Indonesian · Bahasa Indonesia
Directory 10 resource listings . A short orientation and a solid starting list.
Honest start for Indonesian: pick one beginner course or community program from the list, add 10–15 minutes of listening most days, and bookmark one reference. Ignore the rest of the directory until those three habits are alive. Use the First 500 trainer for high-frequency words. Last reviewed 2026-08-01
About Indonesian
- Language family
-
Austronesian, Malayic branch Source: Glottolog indo1316
- Where it's spoken
- Indonesia
- Speakers
-
over 200 million speakers, mostly as a second language, with about 43 million native speakers Estimate source: Ethnologue language page (ind)
- Writing
- Latin
Indonesian is a standardized form of Malay, adopted as the unifying national language when Indonesia became independent in 1945 specifically because it was nobody's dominant ethnic mother tongue — a deliberate choice to avoid favoring Javanese or another large local language. It remains close enough to standard Malay that speakers of each can generally understand the other. Its Austronesian relatives stretch from Madagascar to the Pacific, including Tagalog and Malagasy.
Speaker counts are approximate orders of magnitude for learners, not census figures. Family labels follow Glottolog-style classification; vitality notes (when shown) follow UNESCO WAL / Ethnologue-style framing and should be re-checked for program planning.
Sources
- ISO 639-3:
ind - Glottocode:
indo1316 - Ethnologue — Indonesian (ind)
- Glottolog — Indonesian (indo1316)
How to start
- Pick one free course (or free-with-upgrades) below and finish a short beginner unit before hopping apps.
- Bookmark one dictionary or grammar reference and look up every unknown word for a week.
- Add 10–15 minutes of listening most days — news, radio, or a teaching channel.
- Drill vocabulary with First 500 words.
- When ready, use a tutor marketplace listing below for short speaking sessions.
Practice on this site
Deep links into trainers and drills that already cover Indonesian.
Some outbound links may earn us a commission. Commission never affects inclusion or ranking. Full disclosure.
| Resource | Type | Levels | Cost | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
BBC Indonesian
Indonesian news service for listening/reading immersion.
|
listening | B1-C2 | free | — |
|
Duolingo Indonesian
Beginner Indonesian course for English speakers.
|
course paid | A1-A2 | freemium | — |
|
Easy Indonesian (Easy Languages)
Dual-subtitled Indonesian street conversations.
|
youtube channel | A2-B2 | free | — |
|
Best first stop
Glosbe Indonesian
Crowd-sourced bilingual dictionary entries.
|
reference | A1-C2 | free | 2026-08-02 |
|
IndonesianPod101
Audio lesson library.
|
course paid | A1-C1 | freemium | — |
|
KBBI online (kbbi.web.id)
Accessible online interface to the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia.
|
reference | A2-C2 | free | — |
|
Kompas
Major Indonesian news site.
|
reading | B1-C2 | free | — |
|
Language Transfer — Indonesian
Check Language Transfer catalog for Indonesian audio courses when listed.
|
course free | A1-A2 | free | — |
|
VOA Indonesia
News immersion.
|
listening | B1-C2 | free | — |
|
Wikipedia Indonesian
Open reading practice by topic.
|
reading | A2-C2 | free | — |
Know a better classroom-friendly resource for Indonesian? Suggest it with attribution.