Learning Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia is not really easy as what you have heard as each language is unique. Although it is not easy, it does mean that it is difficult. Here are things you should know and consider before you start learning Indonesian.
Prospect and Popularity
If learning foreign language is your hobby, then you should not think about prospect of learning Indonesian. But if you want something from your learning, then you should consider about its prospect and popularity.
Bahasa Indonesia is not popular language. It is spoken only in Indonesia. If being able to speak Indonesian is your main target, then consider about in what occassions your knowledge and insight you have will be applied.
Different with Indonesians who learn English, they can teach English after graduating from colleege taking English Education or English Literature. If you learn Indonesian, think about the prospect.
Resources
First thing you should consider is the availability of resources. In another website on the internet, Bahasa Indonesia is spoken by for about 43 million people. However, it does not guarantee that Bahasa Indonesia has plenty of resources. You can find some but it will not be as easy as getting resources about English.
Another thing to note that Bahasa Indonesia is not mainly spoken even in Indonesia. All Indonesians, if not majority of them, speak their own vernaculars. Statistics showed that there are 652 vernaculars exist in Indonesia.
If you have ever been to Bali, you will find people speak Balinese (Bahasa Bali). If that is you first time to Indonesia, you might think that language spoken in Bali is Bahasa Indonesia. That is totally wrong actually.
If you travel to other areas in Indonesia, you will realize that each area speaks different languages. What I mean by different languages here is not accent or register but completely different language. Resources become the main issue you will face right after you are in.
Native Speaker of Bahasa Indonesia to Learn From
Learning with native speaker is of course thing that all foreign language learners expect. However, that all Indonesians, if not majority of them, speak vernaculars makes it difficult to get authentic input. Those who are well-educated of course understand “the how to” but in practice, vernaculars they speak influences their Bahasa Indonesia. That is normal and that is not the main case.
There are millions speakers of Bahasa Indonesia and they are easy to find on the internet. You can find them on social media and address your need to them - that you want to learn Bahasa Indonesia. However, that Bahasa Indonesia is not as popular as English makes it little bit difficult to find the right person or people to learn from.
