About Indonesian Language

Indonesian, known in-country as Bahasa Indonesia, is the official language of Indonesia and is spoken by more than 200 million speakers throughout the archipelago. Indonesia is a country rich in cultural diversity with hundreds of different ethnic groups, some three hundred of which speak recognizably different regional languages. Bahasa Indonesia is an Austronesian language derived from Malay, which has been spoken throughout insular Southeast Asia for many centuries. When Indonesia declared its independence in 1945, Bahasa Indonesia became the official national language.

Learning Indonesian will enable students to communicate not only with Indonesians but, due to many linguistic similarities, with ethnic Malays throughout Southeast Asia, including those in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, parts of the Philippines, southern Thailand, and Timor-Leste. The Indonesian language is also a popular second language among Australians. Recently, the Australian Government announced the creation of a nearly $60 million dollar grant to fund the development of Asian language instruction, including Indonesian. This, taken together with the growing population of Indonesian expatriates living in Australia, means that students of Indonesian will find many opportunities to use their language skills.