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Conquering language barrier in Indonesia with apps
With the advent of digital technology, gone are days when you have to bring plenty of dictionaries or phrase books when visiting a foreign country
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With the advent of digital technology, gone are days when you have to bring plenty of dictionaries or phrase books when visiting a foreign country. All you need is a simple app to be installed in your device of choice.
Whether you are on a business trip in Jakarta or a vacation in Lombok, it is immensely helpful if you can understand and speak some of Indonesian phrases.
The applications below do more than just teaching you to say 'Selamat pagi' (Good morning) and 'Terima kasih' (Thank you). One app can transform the text in your email or Whatsapp chat into Indonesian with just a few taps on your smartphone. Another app provides a brief language course that help you to order food like a true Indonesian.
In-app translation in Android Marshmallow
Android provides a handy update for Google Translate on its operating system Android Marshmallow. To translate a chat or email, you only need to highlight the text and click 'Translate' option. A Google Translate page will pop up on the screen, offering you to select desired translation languages and to add the translated text into your chat or email.
In 24 Hours Learn to Speak Indonesian
By the hour: Learn to Speak Indonesian in 24 Hours has thousands of Indonesian words divided into 24 categories, ranging from basic phrases and numbers to transportation and restaurants.
Learning to speak Indonesian in 24 hours seems like a herculean task. Australia-based SNA Consulting took up the challenge with this app, which is available on App Store and Google Play.
The app contains thousands of Indonesian words divided into 24 categories, ranging from basic phrases and numbers to transportation and restaurant. You can read the Indonesian words on the screen and listen to the word's pronunciation through the earphones.
By the hour: Learn to Speak Indonesian in 24 Hours has thousands of Indonesian words divided into 24 categories, ranging from basic phrases and numbers to transportation and restaurants.
Learn Indonesian with Babbel
Trial and error: Learn Indonesian With Babbel costs US$9.99 per month but allow users to try the first Indonesian exercises online for free.
If you are willing to spend US$9.99 a month for an Indonesian language lesson, the app could be a good choice.
The app, available on iOS and Android, offers a number of features, from grammar lesson, verb training, tongue twisters and phrasebooks. The app comes with an integrated speech recognition, which assists you to pronounce Indonesian words correctly.
Not sure if the app is worth the money? You can try the first Indonesian exercises online ' free of charge.
Learning Indonesian Basic Audio Language Lessons
Learning by listening: Learning Indonesian Basic Audio Language Lessons provides 20 Indonesian audio lessons, where one speaker explains the Indonesian word's context and meaning in English, while another demonstrates the pronunciation.
The iOS app does a good job in teaching essential Indonesian phrases. It provides 20 Indonesian audio lessons, where one speaker explains the Indonesian words' context and meaning in English, while another demonstrates the pronunciation.
It offers essential and interesting lessons, from 'Ordering Food' to 'Expressing Love and Affection'. More importantly, the lesson includes useful information when travelling to Indonesia.
'Because not all water is safe to drink, you might want to simply order water by saying air botol [bottled water] or order by brand. The most common brand is Aqua,' the speaker says.
PolySpeak translation keyboard
Direct translation: PolySpeak, available on the App Store since December, allows users to directly translate text over the keyboard of their iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
You can use a translator app, like Google Translate, when texting or emailing your Indonesian friends or business counterparts. However, it will be such a hassle to switch between different apps.
PolySpeak, available on App Store since December 2015, allows you to directly translate text over the keyboard of your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Users just need to type on PolySpeak keyboard and press 'Translate' to convert the text into the desired language. The lightweight app can translate over 85 languages currently available on Google Translate.
Polyspeak is ready to use with every application where you can type, such as Snapchat, Whatsapp and email.
Nikhil Tibrewal, a data engineer at music streaming service Spotify, was inspired to make the app when visiting his parents in Jakarta.
'I can converse a little bit Bahasa [Indonesian language] but at times when I need complicated words sentence, I usually went to a translator app and copy paste the text,' said Nikhil, who spent his high school years in Jakarta.
'[I thought] Why can't I just do it over the keyboard? That's why I made this app.'
Tibrewal added fun to the app with Emoji translation, where the app transforms some English words with available emoji characters.
'I am a big tennis fan. I remember Roger Federer tweeted something long time ago and his tweet was full of emoji characters. I figured what if you can translate from text to emoji. I added that translation as an extra thing to the people who just want to quickly get emoji for some of words.'
PolySpeak's translations, excluding the emoji translation, can only work with internet connection.
' Photos by JP/Yuliasri Perdani
