Tips to Speak Bahasa Indonesia Like Native!

Hello-Halo! How long have you been learning and practicing your Bahasa Indonesia? Days, months, years? And how's the pronunciation going? I hope it's going great! During years of my teaching, I found several common mistakes during Bahasa Indonesia speaking. I love teaching and I very much look deep into the way my students would pronounce the Indonesian words, so I always note down what's missing and what's good. Hopefully, some of the tips and explanations I left out here can help and guide you to understand better Bahasa Indonesia pronunciation and speaking. If there is anything you want to know about Bahasa Indonesia, please comment down below!

Now I tell you I'd let you know some of the tips which hopefully can enhance your pronunciation, but before we go there, you need to know a few facts first about Indonesian people when it comes to pronunciation. Firstly, some of the Indonesian words often have a soft sound, such as "h" or "k", because of this when you hear Indonesian say it, it might sound like there is no h/k sound... but there is! (Example: kakak, sudah). Second, continuing from the first, because they have such a soft sound for the k/h, Indonesian like to skip the soft sound directly. So oftentimes, you hear a clear "suda" or a little bit of with/without h in sudah. 

Other examples can be found when saying the word "across/ seberang". This consists of three syllables "se-be-rang", when you try to pronounce it slowly you would pronounce all the syllables... but if you say it quickly, you might find that the second "e" is kind of soft actually. And because of this, oftentimes Indonesian also say it "sebrang". So whenever you find a word that has something soft like this, you can say it a little slow by saying all the three syllables or say it without it like sebrang, suda. 

Thirdly, accent. I'd assume you knew already that Indonesia is consist and divided from so many different islands with different cultures and mostly each has their traditional language and accent. That's why sometimes because of that, the way people pronounce the words are different too. Mostly is on the vocal word of "e", there are two ways you could pronounce "e" right. The one where you say "benar" and "ember", these two have different ways of pronouncing the vocal. The common "e" pronunciation would be the "e" in the word benar. 

Now we gonna move to the main topic of today's article. If you have other difficulties in speaking and pronouncing Bahasa Indonesia that I've not mentioned below, please let me know! Speaking Bahasa Indonesia needs a lot of practice and you might need a friend or internet to find out if you have spoken it correctly!

Read all the letters
Sometimes people just look at it once and say it without paying attention to all the letters written. I should tell you, Bahasa Indonesia is read by how it's written! So you should look at it once and pay attention to all the letters written. For example, the word makanan is pronounced "Ma-ka-nan", but because people are comfortable with makan, when they say makanan they sometimes say it makan-n, which is different!  So you have to read all the letters. Another example is the one with two vocals such as maaf or sorry, mau or want, in saying this you have to read both vocal letters as two separate syllables. These two are pronounced as ma-af and ma-u. I heard a lot of people saying maaf as one or two syllables but they read the double "a" as a long "a", so instead of ma-af it sounds like "maaaaf". With mau, it's also the same. You either pronounce it as "ma-u" or "ma-wu", but never "m-au" which sounds a little bit like mao. 

Break down syllables
Following the first tips, this is related to the second tip which is breaking down syllables. This could help you better in reading Bahasa Indonesia and eventually pronounce the word correctly. By breaking it down and read it by the syllables, you can form an easy and better pronunciation. Example: saya akan pergi membeli makanan (sa-ya / a-kan / per-gi / mem-be-li / ma-ka-nan) I will go buy food. I'd assume you are familiar with the first-third words, so I'd focus on the last two. When saying membeli, you often find different but similar prefixes such as mem-, men-, meng- etc... always read the prefix first and see if there is any vocal letter following it.

Like membeli: prefix mem- + verb beli = mem-be-li. Same with food: in eat you say "ma-kan" but now there is -an suffix! So you cannot say "ma-kan-an" but it should be "ma-ka-nan", this is because you cannot separate the vocal letter from the previous letter before it. Another example: sebar=spread (root word) then with prefix it becomes: menyebarkan. Now you if you familiar with the root word, it should be se-bar, so with prefix, it becomes me-nye-bar-kan. 

Go with the flow
When I say go with the flow... I didn't mean the conversation, but the way your mouth moves when pronouncing the words. From one syllable to another, you don't want to pronounce it as if you are reading words. So for example, like makanan... don't say it as "ma" - stop - "ka" - stop - "nan"- stop. Don't close your mouth or end your pronunciation for each syllable, you should read one syllable... and from the last move of your mouth, continue to the next one. 

When saying "ma", your mouth should be open and form an O. So don't close the O and then begin to read the next syllable, but instead from O moves your mouth to form the next syllable which is "ka". The second syllable "ka" also has the ending of O like when saying "ma". So don't close the O after you pronounce the "ka" but instead move directly to "nan". Feel how your mouth will form at the end of each syllable and try to hold into that then move to another syllable. 

This practice can help you to speak Bahasa Indonesia in a clear sound, and hopefully eliminate the following sound that often westerns have (such as "h" sound).  Keep practicing this and hopefully, the hard words such as "sriwijaya" or "ngomong" can be heard clearly and also in any other Indonesian words! Important note: everyone's end form (your mouth) can be different because everyone has their own way of speaking. Your mouth might not really form an O after reading ma or ka, so as long as it makes the sound, you are good to go. Just remember to go with the flow!

Clear sound, open your mouth
Now, this is important in Bahasa Indonesia. If you speak English, it is common to know that English speakers often have a following such as "h" or th sound that is very soft... but it is there and you can hear it. However, in Bahasa Indonesia, you don't have such following sound. So it is important to look at the word and see if you should have that following sound or not. Indonesian are very a expressive people, you would often hear Indonesian speak loud and fast, so how can you speak like that too? Well, you have to practice a lot! But one thing is for sure, to have a clear sound in Bahasa helps people understand what words you speak. 

You can practice having a clear sound in speaking by "opening your mouth". This is following the syllable and third tips, when speaking you don't want to keep your mouth flat. But try a little bit to open your mouth to go with the flow of how your mouth moves. Oftentimes while reading words that have "a" or "o" vocals in Indonesia, I meet a lot of people that didn't read the letter as  "a" or "o" but rather just a soft "a" sound or "o" sound. To some extent, this could change the words you read. 

Most of the time, when reading vocal letters, it is a bit high and literally as the letter. Try to say "kotak" or box, when saying "ko" notice how your mouth kind of forming an O and the second syllable "tak", when you say the "ta" your mouth is also open. Right? So do open your mouth as it goes! Don't close or make your lips into a thin line! Practice by opening your mouth, record it and see if you do make the correct pronunciation. This really helps to make that clear sound and eventually makes you sound more native.

If you worry that when you speak, you might look weird because your mouth is opening or your mouth move excessively... don't worry!!! It takes time to get comfortable in speaking Bahasa Indonesia, but first and foremost you have to find your own moves. When saying "kotak", I don't form a big O. But rather a small one, sometimes I even say it without forming an O, but this is because I'm familiar and I know how to make that "ko" and "tak" sound with my mouth. Once you get how the sound in your mouth makes, and moves, how your tongue movies and the position when you speaking... practice elegantly. 

Well, that is all! I hope all of these tips help you a lot and please let me know what you think or if you have any suggestion! Terima kasih banyak!

Xoxo.