For anyone going to Indonesia

Within a week you
hold your own
in Indonesian

15 short lessons. Three hours. No grammar book, because Indonesian barely has any.

Start today for $27

14 days to change your mind. Full refund, no questions.

You know the moment.

You point at the dish your neighbour is eating, because you cannot name it.

The driver nods, smiles, and takes the wrong turn. You nod back, because what else is there to say.

At the market you get the price meant for people who cannot ask for a different one.

Nothing goes wrong. You get your food, you arrive, you pay. You just stay outside of everything, for as long as it lasts.

A street vendor grilling satay skewers over coals at a night market

Here is the thing nobody tells you

It is not you. It is the language you compared it to.

You learned French with its tenses, or German with its cases. So you assume Indonesian works the same way. It does not. Look:

Englishsix forms

  • I eat
  • he eats
  • we ate
  • I have eaten
  • I was eating
  • I will eat

Indonesianone word

  • saya makan
  • dia makan
  • kami makan
  • saya sudah makan
  • saya sedang makan
  • saya akan makan

makan never changes. You add one small word for time, and you are done.

  • No verb conjugation
  • No tenses
  • No genders or articles
  • No plural forms

That is why three hours is enough to get started. Not because we rush you, but because there is far less to learn than you feared.

Picture the next trip.

You ask the driver to stop at the corner, and he stops at the corner.

You read the menu and order the thing you actually wanted. The woman behind the counter laughs at your accent and answers you anyway, slower this time.

Your neighbour asks where you are from, and you tell her. That is the whole conversation. It changes the entire street.

Want that too?

A becak driver making his way through a busy market street lined with stalls and motorbikes

What you can do afterwards

Not fifteen lessons. Fifteen situations you stop avoiding.

  • Order your own food

    Read a menu, ask what is in it, say what you do not eat.

  • Get where you are going

    Ask the way, name a place, understand the answer that comes back.

  • Handle money

    Count, ask the price, check your change, agree on a number.

  • Introduce yourself

    Name, where you are from, what you do, and how long you are staying.

  • Talk about time

    Make plans, agree on an hour, name the day you mean.

  • Say the thing that opens doors

    Greet, thank, apologise. The four words locals notice first.

Before you decide anything

Take six words with you.

These are from lesson three. Use them tomorrow, whether you buy or not.

Selamat pagi
Good morning
Terima kasih
Thank you
Berapa harganya?
How much is it?
Saya mau ini
I want this one
Di mana kamar kecil?
Where is the toilet?
Enak sekali!
Really delicious!

Say that last one to whoever cooked your meal and watch what happens.

The whole course

Everything, for $27

  • 15 lessons, about three hours in total
  • Watch at your own pace, on any screen
  • Access stays yours, including anything added later
  • Start within a minute of paying

What this will not do: it will not make you fluent. Three hours cannot. It gets you through a market, a taxi, a warung and a first conversation. Fluency comes from the months after that, and this is the part that makes those months possible.

$27one payment

Start today for $27

14 days to change your mind. Not what you hoped for? Send one email and you get every cent back. You keep what you already learned.

Before you ask

I am hopeless at languages.

So was everyone who says that, in a language with tenses and irregular verbs. Indonesian has neither. You are not learning grammar here, you are learning words and the order they go in. That is a different skill, and you already have it.

Three hours. Really?

Three hours to get through the material. Longer to make it stick, and that is on you. But there is no conjugation table to memorise, which is where most of the hours go in other languages.

Can I not just use a translation app?

You can, and you should keep it. It works for a menu. It does not work while someone is talking to you, and it does not change how people treat you. The moment you say four words yourself, the conversation changes.

What if I do not like it?

Fourteen days, one email, full refund. No form to fill in and no reason required.

How long do I have access?

There is no end date. Come back before your next trip and watch it again.