VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Voice of Indonesia presents Let’s Speak Indonesian, a program that introduces the Indonesian vocabulary and guides you to speak in the language. Mari Berbahasa Indonesia or Let’s Speak Indonesian is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.  Today’s topic is still about Sakit which means Sick. 

Here is the conversation entitled “Apakah Dokter Ani Praktik Siang Ini?” which means “Is Doctor Ani Available This Afternoon?. This dialog is between Kevin and registration officer in a clinic. They talk on the phone. Let’s read to the conversation.

Having listened to the conversation, now I am going to introduce some vocabulary and expressions related to the topic of the day.

In the dialog, you listen to a question Apakah dokter Ani praktik siang ini? (2x) which means Is doctor Ani available this afternoon? In the question, there is the word apakah (2x) which means is. It aims to confirm information that someone wants to know specifically like if someone comes or not, works or not or if a doctor is available at a certain time or not.

Let’s listen to another example of a question to confirm information.

Kevin                             : Apakah dokter Ani sudah datang? (2x) which means Has doctor Ani come?

Petugas klinik     : Belum (2x) which means not yet.

In social interaction, Indonesian people pays much attention to social relationship. For example, the clinic officer uses the word beliau(2x) which means she in a formal context instead of dia (2x) in an informal context. The word beliau(2x) which means she is the third pronoun for someone we respect.

That was “Let’s Speak Indonesian” for today. Hopefully, this edition can be useful for those of you who want to know more about Indonesian language.