LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Absolute Beginner S1 #14

How Do You Spell Your Name in
Indonesian?

CONTENTS
2 INTRODUCTION
2 POST CONVERSATION BANTER
2 KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
3 GRAMMAR POINT
6 OUTRO

# 14
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INTRODUCTION

Jason:Hi everyone, Jason here! Welcome back to IndonesianPod101.com. This is

Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 14 - How Do You Spell Your Name in Indonesian?
Fira:Hello everyone! I'm Fira.
Jason:In this lesson, we’re going to learn about Indonesian alphabets.
Fira:The conversation takes place at the hotel lobby, where Edi is meeting Tuti. They
will be speaking formal Indonesian.
Jason:Let’s listen to the conversation.

POST CONVERSATION BANTER

Jason:In the dialogue, Tuti asked Edi how he spelled his name. So, it should be easy,
right?
Fira:Well, in English – yes, it’s quite easy. But for Indonesian, sometimes it’s not as
easy as it sounds.
Jason:Why is that, Fira?
Fira:It’s because the Indonesian spelling system has been changed at least TWICE!
Jason:Ah yes, that’s right. When Indonesian was first written in the Roman alphabet, it
closely reflected the Dutch spelling system. The Dutch colonized the islands that
would become Indonesia for centuries – that’s why a Dutch-based spelling system was
in place.
Fira:Then, it changed once when Indonesian became a national language back in 1945,
and then again sometime in the 1970s.
Jason:Ah, the Seventies. So, under the longtime dictator Soeharto… So it seems like
a lot of spelling was changed, right?
Fira:Almost everything, but not people’s names. For example, the first president of
Indonesia, Sukarno, used to spell his name S-O-E-K-A-R-N-O. Many people spell that
name with the more modern U instead of O-E, but many others still write his name with
O-E, instead of U, because they’re following the Dutch version.
Jason:So they are using both the old and new versions when writing someone’s name.
Fira:Right. So don’t get confused if you see two different ways to write someone’s
name in Indonesian.
Jason:Okay, good to know. Now let’s go to the vocab.

KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES

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Jason:Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from
this lesson.
Fira:The first word is the question word bagaimana. Jason, do you know what it means?
Jason:It means “how”. Fira, could you give us a sentence using the word?
Fira:Bagaimana mengeja namanya?
Jason:This means “How do you spell your name?” in Indonesian. You can simply put it
at the beginning of sentences. But Fira, I’ve noticed that most people don’t use the
standard form of this word when they are talking. Instead, most people use the
shortened form.
Fira:Right, they use gimana more often than bagaimana.
Jason:Okay, then let’s do some more examples. When someone has just come back
from a trip to Keraton, how do you say ‘How was Keraton?’ in Indonesian?
Fira:Simply, you can say “Bagaimana Keraton itu?
We have the first word, bagaimana, which means ‘how?’, then Keraton, the place
name. And then it ends with the demonstrative itu, which means ‘that’.
Jason:So literally all together it means ‘How Keraton that?’
Fira:That’s right.
Jason:Okay, then let’s go on to the grammar.

GRAMMAR POINT

Jason:In this lesson, we’re going to learn about Indonesian Alphabets.

Fira:First, let’s read the letters of the alphabet. Indonesian uses the same alphabet as
English. So Jason is going to read the letters in English, then I’ll read it in Indonesian.
Jason:First is

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A
Fira:a
Jason:B
Fira:be
Jason:C
ce
Jason:D
de
Jason:E
e
Jason:F
ef
Jason:G
ge
Jason:H
ha
Jason:I
i
Jason:J
je
Jason:K
ka
Jason:Okay, we’re half way down. And L is
Fira:el
Jason:M
Fira:em
N

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en
Jason:O
o
Jason:P
pe
Jason:Q
ki
Jason:R
er
Jason:S
es
Jason:T
te
Jason:U
u
Jason:V
fe
Jason:W
we
Jason:X
eks
Jason:Y
ye
Jason:Z
zet
Jason:It seems like most of the names are the same as in English.
Fira:Right. But Jason, let’s check the different ones. Firstly, Ge, the Indonesian “G”. It
is always a hard velar sound - “Ge”.
Jason:It’s never like the “g” as in “gel”. Okay, let’s check the next one. In Indonesian,
the English “Q” is pronounced “Ki”.
Fira:And the next one is ‘Fe’. It looks like the English letter ‘V’. However, it sounds like
‘Fe’ in Indonesian.
Jason:And the next one looks like a Z in English. The last letter of the alphabet isn’t
like the “zee” in American English, but much like “zed” in British English. Zet.
Jason:Ok, well, that wraps up the alphabet, doesn’t it, Fira?
Fira:It sure does – so let’s try spelling some

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things.
Jason:How do you spell ‘Edi’, the name of the main character?
Fira:It is spelled E, D(di), and I(ai) in English. In Indonesian, it goes exactly the same,
but you need to read the Alphabet names slightly differently. So we can read the
spelling like this E – De – I.
Jason:This was a simple example. So let’s spell some place names. Now, how do you
spell the name of the capital of Indonesia – Jakarta?
Fira:OK, here goes. Jakarta – Je – A – Ka – A – Er – Te – A – We read J as Je, A(ei)
as A, K(kei) as Ka, R(al) as (Er), T(ti) as Te.

OUTRO

Jason:Okay. That’s it for this lesson. Make sure you check the lesson notes, since we
covered a lot!
Fira:Yes. Thank you for listening everyone.
Jason:See you next time!

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