Jalan

Bahasa Indonesia

The Indonesian you
will actually use.

Nobody needs “the cat is black” on a trip. You need boleh kurang? at a market stall, tanpa terasi if you don't eat shrimp paste, and pakai argo, ya before the taxi pulls away. Jalan teaches those and quietly removes the rest.

Build my course Free · 23 units · no lives to lose

784
words, patterns and phrases
201
sentences you can build from the patterns
23
units, each one built on the last
390
words recorded by native speakers

Hear it before you sign up

Real Indonesian speakers, not a synthesiser. Tap any card.

Why this works when phrasebooks don't

Three ideas, and the whole app is built on them.

1

Nothing is tested before it's taught

Every new word gets its own card first — photo, audio, pronunciation written the way an English speaker reads it. Only then does it become a question, and it starts as a three-way choice before it ever asks you to produce it cold.

2

Patterns, not just phrases

Learn Di mana ___? plus thirty place words and you can ask thirty questions nobody taught you. Memorised phrases run out the moment the conversation moves. Patterns don't. There are 201 sentences sitting in the patterns alone.

3

Forgetting is scheduled for

Get something wrong and it comes back later in the same lesson, then tomorrow, then in four days. Get it right and it backs off. No lives, no lockouts — being wrong is the part where the learning happens.

23 units, 378 words

Ordered so each one leans on the last. You will not get all of them — your answers during setup decide which ones are yours.

Dasar The Foundation
Mendarat Landing & First Words
Kata Kerja Verbs & Asking
Sifat Describing Things
Jalan-Jalan Getting Around
Makan Food & Drink
Menginap Where You Sleep
Belanja Markets & Bargaining
Darurat Help & Health
Ombak Surf, Sea & Islands
Kerja Cafes, Wifi & Working
Keluarga Travelling With Kids
Basa-Basi Small Talk
Waktu Days & Times
Uang Money & Paying
Arah Finding Your Way
Sinyal Phone, Data & Power
Warung Kopi Coffee & Sitting Around
Cuaca Weather & Seasons
Adat Temples & Custom
Alam Volcanoes & Jungle
Masalah When It Goes Wrong
Gaul How People Really Talk

It removes what you'll never say

Tell it you're vegetarian and the meat vocabulary doesn't get hidden — it is never in your course at all.

What a phrasebook gives everyone

  • Sate ayam — chicken satay
  • Babi guling — suckling pig
  • The cat is black
  • My father is a doctor

What a vegetarian in Bali gets

  • Tanpa daging. Without meat.
  • Tanpa terasi. Without shrimp paste — the one everyone misses.
  • Ada yang vegetarian? Do you have anything vegetarian?
  • Om Swastiastu. The Balinese greeting, in unit two.

Twelve questions, then your own course.

Where you're going, how long you've got, what you won't eat, what you're there for. It takes about two minutes and nothing after that is generic.

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