If you’re a bule (foreigner) in Indonesia, you’ll probably attract the attention of curious locals. One of the first things people will want to know is where you’re from. We’ll help you answer that in this post about countries, nationalities, and languages in Indonesian.

Countries

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The most common question you’ll get in Indonesia is definitely “Anda berasal dari mana?” (Where are you from?). To answer, you simply say “Saya dari…” (I’m from…) plus the Indonesian name for your country. Many country names are exactly the same in Indonesian as they are in English. Others are very close in spelling and pronunciation. To give you an idea, here’s a list of 25 countries in Indonesian:

So, for example, when someone asks me where I’m from, I respond “Saya dari Amerika Serikat.” How about you? Anda berasal dari mana?

Nationalities

Saya seorang Amerika Serikat (can’t you tell?).

Learning countries and nationalities in English is tricky – America/American, Germany/German, China/Chinese, and so on. Thankfully it’s quite easy in Indonesian. To describe your nationality, you don’t need to learn a new word in addition to your country. You just say “Saya seorang…” plus the name of your country. Here are a few examples:

• Saya orang Inggris = I’m English
• Saya orang Jepang = I’m Japanese
• Saya orang Mesir = I’m Egyptian
• Saya orang Kanada = I’m Canadian

It’s not very common to ask someone what their nationality is in Indonesia, but in case you were wondering the question would be “Apa kebangsaan anda?”

Languages

“Anda bisa berbicara bahasa apa?” (What languages can you speak?) It’s pretty easy to talk about languages in Indonesian. You usually just use the word “bahasa” (language) plus the country’s name. Here are a few examples:

• bahasa Inggris = English
• bahasa Jerman = German
• bahasa Spanyol = Spanish
• bahasa Arab = Arabic
• bahasa Perancis = French

How about you? I can speak a couple of languages (none of them very well, though). I would say “Saya bisa berbicara bahasa Inggris, bahasa Cina, bahasa Spanyol, dan bahasa Cina.” If you want to stress that you can only speak a little of a language, you can add the words “hanya” (only) and “sedikit” (a little). This phrase might be of use to you: “Saya hanya bisa berbicara sedikit bahasa Indonesia.” (I can only speak a little Indonesian).

Hopefully this post will help you out next time someone asks you about where you’re from in Indonesian. In my experience, people in Indonesia are usually super friendly and very curious to learn about you and your native country. This is a great chance to practice your Indonesian, even if it’s just sedikit-sedikit! Learn Indonesian with us, and you’ll improve in no time!