VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

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 Berkunjung ke rumah teman in English ‘Visiting friend’s house’

Read to this conversation about Berkunjung ke rumah teman in English ‘Visiting friend’s house’. Kevin asks Siti’s mother whether Siti is at home.

Kevin               : Permisi, Bu.

Ibunya Siti       : Iya, Mas?

Kevin               : Ini rumah Siti, kan?

Ibunya Siti       : Iya, benar.

Kevin               : Siti ada di rumah?

Ibunya Siti       : Ada. Mas, siapa, ya?

Kevin               : Saya teman kuliah Siti, Bu.

Ibunya Siti       : Oh, teman kuliah. Mari masuk.

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

Ini rumah Siti, kan?   Which means     This is Siti’s house, right?

Siti ada di rumah?                                  Is Siti at home?

Siapa                                                         Who

Teman kuliah                                          College friend

Mari masuk.                                             Come in

The word –kan is an abbreviation of the word bukan and is usually used in interrogative sentence.  The word –kanis functioned to confirm something. The answer should be ya, tidak or bukan.

For example:

Didik                   : Kamu jadi mampir ke rumahku, kan?

                     (Which means ‘You stop by my house, right?’)

Mei                      : Iya. Setelah makan siang, ya.

                     (Which means ‘Yes. After the lunch, ok’)

Dina           : Kamu yang mengambil pensilku, kan?

                     (Which means ‘You took my pencil, didn’t you?’)

Rizky         : Bukan aku, Din. (Not me, Din)

Nida           : Hatta, kamu tau rumah Sinta, kan?

                     (Which means ‘Hatta, you know Sinta’s house, right?’)

Hatta          : Tidak. Aku tidak tahu.

                     (Which means ‘No, I don’t know’)

Besides using the word kan or bukan, you can also use the word benar to confirm something. For example :

Officer       : Benar ini rumah Mei?

                   Which means ‘this is Mei’s house, right?’

Dina           : Iya. Benar. which means ‘yes, right’

Officer       : Apa benar Anda yang bernama Mei?

                   Which means ‘are you Mei?’

Dina           : Bukan, Pak. Saya Dina.

                   Which means ‘no, I am Dina’

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.