Indonesian at Northern Illinois University
Indonesian looks easy to start with — no special writing system, no tones, verbs don’t show tense, nouns and pronouns don’t show gender, number or case (meaning that “I”, “me” and “my” can all be expressed with one word, saya). Things start getting complicated pretty quickly, however, in terms of word order, politeness levels (you use saya if you’re being formal, aku if you’re close friends with someone), lots of different words for “you,” and assorted prefixes and suffixes that change nouns into verbs and vice versa.
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FLIN 103-104 is an intensive course, so things move along quickly, but many students find it easier to learn a language when it meets every day. Class time is used, to the greatest degree possible, for giving you the chance to try out the stuff you’ve been practicing with your classmates, and for letting you ask about the puzzling parts of the whole process; but you will not succeed in this course unless you spend at least an hour a day outside of class, working on the language — practicing, doing exercises and so on.
The course books used for first and second year come from the Keren! series. These are used in Australia and have CDs (which are also available on the computers in the Language Learning Center). The course also make liberal use of internet materials, both on the Indonesian SEASite and more course-specific SEAsite, both of which allow you to get a much fuller exposure to Indonesian language and culture than would be possible otherwise.
Faculty: Rahmi Aoyama
Courses
FLIN 103-104: Beginning Indonesian I and II
FLIN 203-204: Intermediate Indonesian I and II
FLIN 421: Introduction to Indonesian Language
Resources
Learning Indonesian in 7 days
Reading and Conversation
Grammar
Vocabulary lessons of selected themes
Art and cultures from across Indonesia
Video Archive: Television Program
News
Scholarships
