on this one), and you won't have to learn a new script, since it's written in the plain old Latin alphabet. You won't have to struggle like you would with Mandarin Chinese or Japanese, which is great if you're looking for something less demanding for beginners. Secondly, it's linguistically a different monster from English: it's not strictly SVO, and it's also agglutinative, with new words being formed by affixes or compounding, but that being said, the grammar isn't so caught up with conjugation and tenses, which makes it less of a pain to study. Finally, Malay culture is rich and should be an interesting and unique discovery for a Westerner.
The main downside to learning either language is that it isn't terribly useful: you can get away with English in all three countries where Bahasa Melayu is official. Also, I'm not sure if good resources to learn it are easily available, unless you happen to be in Southeast Asia. But if you can find the right resources and it's just out of interest or linguistic curiosity, I say go for it.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Malaysian_and_Indonesian
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_language#Phonology
I speak Indonesians natively, took Malay and Higher Malay for my GCSE O level (not bad) and able to somehow use English, Singlish and Java. Similar to Andy's answer, I will sound bias.
Whenever I deal with Malay language, I always treat Malay language as formalized Bahasa Indonesia that is used by Indonesians newspapers many years ago. I cannot go wrong too much except when it comes to vocabularies such as 'jerebu', 'tayar', 'butuh' and some more.
In short, once you master Bahasa Indonesia, it is easier to work your way with Bahasa Melayu. The seldom see the opposite.
Rules of engagement: spea
I speak Indonesians natively, took Malay and Higher Malay for my GCSE O level (not bad) and able to somehow use English, Singlish and Java. Similar to Andy's answer, I will sound bias.
Whenever I deal with Malay language, I always treat Malay language as formalized Bahasa Indonesia that is used by Indonesians newspapers many years ago. I cannot go wrong too much except when it comes to vocabularies such as 'jerebu', 'tayar', 'butuh' and some more.
In short, once you master Bahasa Indonesia, it is easier to work your way with Bahasa Melayu. The seldom see the opposite.
Rules of engagement: speak slower, use formalized Bahasa Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia Baku), start with small set of simple vocabularies and you are pretty much in the same spectrum as people who speak Malay (please do not say 'butuh' too many times).
These rules will be more applicable when you are dealing with younger Malays (in Singapore or Malaysia) who are exposed to Indonesian music band and sinetron... and Agnes Monica.
ps: younger generation Malays in Singapore can speak English quite well anyway.
In term of slangs used during daily conversations, both languages offers myriad of vocabularies that should not be the main reason for you to learn either language.
My neighbour Filipinos, it depends onto what country you would like to visit the most. If Malaysia, then learn BM rather than B. Indonesia. If you cant understand it, we Malaysian and Indonesian can understand at least basic/elementary english language since it is our second language (most of us).
BM and Bahasa Indonesia use same words that just with different sound. Even in Malaysia, we have accents that I think you cant understand before you learnt them. So, enrich yourself with vocab first. Dont worry, Malaysia use similar words from Indonesia as well Indonesia also use similar words like Ma
My neighbour Filipinos, it depends onto what country you would like to visit the most. If Malaysia, then learn BM rather than B. Indonesia. If you cant understand it, we Malaysian and Indonesian can understand at least basic/elementary english language since it is our second language (most of us).
BM and Bahasa Indonesia use same words that just with different sound. Even in Malaysia, we have accents that I think you cant understand before you learnt them. So, enrich yourself with vocab first. Dont worry, Malaysia use similar words from Indonesia as well Indonesia also use similar words like Malaysia after migrating.
The different is, BM is more to casual when you're talking, you dont follow as how it is spelled. The pronunciation might be a bit lazy sounds like. I give you example.
Kita should be pronounced as Ki-Ta (open your mouth wide, we name it as Baku) but in daily conversations we pronounce it as Ki-Tǝ We change an ‘a' to an ‘e'. Indonesian is more to Baku while Malaysia pronounce it more relaxing.
If you're worried about vocabs, focus more onto BM since we still have some of Indonesian daily words even we dont use it during informal meets up, among friends, collegues. Yet, in Malaysia we just use alot of slang words- one word should mean this but we change the idea to other thing. I give you example:
Bodoh: official definitions is Dumbass, Stupid, Unbelievably an Oaf
But unofficially definitions: referred to someone that we love wholeheartedly, or with funny behaviour that put shamings on us WITH joys.
Learning Malaysia might give alot of fun to you, since we also insert different language into our sentences. For example:
Mak ko Hijo : Its rude, since it relates to you mum. It mocks your mum. Hijo(shorter) is taken from Hijo de puta (spanish) which means Sons of Bitch. But using Mak ko hijo in Malaysia is low harsh because some of use dont really understand the real meaning that makes us believe they’re coloring our mum into green (Hijau or might pronounced as Hijo in different ways). Imagine, your mum is green. Its rude but less rude.
Learning languages is fun. I suggest you to learn both BM and Indonesia for varieties. I even in progress to learn several languages like france, deutsch, spanish,russia. All at one. It messed up sometimes but since some of these languages is found to use similar words, I choose to learn them all.
I suggest you to learn sentences not words. It might sounds funny if you want to organize things to build up a complete sentence and then the usage might not.... sounds ‘normal’. Like:
‘I love you’ translated to ‘Saya suka awak'. In Malaysia, you're so baku. You can just say ‘aku suka kau lah'. Make it more relaxing to be heard. Using baku words to seduce is accepted but not most of us. ‘Baku’ drags into awkward situations- applied to me, idk about others.
So.
Goodluck with learning.
Selamat mencuba/mencoba.
Удaчи.
Bonne chance.
Viel gluck.
Haha.
Bahasa indonesia absorbs new words quicker than bahasa melayu, it seems malaysian government has interest to maintain the “purity” of malay language, thus, for indonesian speakers, bahasa melayu sounds like the archaic form of bahasa indonesia. bahasa indonesia speakers can understand bahasa melayu without problem and vice versa. which country you want to live in? that’s how you should decide.
My french friend learned both of the languages simultaneously because the nature of his work that required him to move around malaysia and indonesia. he mixes the vocabularies from both languages so often
Bahasa indonesia absorbs new words quicker than bahasa melayu, it seems malaysian government has interest to maintain the “purity” of malay language, thus, for indonesian speakers, bahasa melayu sounds like the archaic form of bahasa indonesia. bahasa indonesia speakers can understand bahasa melayu without problem and vice versa. which country you want to live in? that’s how you should decide.
My french friend learned both of the languages simultaneously because the nature of his work that required him to move around malaysia and indonesia. he mixes the vocabularies from both languages so often to the point I want to pull some of my hairs
Learn Indonesian because there are 250m of them as opposed to 30m Malaysians. The languages are also so similar that when you have learnt one you would have picked up the other.
Hi there,
I'm an Indonesian that is fluent in B.Indonesia and somewhat fluent in B.Malaysia.
As someone who is somewhat fluent in both, I could tell you that there is not really a particular order to learn both language. However, I would advise you to learn the language in the order of importance, meaning, what do you want to do. If you are planning to travel/work/live/study in either Indonesia or Malaysia, it would be better to study the corresponding language. But if it's purely interest in the language, it does not really matter.
B. Malaysia have a lot of ‘absorbed' English words in their lang
Hi there,
I'm an Indonesian that is fluent in B.Indonesia and somewhat fluent in B.Malaysia.
As someone who is somewhat fluent in both, I could tell you that there is not really a particular order to learn both language. However, I would advise you to learn the language in the order of importance, meaning, what do you want to do. If you are planning to travel/work/live/study in either Indonesia or Malaysia, it would be better to study the corresponding language. But if it's purely interest in the language, it does not really matter.
B. Malaysia have a lot of ‘absorbed' English words in their language. For example, the word ‘university’ in B.Malaysia is ‘universiti'. This language is ideal to be learned first if you converse well in English.
Opposed to that, B.Indonesia have more ‘original' and ‘compound words'. Taking above's example, ‘university' in B.Indonesia is ‘Sekolah Tinggi' or ‘Perguruan Tinggi' which if taken literally would be ‘Higher school' which actually means a school that offers higher education.
Although, they are different languages, both Indonesian and Malaysian could understand each other quite well, even when talking in their own lingua franca. This is because both languages share the same root language and due to this, a large proportion of words in each languages is also available in the other. (i.e. ‘eat’ in both is ‘makan’.) This also provide advantage if you are planning to learn both language.
Be careful though!
Sometimes the exact same words would mean very different in one language compared to the other. A funny example when I was conversing with my math teacher who is Malaysian:
‘Matematika sulitkah? Seperti diperkosa.’
B.Malaysia to english: ‘Is mathematics difficult? Like being tortured.’
B.Indonesia to english: ‘Is mathematics difficult? Like being raped.'
Well, you get the point. We share a lot of words and sometimes meaning gets really different. (No thanks, I don't want to be raped by calculus...)
Finally, it depends on you!
Think about why you want to learn the language and make your decision based on that.
Cheers!
Indonesia has a larger population, lower English proficiency level, much more diverse, has more lands which mean you can go to more cities, islands and experience different cultures. There are more resources to learn Indonesian than to learn Malay too.
Colloquially, Jakarta and KL accent are so different that it almost sounds like a total different language, although both are intelligible on the standardized form. It doesn’t really matter that much. You can learn either language and both countries can still mostly understand you unless you go colloquial.
Hi there.
About two weeks ago, I had a malaysian guest, which work at the same franchise business. In malaysia, he only sell services in English, because he wasn’t able to find a good printed materials in Malaysian language. When I offer him to use printed materials in Bahasa Indonesia, he said Malaysian would find it difficult to understand.
At about a week before that, I happen to see a video of a political campaign in Malaysia, and I can understand 95%, if not all, of the presentation.
Bahasa Malaysia and bahasa Indonesia has the same root, Malay. They both also absorb many English words. But
Hi there.
About two weeks ago, I had a malaysian guest, which work at the same franchise business. In malaysia, he only sell services in English, because he wasn’t able to find a good printed materials in Malaysian language. When I offer him to use printed materials in Bahasa Indonesia, he said Malaysian would find it difficult to understand.
At about a week before that, I happen to see a video of a political campaign in Malaysia, and I can understand 95%, if not all, of the presentation.
Bahasa Malaysia and bahasa Indonesia has the same root, Malay. They both also absorb many English words. But Bahasa Indonesia has other sources, i.e. local words from various tribal groups languages. Learning Bahasa Indonesia is somewhat more difficult than bahasa Malaysia, but with it, you can understand bahasa Malaysia in general.
Hope this help.
Indonesian is one of those languages, like Japanese, that are very useless when you try to approach it from academic angle. I heard that the Chinese also said the same about the Mandarin Chinese.
The key difference here is that Indonesian is one of the few languages in the planet that is pronounced the way it is being spelled (largely, because there is quite a lot of differing sounds that is not reflected by the alphabet, but not as many or as arbitrary as English). Also, Indonesian alphabet is pretty much read in the same manner as German or Dutch, except the V and W is reversed.
The thing is,
Indonesian is one of those languages, like Japanese, that are very useless when you try to approach it from academic angle. I heard that the Chinese also said the same about the Mandarin Chinese.
The key difference here is that Indonesian is one of the few languages in the planet that is pronounced the way it is being spelled (largely, because there is quite a lot of differing sounds that is not reflected by the alphabet, but not as many or as arbitrary as English). Also, Indonesian alphabet is pretty much read in the same manner as German or Dutch, except the V and W is reversed.
The thing is, like many Asian languages program, you will learn by saying this useless phrases:
“Ini Ibu Budi” - “This is Budi’s mother” - intended to show basic applications of Indonesian grammar.
“Budi pergi ke pasar” - “Budi goes to the market”
Foreigners who speaks “good Indonesian” will definitely speaks with distinct accent, why?
Because nobody speaks standard Indonesian in every day situation.
For example, you will almost never say “Budi pergi ke pasar” to answer a question.
The formal Indonesian conversation will approximately goes like this:
“Ke manakah Budi pergi?”
“Budi pergi ke pasar.”
“Bersama siapakah Budi pergi ke pasar?”
“Budi pergi bersama Ibunya.”
English:
“Where does Budi go?”
“Budi goes to the market.”
“Whom Budi goes with to the market?”
“Budi goes with his mother.”
In real world, it will probably be like this:
“Budi ke mana?”
“Ke pasar.”
“Sama siapa?”
“Sama ibunya.”
A lot of European speakers probably underestimate how far Asian languages are from the formal down to its everyday applications, unlike Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, and many other European languages. Unlike basic French or English phrases, formal Indonesian that you learn will sound totally awkward in everyday conversation and projects “distance” (unfamiliarity) in highly contextual Asian culture. You will use formal form during speech or public speaking, because you are indeed “distanced” from the audience, and you want the meaning of your speech to be universally understood and not creating any differing interpretation.
This is a very good video discussing Indonesian language:
Yes, you will see a lot of people in the comments sections (mainly Indonesians):
Indonesia adalah bahasaku
Ulangan Bahasa Indonesia: 70
Ulangan Bahasa Inggris: 96
English:
Indonesian is my language
Indonesian language quiz: 70
English quiz: 96
Yep, this is pretty common, in fact, looking at my transcript from 2003:
My Indonesian language high school final exam score: 78
My English final exam score: 92
You can learn about English from Hollywood movies, video games, Harry Potter books, they are all using the correct form of English, regardless the regional accents (which are mostly just differing pronounciations of certain words) and a very light number of slangs. You can even learn by conversing with native speakers, and it will still be helpful in either oral or written tests.
Meanwhile, everyday Indonesians are more like “jive talking” version of formal Indonesians, so looking at movies, learning from conversing with native speakers, reading “light topic” everyday magazines will totally ruin your academic Indonesians. Perhaps, the best way to learn from non-academic source is perhaps newspapers (which is very Japanese-like), because even government speech and announcements nowadays are laced with quite a lot of everyday Indonesian grammar.
The academic elitism in preserving the “archaic” form of ultra formal Indonesian, not withstanding its usefulness nor awkwardness in everyday settings, makes learning Indonesians not as useful as learning other language that is practically just “plug and play” like English.
Even everyday speakers like me and a lot of my friends would probably remarked that it felt “disgusting” or “grossed out” (jijik) to have informal everyday Indonesians being taught in ultra formal and strict Asian school settings.
The Biggest Benefits
I might be wrong, but the biggest benefits are only enjoyed by its native speaker:
We have a very wide range of letter pronouncing capabilities, from rolling the ‘r’, the various Indian languages roofed ‘r’, all the way to approximate Japanese ‘r’
The weakness is obviously the tonal language trap:
Indonesian, especially the everyday Indonesian use tones to denote context instead of meaning. This makes it very difficult to grasp the concept of tonal language in many East Asian languages, especially Mandarin and Japanese.
Duduk in its basic form means “to sit” (verb)
However, in everyday setting, you can apply Mandarin tones:
Duduk! in 4th tone - is a command “sit!”
Duduk? in 2nd or 3rd tone - is an implied question “do you want to sit (here)?”
Du-duk. with the slight pause between syllables, gives off sarcastic tone (implying authority, approximately: “have I not made myself clear? Sit down!”)
So, Is there any point in learning the Indonesian language, is there any practical use in it?
It really depends on what is your goal.
Business-wise, there is not many business happening in Indonesia right now, a lot of it are relatively small-scale, and people has been misleadingly believing that the 4th most populous nation in the planet does have some “potential” - but this at the moment, is just a nice theory on paper for someone who tries to build a career on convincing other people about their idea. Realistically, Indonesia is still a few years away from being the ideal FDI destination. For the business purpose, you better off learning the formal Indonesian ones. Proposals, contracts, and many other legal & marketing documents are usually written in largely formal Indonesian language that may or may not follow standard Indonesian grammar.
Social-wise, Indonesia is indeed very attractive, being the 4th most populous nation in the planet, you can meet all sorts of people and talents here that is pretty unique. A lot of people raved about living in Bali, just like Julia Roberts did last decade. But for this purpose, you’d better off learning by conversing the everyday language instead of going through the formal education route.
Political-wise, Indonesia is probably what the western nations dreamed about when they say “Asian democracy” in developing nations. There is a great deal of rising support for Indonesia, when the west’s relationship with China and India soured, over their politics. Indonesia, is still frustratingly Asian, non-interventionist, and with its growing influence, are less willing to play into western political narrative, which in turn, also influenced the foreign politics of the west’s long time reliable ally like Japan and Korea. This limits their options to a few “status quo” states like Taiwan and Hong Kong. Even the Philippines are starting to distance themselves away from its long time ally. Indonesia however, is pretty attractive, because its democracy has chosen a very different direction: the voters reject ultranationalism and right wing populism, which is pretty much unlike almost every other democracies around the world. You may want to learn all kinds of Indonesian forms in order to get know what’s going on here. Juicy and influential mainstream news media in Indonesia often uses quite liberal amount of informal lingos to attract bigger audience.
If you're not a native Indonesia speaker, yes, you must learn Malay to be able to communicate with Malays. Even though Malay language seems similar to Bahasa Indonesia, the vocabularies and grammatical structure are quite different and quite confusing even for native Indonesia speaker. There are lot of similar words with completely different meaning.
The last time I went to visit Malaysia, I am able to communicate with most Malay adults, but when it comes to children, it's quite difficult to communicate, especially when the children can't understand English.
However, you still can understand Mal
If you're not a native Indonesia speaker, yes, you must learn Malay to be able to communicate with Malays. Even though Malay language seems similar to Bahasa Indonesia, the vocabularies and grammatical structure are quite different and quite confusing even for native Indonesia speaker. There are lot of similar words with completely different meaning.
The last time I went to visit Malaysia, I am able to communicate with most Malay adults, but when it comes to children, it's quite difficult to communicate, especially when the children can't understand English.
However, you still can understand Malay better if you understand Bahasa Indonesia. Good luck.
Lets find an easy answer to this question together.
Do you plan to interact mostly with Malay people? And not necessarily only in Malaysia.
Start speaking Malay.
Do you plan to interact mostly with people from Indonesia?
Start speaking Indonesian.
Speaking, not learning. You will learn it step-by-step. If you start speaking.
Hope this helps.
Grammatically speaking, I would say Malay is harder, though not by much. Just simple things here and there, such as “ialah” and “adalah”. Search them in Wiktionary.
For the most parts though, both language is equally difficult. You may find many similar vocabulary but it won’t help you much… IF you’re trying to learn the formal version of both languages. How so?
I don’t know about Indonesian, but as a Malay speaker I can say that you don’t have to worry about prefixes, suffixes, circumfixes and pretty much anything standard Malay would quallify as “not correct”. Fun fact: even newspapers get sta
Grammatically speaking, I would say Malay is harder, though not by much. Just simple things here and there, such as “ialah” and “adalah”. Search them in Wiktionary.
For the most parts though, both language is equally difficult. You may find many similar vocabulary but it won’t help you much… IF you’re trying to learn the formal version of both languages. How so?
I don’t know about Indonesian, but as a Malay speaker I can say that you don’t have to worry about prefixes, suffixes, circumfixes and pretty much anything standard Malay would quallify as “not correct”. Fun fact: even newspapers get standard Malay wrong when it comes to grammar. Back to topic, you can simply use words just as they are. There is no need for any affix(though nobody would mind some simple ones here and there). You learn them and use it however you want. In simple term: caveman speech.
Indonesian is about the same I guess, though they do have the strangest source, in my opinion, for coining words. For example, the word “ultah” which means “anniversary” came from combining a syllable from each word in the phrase “ulang tahun” which of course means “anniversary” as well. Expect many more of this in colloquial Indonesian. Not to say that Malay doesn’t use the same method, but Indonesians(the people) are more productive in this field of coining words like this. You can blame the media if my answer turned out to be incorrect(just kidding).
That’s all I guess.
A while ago I met a German guy who is incredibly fluent in bahasa indonesia. Like, very very fluent. He can speak both bahasa gaul and formal bahasa indonesia. Do I keep speaking with him in bahasa, and he understands whatever I say 100%.
I asked him about the experience of learning bahasa indonesia. He told me his language teacher in Germany only taught him the formal bahasa indonesia in class, thus, when he went to Indonesia and practiced his bahasa, he got a lot of awkward situation as 99% of Indonesians won’t speak formal bahasa indonesia unless it’s really in a formal setting.
Later on, he
A while ago I met a German guy who is incredibly fluent in bahasa indonesia. Like, very very fluent. He can speak both bahasa gaul and formal bahasa indonesia. Do I keep speaking with him in bahasa, and he understands whatever I say 100%.
I asked him about the experience of learning bahasa indonesia. He told me his language teacher in Germany only taught him the formal bahasa indonesia in class, thus, when he went to Indonesia and practiced his bahasa, he got a lot of awkward situation as 99% of Indonesians won’t speak formal bahasa indonesia unless it’s really in a formal setting.
Later on, he seemed to pick up bahasa gaul as he got an Indonesian girlfriend. He told me that bahasa gaul and bahasa formal are like two different languages. He thinks that one cannot really understand bahasa indonesia unless one learns bahasa gaul. He also said saying bahasa indonesia is very easy is misleading. The introduction of the grammar is relatively easy. It’s one of those languages with an easy learning curve, but still hard or tricky to master. I think one of the most challenging grammatical aspect of bahasa indonesia are the prefix and suffix, which are added to modify a word’s definition.
However, the hardest, and probably the most obvious one is the fact Indonesia is a high context society. Communication is more like an art, and you have to understand many social cues to prevent yourself from embarrassment and using the right words.
Dutch people are good at English, one of the reasons is because they watch English cartoons/films using subtitles.
I admit this is one of the most effective methods in mastering a foreign language. Even a Weaboo can speak fluent Japanese just with subtitles.
Likewise what happened in Indonesia. Here, people outside the Riau Malay ethnic group can understand and be quite fluent in Malaysian Malay because we have often watched Malaysian animations with subtitles since childhood.
There are quite a lot of the most popular animations from Malaysia that are broadcast in Indonesia: Upin & Ipin, Boboiboy
Dutch people are good at English, one of the reasons is because they watch English cartoons/films using subtitles.
I admit this is one of the most effective methods in mastering a foreign language. Even a Weaboo can speak fluent Japanese just with subtitles.
Likewise what happened in Indonesia. Here, people outside the Riau Malay ethnic group can understand and be quite fluent in Malaysian Malay because we have often watched Malaysian animations with subtitles since childhood.
There are quite a lot of the most popular animations from Malaysia that are broadcast in Indonesia: Upin & Ipin, Boboiboy, Mechabot, Agent Ali, Pada Zaman Dahulu, and many more.
Pada Zaman Dahulu. Source: Les’ Copaque.
Most of the animations from Malaysia are quite educational, apart from containing moral education that is good enough to be taught to children, animations from Malaysia are quite good at introducing Malay culture, especially regarding literary works of art.
As a result, we can understand and can speaking Malaysian Malay quite well. (although not as fluent as native speakers).
This is different from animation from America. American animations that are broadcast in Indonesia are mostly dubbed into Indonesian, as well as Japanese animations that are broadcast in Indonesia are also dubbed.
So this is the reason why children in Indonesia cannot speak English and are more likely to understand Malaysian Malay.
How do Indonesians learn to understand Malaysian Malay?
- Through animation from Malaysia which is broadcast in Indonesia and subtitled, not dubbed.
- It has been our habit since we were young to watch these animations.
- Indonesian is basically based on Riau Malay, so there is a lot of the same vocabulary so we don't get too confused.
Saludos.
the other answer actually compares the relationship between Malay and Indonesian with that of English and Swedish. the comparison here cannot be further from the truth.
not only are English and Swedish independent languages, they are even mutually unintelligible!
Indonesian and Malay, otoh, are not only the same language, they (the standard languages) are even based on the same dialect! ie. the court language of the House of Lingga.
they are the same language but autonomous, both with separate language academies, and therefore both have developed enough differences over the years.
but essentially
the other answer actually compares the relationship between Malay and Indonesian with that of English and Swedish. the comparison here cannot be further from the truth.
not only are English and Swedish independent languages, they are even mutually unintelligible!
Indonesian and Malay, otoh, are not only the same language, they (the standard languages) are even based on the same dialect! ie. the court language of the House of Lingga.
they are the same language but autonomous, both with separate language academies, and therefore both have developed enough differences over the years.
but essentially they are still the same language. but different registers.
It was started with a political reason.
Malay (Melayu) had been used by people in today's Malaysia and Eastern chunks of Sumatra (Indonesia's Riau and Kepri). Basically they are a little different in dialect but coming from same root.
Riau's Malay is the dialect used by people of Riau province.
It was all started when Indonesia wanted independence from the Dutch. There is one question arose : what unites Indonesia?
Of course not geography, since it consists of 18,000 islands.
Of course not ethnic, since it consists of 300 ethnics.
Of course not language, since it consists of 300 languages.
Of co
It was started with a political reason.
Malay (Melayu) had been used by people in today's Malaysia and Eastern chunks of Sumatra (Indonesia's Riau and Kepri). Basically they are a little different in dialect but coming from same root.
Riau's Malay is the dialect used by people of Riau province.
It was all started when Indonesia wanted independence from the Dutch. There is one question arose : what unites Indonesia?
Of course not geography, since it consists of 18,000 islands.
Of course not ethnic, since it consists of 300 ethnics.
Of course not language, since it consists of 300 languages.
Of course not religion, since it consists of hundreds of beliefs.
Well, honestly, there is none.
They needed to redefine them all.
What will be the new nation, motherland, language, etc.
On 1926, Youth Congress I, one of the young leader, Muhammad Yamin strongly suggested that Indonesia should pick Riau's Malay as the national language (at that time they were speaking in Dutch, which was seen as the colonialist's language). Instead of having 300 languages, having 1 language across the archipelago would make the communication easier, thus helping the unification in struggle for independence.
The reasons why Riau's Malays was picked were because it is very rich in literary works, relatively simple to learn, and was commonly used as second language by the Dutch administrations in many regions.
Initially it was suggested that Javanese would be the national language because the percentage of people who were already mastering it. But after some considerations, Yong Java (the Javanese representatives) agreed that we should pick Riau's Malay instead. Since that day, Riau's Malay became the formal language across the archipelago.
Riau's Malay was then used as the basis for Bahasa Indonesia.
The took-off was slow. But it was two years later, on 1928, when Youth Congress II finally stated in one of its three pledges :
"We the sons and daughters of Indonesia, uphold the language of unity, Indonesian."
And later on 1938, Ki Hajar Dewantoro (later Minister of Education) stated
"What is called "Bahasa Indonesia" is Malay language, which the dialect is derived from Riau's Malay, but with some modifications in order to fit with modern era and nature. So that the language will be easy to use to the whole Indonesian."
Both launched the popularity of Bahasa Indonesia as the symbol of struggle until Indonesia achieved independence in 1945.
The popularity later was incepted through education and broadcasting. Schools are required to use Bahasa Indonesia as primary language. As well as the information (and government propaganda) from single-sourced RRI (Indonesia National Radio) and TVRI (Indonesia National Television) is all broadcasted in Bahasa Indonesia. Various newspapers who were using local languages are slowly out-of-print, then replaced by newer ones who used national language (for broader audience). Making the archipelago slowly but surely united in one language.
It is a long process.
But that's why we speak a language that sounds like Malay.
The language is called Malay. Bahasa Indonesia is based on Malay language but with some influences from other languages across Indonesia.
If you are already competent in written Bahasa Indonesia, Malay language is basically the same. However, spoken languages of both are different and natives have difficulties understand each other especially Jakarta accent and Kelantanese accent/slang.
You just need to watch Malay TV shows (usually using accent/slang of the majority Malay speaking population) more often to be familiar with the accent and slang. That's all. Easy.
If you want to learn Malay langua
The language is called Malay. Bahasa Indonesia is based on Malay language but with some influences from other languages across Indonesia.
If you are already competent in written Bahasa Indonesia, Malay language is basically the same. However, spoken languages of both are different and natives have difficulties understand each other especially Jakarta accent and Kelantanese accent/slang.
You just need to watch Malay TV shows (usually using accent/slang of the majority Malay speaking population) more often to be familiar with the accent and slang. That's all. Easy.
If you want to learn Malay language of other accents/slangs/dialects, forget it unless you have mastered speaking like a native Malaysian.
I don't know if the person asking this is a Chinese Malaysian/Indonesian, but I'll offer my own perspectives as a Chinese Malaysian.
Every language is precious. By knowing a language, you gain access to their culture, knowledge and anything associated with it.
I can enjoy my favorite Malay songs and films. It's a shame that they are ignored by the non-Malays despite being good these days.
I have to communicate with my Malay speaking clients from time to time. My good command of the language leaves good impression to them, which boost my company's image a little bit.
A lot of regulatory information
I don't know if the person asking this is a Chinese Malaysian/Indonesian, but I'll offer my own perspectives as a Chinese Malaysian.
Every language is precious. By knowing a language, you gain access to their culture, knowledge and anything associated with it.
I can enjoy my favorite Malay songs and films. It's a shame that they are ignored by the non-Malays despite being good these days.
I have to communicate with my Malay speaking clients from time to time. My good command of the language leaves good impression to them, which boost my company's image a little bit.
A lot of regulatory information are also primarily given in Malay language first, a lot of which contains jargons that rarely used in everyday life. Even me was initially stumped by them, but with a little bit of homework I can understand them.
There's no useless language in this world, only people who don't make good use of it.
Depends on what you count as “Malay” and “Indonesian”.
In short, the standardized forms—Standard Malay in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei; Standard Indonesian in Indonesia and Timor Leste—are mutually intelligible. This is not to say that they are the same thing. As an illustration, a native user of Standard Malay may find it very easy to read works in Standard Indonesian, but they may find it difficult to write in it, and vice versa.
But then there are vernacular varieties of Malay and Indonesian. Here things start to get a little bit more complex.
First, I should clarify that in Indonesia, the
Depends on what you count as “Malay” and “Indonesian”.
In short, the standardized forms—Standard Malay in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei; Standard Indonesian in Indonesia and Timor Leste—are mutually intelligible. This is not to say that they are the same thing. As an illustration, a native user of Standard Malay may find it very easy to read works in Standard Indonesian, but they may find it difficult to write in it, and vice versa.
But then there are vernacular varieties of Malay and Indonesian. Here things start to get a little bit more complex.
First, I should clarify that in Indonesia, the term “Malay language(s)” is still used to refer to the various Malayic isolects spoken in the country, except Standard Indonesian itself—plus the Jakartan vernacular. Any other varieties in Indonesia are normally considered as Malay dialects, although sometimes they are also referred to as “Indonesian dialects”.
This creates a confusing situation where some divergent varieties such as Kelantanese and Makassar Malay (not Makassarese, that’s a different language altogether) are considered as Malay dialects, while Standard Indonesian, which is closer to Standard Malay, is considered a separate language, with Jakartan (as in, bahasa gaul, not Betawi) as its only real “dialect”—or perhaps the colloquial register of it.
The Venn diagram above illustrates how most Indonesians view this issue. To some of us, Palembang, Medan, Riau, Makassar, Jambi, etc are Malay dialects (blue circle), while to some others they are Indonesian dialects (red circle). However, Standard Indonesian and Jakartan are not usually viewed as Malay dialects. This view disregards the fact that Standard Indonesian shares more similarities with Standard Malay than, say, Palembang or Makassar Malay.
This is what people don’t get when they are comparing Indonesian and Malay. Some people simply assume that since the standard version of Malay and Indonesian are mutually intelligible, they are exactly the same. But the reality is far more complex than that. I can’t also say that Malay and Indonesian are different just by comparing the colloquial speeches of KL and Jakarta. That is also a gross simplification.
So, again, the answer to this question depends on what you count as “Malay” and “Indonesian”. With this question’s current phrasing, there is simply not enough information.
It depends on what is your native language.
For some Austronesian language speakers, you may have little to zero trouble, since Indonesian is Austronesian language, you might see some word and grammar similarities between your native language and Indonesian.
But, for others, it's not. I'm going to outline some easiness and hardness of learning Indonesian, as far as I know:
- Why Indonesian is easy to learn:
- Indonesian is a phonetic language. Most alphabet symbolize a sound. For example, C is pronounced like ch in chalk, A is pronounced like a in father, etc.
- All of Indonesian words are written like h
It depends on what is your native language.
For some Austronesian language speakers, you may have little to zero trouble, since Indonesian is Austronesian language, you might see some word and grammar similarities between your native language and Indonesian.
But, for others, it's not. I'm going to outline some easiness and hardness of learning Indonesian, as far as I know:
- Why Indonesian is easy to learn:
- Indonesian is a phonetic language. Most alphabet symbolize a sound. For example, C is pronounced like ch in chalk, A is pronounced like a in father, etc.
- All of Indonesian words are written like how they sound. That's why there's no spelling bee competition in Indonesian language.
- Indonesian words know no gender. So every word is treated same.
- There are no tenses in Indonesian. So I eat, I'm eating, I was eating, I ate, all have the same Indonesian translation: Aku makan.
- There are no such things as past simple and past participle.
- Why Indonesian is hard to learn:
- There exist some Indonesian sounds that don't exist in English, such as ny (it sounds like a Spanish ñ).
- Indonesian use a lot of prefix and suffix. All of those prefix and suffix have its own function and some of them could be used at the same time. This is a big obstacle on mastering Indonesian.
At the end of the day, it's easy to learn Indonesian, if you're passionate about it and can see the beauty behind this beautiful language.
PS: I'm so sorry if my grammar is bad. I'm still learning English.
When I took vacation in Penang, i met a male Polis Malaysia (ethnic Malay), totaly stranger but we getting along quick.
In our conversation he spoke Bahasa Malaysia and I spoke Bahasa Indonesia and we talked about each country politics, culture, basicly anything without encountered any problem except only tiny misunderstanding.
In rare ocassion we used english to mediate/clarify unique words from either country i.e:
The same words:
Budak (BI) = slave — Budak (BM) = child
The similar words:
Nomor (BI) = Nombor (BM) = Number (ENG)
Resmi (BI) = Rasmi (BM) = Official (ENG)
The unique ones:
Narapidana (BI)
When I took vacation in Penang, i met a male Polis Malaysia (ethnic Malay), totaly stranger but we getting along quick.
In our conversation he spoke Bahasa Malaysia and I spoke Bahasa Indonesia and we talked about each country politics, culture, basicly anything without encountered any problem except only tiny misunderstanding.
In rare ocassion we used english to mediate/clarify unique words from either country i.e:
The same words:
Budak (BI) = slave — Budak (BM) = child
The similar words:
Nomor (BI) = Nombor (BM) = Number (ENG)
Resmi (BI) = Rasmi (BM) = Official (ENG)
The unique ones:
Narapidana (BI) = Banduan (BM) =Prisoner (ENG)
Wakil (BI) = Naib (BM) = Vice (ENG)
He did confused though when i tried to spell a National Park for Elephant in Indonesia : Way Kambas. I spelled : We + A + Ye +++ Ka + A + eM + Be + A + eS. I didnt know that BM use english alphabet instead of BI use Dutch. In BM, Way Kambas spelling is : Dabelyu + E + Way +++ Kei + E + eM + Bi + E + eS
In summary, average Indonesian people can communicate with Malaysian using each own Bahasa as long as they speak slowly and avoid slang language.
I am curious though if Bruneian can understand Indonesian vice versa. Never spoke with Bruneian using Bahasa Melayu Brunei before, really want to try and if I do in the future i will post it here
I’m Indonesian and I stayed in Malaysia for several years. Based on my experienced when I was in Malaysia, it’ll be better if you communicate in Malaysia with formal Indonesian language (bahasa).
Please be noted based on my personal review that approx. 70% of formal Indonesian language (bahasa) is the same with Malaysian language. 20% of Indonesian language has the same writing and spelling, but could have different meaning, sometimes extremely different meaning. The rest about 10% is totally different, even in Indonesia, we don’t have the vocabulary formally. If both of you don’t have the same
I’m Indonesian and I stayed in Malaysia for several years. Based on my experienced when I was in Malaysia, it’ll be better if you communicate in Malaysia with formal Indonesian language (bahasa).
Please be noted based on my personal review that approx. 70% of formal Indonesian language (bahasa) is the same with Malaysian language. 20% of Indonesian language has the same writing and spelling, but could have different meaning, sometimes extremely different meaning. The rest about 10% is totally different, even in Indonesia, we don’t have the vocabulary formally. If both of you don’t have the same understanding, try to explain/translate into English.
These are the examples: 1) In Malaysia: Kereta = Car; in Indonesia: Kereta/kereta api = train. 2) In Malaysia: Pandu = drive; in Indonesia: Pandu = guide. 3) In Malaysia: Percuma = free of charge; in Indonesia: Percuma = useless. 4) In Malaysia: Budak = kids; in Indonesia: Budak = slave.
I you really will stay there for several years and you already understand Indonesian language fluently, I think you only need small improvement/adjustment to understand Malaysian language, as you already 70% understand for the Malaysian language at the beginning you move/come to Malaysia.
Hope it helps :-)
Just to add on to the excellent answers below. If you become fluent in either Bahasa Indonesia or Bahasa Malaysia, you'll be able to converse in the other one. Just small adaptations required.
I think it’s possible, however I suggest you to focus learning one language at a time. As others have suggested, both Indonesian and Malay are similar (letters, pronounciation, and even grammar). After you mastered one language, learn the other one. You only need to change some words and probably rearrange them (assuming this is within a formal setting; for informal use you may need to learn more).
If you try learning both at the same time, you may get easily confused with same words on both languages but (sometimes radically) different meaning, and you must remember both. For example, “percuma
I think it’s possible, however I suggest you to focus learning one language at a time. As others have suggested, both Indonesian and Malay are similar (letters, pronounciation, and even grammar). After you mastered one language, learn the other one. You only need to change some words and probably rearrange them (assuming this is within a formal setting; for informal use you may need to learn more).
If you try learning both at the same time, you may get easily confused with same words on both languages but (sometimes radically) different meaning, and you must remember both. For example, “percuma” is “useless” in Indonesian but “free” in Malay. I often still chuckle at Lazada’s jingle, which in English should mean closely “Fast and free delivery” (sorry for Indonesians and Malays who read this, I might trigger your ear-worm!). In Indonesian, it’s “pengiriman cepat, gratis ongkir” (lit. Fast delivery, free delivery fee; “ongkir” is abbreviation of “ongkos kirim”). In Malay, it’s “penghantaran pantas dan percuma” (lit. Fast and free delivery). “Pantas” in Indonesian means “proper” instead of “fast”. However, “cepat” does exist in Malay, which is also an Indonesian words. I hope you don’t get confused here 😅 if you are interested, I will refer you to a Quora question about the funniest differences between Indonesian and Malay:
Yes this is also true when you learn only one language first and then the other, and judging by the answers from others, yes they can be confused too. I think this is because our brain is so used to use words from one language we’re most proficient with, so when we must switch language on the fly, it struggle to find the correct word as fast as possible and inadvertedly just use the first word it can find. But it can also happen in the same language; when we struggle to find a proper word!
My own experience, I am Indonesian so I know Indonesian well. I found the grammar of Malay is (almost, if not 100%) the same as Indonesian, so I just need to learn the proper Malay words as not to embarrass myself or anger others. If I can’t find the proper word or I don’t know it yet, I just fall back to English. I guess it really depends on the person itself.
So, in the end, I suggest to experiment first. If you are lost or getting easily confused when learning both, just pick and master one first (or focus on the grammar). Once you are ready, learn the other language. I won’t suggest which one to start first though (it may start a war between Indonesian and Malaysian hahaha, and I will be highly biased too), but trust me, being multilingual is fun!
Of course. I would say the standard Malay and Indonesian language are 95% mutually intelligible. After all Bahasa Indonesia is the Indonesian version of Malay language.
The problem of intelligibility only appear when we deal with the non-standardised Malay/Indonesian language. The non-standardised versions are numerous depending on localities and very much influenced by popular slang, provincial dialects and accents.
This is a non-standardised Malay language spoken in one of the east coast state of Peninsular Malaysia. See if you understand it:
“Demo panda dok kecek klate? Kawe bulih kecek banyok
Of course. I would say the standard Malay and Indonesian language are 95% mutually intelligible. After all Bahasa Indonesia is the Indonesian version of Malay language.
The problem of intelligibility only appear when we deal with the non-standardised Malay/Indonesian language. The non-standardised versions are numerous depending on localities and very much influenced by popular slang, provincial dialects and accents.
This is a non-standardised Malay language spoken in one of the east coast state of Peninsular Malaysia. See if you understand it:
“Demo panda dok kecek klate? Kawe bulih kecek banyok baso daghi utagho sapa nung jaoh ko slate. Baso ye hok kawe dok bulih bto-bto kecek baso Sawok ja. Hok laing nuh kalu kak tanoh smenajong nih, kawe bulih blako. Kawe tahuk demo sikik abok pong dok pahe apo ye kawe ghoyak ko demo, ke? Kuca lana abih baso Melayu kito kalu iyonyo dok diserageke, deh. Hihihi.”
I bet not only Indonesian will find it hard to comprehend but some Malaysians who are not used to speak in this particular Malay dialect would also find it difficult to understand.
So, to answer your question - both languages are highly mutually intelligible if the standardised version is used. However if the non-standardised versions are used in communication the mutual intelligibility might be much lower.
My best guess is probably the latter. Malay speakers understand Indonesian better. I am referring to the standard Bahasa Indonesia (they have over 700 native languages according to wiki - cray!) I am a Malaysian whose favourite destination is Bali. In 2018 alone, I was there three times! I did travel to other parts of Indonesia such as Bandung & Jakarta. From my own observation, Malaysians (more often the Malays), when they travel to Indonesia, would change the way they speak when talking to the locals. Our vocab, tempo, and pronunciation changes to sound as close as possible to the locals - f
My best guess is probably the latter. Malay speakers understand Indonesian better. I am referring to the standard Bahasa Indonesia (they have over 700 native languages according to wiki - cray!) I am a Malaysian whose favourite destination is Bali. In 2018 alone, I was there three times! I did travel to other parts of Indonesia such as Bandung & Jakarta. From my own observation, Malaysians (more often the Malays), when they travel to Indonesia, would change the way they speak when talking to the locals. Our vocab, tempo, and pronunciation changes to sound as close as possible to the locals - for better communication. However, I have never seen any Indonesian tourists try to speak Bahasa Malaysia when they come to Malaysia!
Indonesian celebrities, tv shows and music are widely popular in Malaysia. We are very accepting and used to their language. The case is not the same for Indonesia, only a small number of Malaysian celebrities & tv shows are popular there.
Since Bahasa Indonesia contains many similar vocabulary as to Bahasa Malaysia, it is easier for us to grasp what they are trying to say. However, the same word in BI may not carry the same meaning in BM. For example, “lewat” in BI means to have passed or to have visited. In BM it means late. “Kamar kecil” in BI means washroom. In BM, “kamar” is an old Malay term that means room. “Kecil” being small. So in BM it would simply mean a small room, a thing we would only say when we refer to an actual small-sized room. But when spoken in a sentence with clear context, it’s not rocket science to figure out what they mean.
I learnt both Vietnamese and Indonesian: Vietnamese to become an army interpreter/translator and Indonesian as part of my Bachelor of Arts degree at university. To learn a language you must have a reason for learning it, otherwise you will not succeed.
Vietnamese is a very different language to English, has tones and has sounds and sound combinations that we do not have in English. It takes a long time to learn to hear and reproduce these sounds and tones correctly. Due to changes in pronunciation since the writing system was invented, Vietnamese spelling, like English spelling, often no longer
I learnt both Vietnamese and Indonesian: Vietnamese to become an army interpreter/translator and Indonesian as part of my Bachelor of Arts degree at university. To learn a language you must have a reason for learning it, otherwise you will not succeed.
Vietnamese is a very different language to English, has tones and has sounds and sound combinations that we do not have in English. It takes a long time to learn to hear and reproduce these sounds and tones correctly. Due to changes in pronunciation since the writing system was invented, Vietnamese spelling, like English spelling, often no longer represents the sound of the language. V can be pronounced as Y in the south, and R can be pronounced as Z in the north, for example.
The whole language works completely differently to English and it takes a lot to get used to the many pronouns, which are ALL are hierarchical and completely different to English. Vietnamese adds words to change verbs to nouns, or adjectives to verbs. Then there are dozens of classifiers/measure words which must be used with every noun. If you end up choosing Vietnamese, send me a PM and I can send you a long list of classifiers and example sentences.
Indonesian on the other hand is way easier to learn. There are no tones, the sounds are all in English (excepted for the trilled R). Reading a writing are dead easy. What you hear is what you write. It’s read exactly as written, without fail. There are very few classifiers compared to Vietnamese. Indonesian uses lots of prefixes and suffixes to give meaning to words and change their function from verbs to nouns, or from adjectives to verbs, for example.
One tip for you: Neither Vietnamese nor Indonesian has tenses. Instead they generally use either time words to indicate the time of the event (for example, yesterday, last year, tomorrow); or they can add a word to indicate a completed action, a continuing action, an intended action or an action that has been experienced. Do not confuse this with tense: the continuing action, for example, can be in the past, present or future.
If you are equally interested in both languages and have to choose between the two, Indonesian is the easier. If you wish to live in Vietnam, choose Vietnamese.
It doesn’t matter, pick either one. Malay and Indonesian are, in effect, almost the same language anyway. The variation between the colloquial Bahasa Indonesia in Java and that of Sumatra are probably greater than those existing between standard Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. Apart from some minor differences in vocabulary, Malaysian and Indonesian are only marginally more different than British and American English.