Self-Teaching Indonesian: My Book Resource Collection So Far

I love languages, and when I first start digging into a new language that I really like, one of the first things I do is look up some of the coursebooks and other resources that are out there for that specific language.

Over the years I've amassed a pretty good collection of language textbooks as well as grammars, phrasebooks, dictionaries, and other manuals that I enjoy reading as if they were fiction books.

For Indonesian, I was really happy to find a variety of helpful (and luckily, affordable) books for self-instruction. I'm sure I'll be picking up more as I make my way through these, but here is what I have ordered so far and am enjoying:



1. How to Master the Indonesian Language by A.M. Almatsier
Available at Amazon here

This is a small, portable paperback manual with 28 lessons for learning basic Indonesian. I'm working through a lesson series at this blog using this book and am really enjoying it. Very cheap and to be recommended.



2. Speak Standard Indonesian by Liaw Yock Fang
Available at Amazon here

This book features authentic, easy-to-read dialogue that is great practice for learning spoken Indonesian. There are helpful notes and translations and dialogues that cover everyday topics. Very enjoyable and interesting to peruse.



3. Everyday Indonesian by Thomas Oey
Available at Amazon here

This book includes both cultural and language information and is great with vocab and dialogue as well. I ordered the older version which seems to be a little less graphics-heavy, which I kind of like in a language book. Another great title to pick up.

4. Simple Indonesian by Asim Gunarwan
Available at Amazon here

This book is published by Europhone, a great company which created many manuals and dictionaries for rarer Asian languages such as Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tamil, and so on. Sad to see they're no longer really in print, but you can locate these books online and they're simply as they say, yet useful nonetheless.

So there we have it with my Indonesian book collection so far. If you're interested in any of these, I appreciate you purchasing from the link at this blog post as I receive a small amount of commission for the referral. If you're gonna buy one, may as well from here. :-)

Anyway, thanks and stay tuned for more lessons!

Selamat belajar,
Bahasa Brian