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 Nomor Ponsel which means Phone Number. This dialog is between Kevin and a clinic registration staff. The staff asks Kevin’s phone number. 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 Kevin who mentions his phone number, nol delapan satu dua dua lima ribu sembilan satu. When mentioning phone number, some Indonesians often say kosong instead of nol which means zero. However, the right one isnol like Kevin says. Then, Kevin says 5000, which means five zero zero zero, with lima ribu, not lima nol nol nol which means five zero zero zero. It is usually said when there are three same zero numbers in a row.For example, nol delapan satu dua dua lima ribu sembilan satu.

Let’s read to another example to mention phone number.

Clinic staff : Berapa nomor ponsel Anda? which means What is your phone number?

Kevin                   : 0812000531. (nol delapan satu dua ribu lima tiga satu) which means zero eight one two thousands five three one

Ponsel stands for telepon seluler which means cell phone. However, Indonesians usually the word handphone or shortened to HP. Therefore, an expression which is often used the most to ask someone’s phone number is Berapa nomor HP Anda? which means What is your phone number?

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.