Voice of Indonesia presents “Let’s Speak Bahasa Indonesia,” a lesson in the Indonesian language on the radio. We introduce some Indonesian vocabulary and tips on how to use it in a conversation. This segment is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language and Book Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.  Today’s topic is Waktu Tempuh Perjalanan or ‘Travel Time’.

This conversation about Waktu Tempuh Perjalanan or ‘Travel Time’.  The conversation is between Kevin and Pak Imran. Kevin asks pak Imran about the travel time from Airport to the hotel.

Kevin: Wah, Jakarta macet, ya, Pak.

Imran: Iya, Mas.

Kevin: Berapa jam kita akan sampai ke hotel?

Imran: Kalau macet seperti ini kira-kira dua jam.

Now I am going to introduce the vocabularies and expressions related to the topic today.

In the conversation Kevin asks about travel time to the hotel. He says Berapa jam kita akan sampai ke hotel? Which means ‘how many hours will we take to get to the hotel?’.  If you want to know the travel time between two places, you can use an expression Berapa jam kita akan sampai ke... then mention your destination places. For example: Berapa jam kita akan sampai ke hotel?  To answer the question, you can mention the travel time. And you can also add the words kira-kira, sekitar, or lebih kurang which means ‘approximately’ or ‘about’, if you are not sure about the travel time.

The example:

Kevin:  Berapa lama dari bandara ke hotel?

Imran:  Kira-kira dua jam.

The unit of time used in Indonesia is jam (hours), menit (minutes), and detik (second). So, to respond to someone about the travel time, you can answer with the unit of time such as, one hour, two hours, thirty minutes or forty minutes.

That was “Let’s Speak Bhs Indonesia”, a lesson in bahasa Indonesia or the Indonesian language on the radio. Hopefully, this edition will be useful for those who want to know more about Bahasa Indonesia.