Category: language learning

• Learning a language is kid’s play – a review of some Indonesian resources

  Jul 1

  How exactly does your child teach themselves Indonesian? Well, ideally they’re living in Indonesia and speaking and listening to Indonesian every day. But what if your child doesn’t seem interested… more ›

• Names not to have in Indonesia

  Jun 14

  Following on from my last post about words that look the same in Indonesian and English but have different meanings, here is a list of names that look or sound… more ›

• Why are there so many bottles of air and cat ovens in Indonesia?

  May 22

  Most languages have these accidental cross overs where one word looks exactly the same, or sounds the same, as a word in another language. But the meaning is quite different.… more ›

• The power of punk (and other music) for language learning

  Apr 21

  A few months ago I came across a song called ‘Aku Lapar’ from Fransoa, a Frenchman living in Bali. Sung to the tune of seventies hit ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’,… more ›

• Words I’ve learnt from subtitles

  Apr 2

  Like pretty much everyone in Indonesia I watch a lot of subtitled television. Most of it is in English with Indonesian subtitles but occasionally I stumble across something more exotic.… more ›

• Indonesian early readers captivate kids and teachers

  Mar 4

  Michelle Dudley, the Australian author of the Our Jakarta Series that was reviewed in an earlier post, graciously agreed to answer my questions about how her series of 30 books came about.… more ›

• Best and worst of bilingual Indonesian picture books

  Jan 26

  It’s wonderful to live in Indonesia and be able to pick up a new bilingual book at a bookshop whenever the mood takes me. It’s not that easy, however, to… more ›

• What we can learn from Esperanto speakers

  Dec 28

  The first language I started to learn was Esperanto, using a kit that dated back to the 1960’s. It was very interesting, this concept of a man-made language, though I… more ›