How to Master the Indonesian Language: A Course for English-Speaking Foreigners

By A.M. Almatsier

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9794280755
• ISBN13: 9789794280751
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Penerbit Djambatan
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

small but very effective

This is a small but highly effective book for learning Indonesian. The book consists of 28 short chapters, and short chapters are perfect for those who can't spend 30-60 minutes a day battling with long arduous chapters. The introductory part of the book goes through the pronunciation in a thorough way. Each chapter has on average 28 new words in it, thus about 784 in total for the whole book, this is consistent with a one-semester course. Because the chapters are so short, 5-6 pages, it means that the grammar is introduced in a very gradual way. Which in turn makes it much easier to master it. Even though the chapters are so short they contain alot: > each chapter usually starts with some new grammar to learn, many examples are provided to help you understand <br /> <br />> then there's either a reading passage or dialogue, sometimes both, the great thing about these are that they are quite long (for a beginner's book) <br /> <br />> after these are exercises, where the type and number of exercises vary depending on what the chapter introduces: some have only have one set of exercises (usually translations) others include; putting the right word in the right place, grammar exercises, and answering questions <br /> <br />This book was much better than Colloquial Indonesian, which I tried first but gave up on due to frustration with it's terrible editing and typos. <br />This little book will give you alot more than Colloquial. <br /> <br />The only thing that's missing are audio material, but this is not a crucial fault since the pronunciation is not difficult - it is easier than both Spanish and Italian. <br /> <br />The only exception is regarding the pronunciation of the letter 'e' which is sometimes pronounced as 'o' as in the English word 'worth' and sometimes as 'e' as in 'bed'. There is no indication in Indonesian of which sound to use when you encounter a word containing the letter 'e'. <br />In my opinion you have two options: <br />i) pronounce all 'e'-words as 'o' as in 'worth' - which is what most foreign learners do since the majority of 'e'-words are pronounced like that <br />ii) get a good dictionary such as Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary or A Learner's Comprehensive Dictionary of Indonesian and look up each 'e'-word <br /> <br />Note: my edition is from 1988