How to Greet and Address Someone

  

 

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

~Will Rogers

 

When you greet Indonesians in Bahasa Indonesia, they will be impressed.

 

So let’s get started with these basic greetings.

 

Good morning.	Selamat pagi.
Good day. (11AM-3PM)	Selamat siang.
Good afternoon. (3PM-6PM)	Selamat sore.
Good evening.	Selamat malam.
Hi.	Hai.
Hello.	Halo.

 

 

To address someone, usually we add a word in front of their first name to sound polite.

Here are the common ones.

 

Mister; father	Bapak; pak
Mistress; mother	Ibu; bu
Older sibling	Kakak
Older brother	Mas; abang; bang
Older sister	Mbak

 

It’s common to address someone (even a stranger) as if they were a member of the family.

To a foreigner, they would probably address you, mister, sir, madam, or miss, followed by your first name.

 

 

When you’re talking with your friends, of course you can call them with their first name.

But, if you talk with your friend’s dad, for example, make sure you insert ‘pak’ before his first name, or just call him ‘pak’.

 

 

There are more than 500 local languages in Indonesia, and it can be very confusing.

If you know the word bapak, ibu, and kakak, that should be enough to sound polite.

 

 

Even if you don’t know any word in Bahasa, you can always just smile because a smile is a language that everyone understands. Just smile, and people will love you instantly. J

 

Love,

Mama Bahasa