Let’s Speak Indonesian: Ayo Berbahasa Indonesia, Volume 1

I lived in Indonesia for four years and have been studying Indonesian for the last ten years. I spent one year in a formal classroom setting, and the last nine years studying independently. I am also an ESL/EFL instructor with a degree in Linguistics. This is a wonderful series of text books for someone who is a beginner and is working with a native speaking instructor, or as an independent study for an intermediate or advanced student who already has a strong background in the language and wants to continue to advance in his or her language skills. It is written to be used in a classroom, so some of the exercises will need to be adapted if you intend to use it for two or fewer students. The material is aimed at adults, not children, is advanced and moves quickly. I have used it to teach two of my teenage children that have lived in Indonesia, have a foundation in colloquial Indonesian, and have an excellent understanding of English grammar. It was challenging for them because of the pace, therefore I would suggest this as a college level language course. I supplemented the books with extra aural-oral drills in order to slow down the pace and help them master the grammar skills. I found the cultural notes to be very informative and was surprised at how many times I encountered information that was new to me, even though I have studied the culture for years. The most impressive aspect of this series is the high quality audio recordings that accompany the books. I have purchased many Indonesian language learning products over the years. These recordings are the best, clearest, and most helpful I have ever heard. They increase in difficulty as you progress through the textbooks and are quite challenging even for an advanced student. If you are looking for a travel or very beginning level Indonesian book, try Easy Indonesian by Thomas G. Oey. But if you are looking for a serious study of the Indonesian language and culture, I think that this series is one of the best I have encountered.

This book is wonderful! Even though I live in Indonesia, I have struggled to learn the language via textbooks (Bahasa Indonesia textbook), web lessons (Univ of Hawaii), phrase books (Instant Indonesian, Lonely Planet), Flash cards, CDs, Rosetta Stone, and even with native language tutors. I've tried it all and nearly gave up hope. Then my tutor and I tried this book. We both fell in love with it immediately. Other books and e-learning have had blatant errors with phrases that are not commonly used today. But this book brings together the perfect balance of new dialogue, vocabulary, cultural notes, and grammar. The lessons are interesting and flow smoothly. My tutor is so pleased to find a text with native phrases and comprehensive cultural notes that she plans to begin using Let's Speak Indonesian with all her students. (I have a degree in TESL and was an English teacher. I visited Indonesia dozens of times since 2007 and moved here a year ago).

Very classroom oriented. Not meant for self-study.

My daughter used this text and the grammar books by the same authors for a class at SEASSI. I wanted to learn too, so I had her teach me the texts as she was learning them. The books are excellent. I have tried using other texts to learn Indonesian and these are by far the BEST.

Indonesian is my 4th language and this is the worst language study source I've ever used. The verbiage is from a generation ago and is robotically stiff. Indonesians will make fun of you if you use what this books teaches - if you ever use it at all, as the lessons are planned in a ridiculous manner which focuses half your time on rarely used words and phrases which you will never find useful as a beginner. Online tools created by the same developers literally use movie clips from the 1980s-1990s, which shows in these books. Indonesian has changed so much its like teaching English from the mid 19th century

Had to return it. It’s only for group studying with a native speaker. Since 90% of the exercises are “work in pairs, talk about blah blah blah”. Since I’m just learning how would I know if I build a sentence correctly. I was looking for a book with exercises to practice myself at home, but this is not the book for me.

I'm a professional Indonesian language lecturer and bilingual both in Indonesian and Spanish, but this book is useless and never be worth buying.