Indonesian Greetings is something important to know especially if you visit or plan to visit Indonesia. As we know Indonesian peoples is very polite society and foreigner need to follow the rule in order to be accepted in the society. Many of you would think that English greetings is enough to secure you respect in other country but believe or not just like other Asian countries, most of Indonesian cannot speak English. Therefore many of them would just ignore you or in the worst case disrespect you if you use English Greetings when you meet them.
Indonesian Greetings basically has the same meaning with the Malaysian Greetings, the main reason is because Bahasa Indonesia came from Bahasa Melayu which was the Malaysian official language. But Bahasa Indonesia 80% different from the Bahasa Malaysia, that’s probably because Bahasa Indonesia is influenced with many foreign Language such as Arabic, Dutch, Spanish Portuguese and English. The such influence had thing to do with the past colonization time.
Indonesian Greetings basically very easy and short, just like English, Bahasa Indonesia is have the system of “Explain and be explained”, so you don’t have to worry with “upside down” system that contains in other foreign language such as Spanish and Japanese.
Check the Indonesian greetings Words list below:
- Good morning : Selamat Pagi
- Good night : Selamat Malam
- Good Afternoon : Selamat Siang
- Good Evening : Selamat Petang / Selamat Sore
- Goodbye (if you are leaving) : Selamat Tinggal (Se-la-mat-ting-gal)
- Goodbye (if someone else is leaving) : Selamat Jalan
- How are you? : Apa Kabar?
- I apologize / I’m sorry : Saya minta maaf (ma-af)
- Thank You : Terima Kasih
Something you need to remember is, Unlike English which can be spoke very fast, you need to slow down yourself when speak Indonesian Greetings so the the local could understand what you saying. This is important especially if you are American and from South, you probably would hard to say those words so to make it slow might give you a chance to say it right and be understand by the locals.