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 ‘Anak Tunggal’ (Single Child).

Read to this conversation about‘Anak Tunggal’ in English (Single Child). Kevin asks how many children Pak Hasan has (Rama’s father).

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

If you want to ask how many children someone has, you can use a sentence Kalau boleh tahu, berapa jumlah anak Anda? Which means  ‘May I know, how many children do you have?’. If you want to ask about someone's family member, you can use a sentence Berapa jumlah saudara Anda? Which means ‘How many brothers/sisters do you have?’ or  Apakah Anda punya Adik atau kakak? Which means ‘Do you have younger brothers/sisters?’.

Let’s follow the examples:

Kevin: Kalau boleh tahu, berapa jumlah anak Bapak? May I know, how many children do you have?

Rama’s father:  Anak saya hanya satu, Si Rama which means ‘I have only one child, Rama’

Kevin: O, jadi Rama anak semata wayang ya, Pak? Which means ‘I see, Rama is a single child, right?

Kevin         : Rama, berapa jumlah saudaramu? Which means ‘Rama, how many brothers and sisters do you have?’

Rama: Aku tidak punya saudara which means ‘I have no brother/sister’.

Kevin         : O, jadi kamu anak tunggal ya which means ‘I see, you are a single child, right’.

In the Indonesian language the word si (si Rama), is an article which is used as personal pronouns or nouns. While the meaning of idioms anak semata wayang has the same meaning with anak tunggal which means ‘single child’.

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