#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Indonesia Forum >  >  Learning Indonesian Urban slang

## kingwilly

The Indos love their acronyms they will often just use an acronym in conversation, rather than the whole saying. God forbid you ever try to read a text written by an Indo, because it will be full of shortened words and acronyms, most of it urban slang also. Eg: Sayang = 'darling' can be shortened to Sg and Tapi = 'but' however, in text phones they will just write Tp, Ill see if I can find an example of an entire indo to indo text laterlater. Anyway back to the acronyms, here are a couple that I can think of to start with..


*SMP* = _Sudah Makan, Pulang_. Eaten already, lets go home, usually said at weddings or birthday functions etc


*ABCD* = _Adue Bor, Cape Dei._ Oh my God, Girlfriend, So bored of that! Bor is a slang word that ladyboys use for each other.


*NATO* = No action, Talk only. Usually said by girls in relation to a guy boasting about his sexual prowess.

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## NickA

ABCD!

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## Flora

Yes, That's right Kingwilly. Indonesian People often use acronym when writting something like making a note or sending sms. And sometimes its confusing. There is no standard or particular rule to make the acronym, they just make it based on their assumptions convenient to them so that sometimes we can find a word can be shortened in different ways from different people. They do this because it's really time consuming to write full word whereas in fact they know the full meaning of the word they write. For example: Bagaimana (How),you can see that there are too many letters, Right? But it will be more efficient if you shorten by writting Bgmn, we understand the meaning is "bagaimana" so we don't have to write it for so long. Also "Bagaimana" itself is formal, we urban people use the informal word. We don't say "bagaimana" but say "Gimana" can be shortened as "Gmn". Dimana (where) is written as "dmn", there are still many.

There is no standard but we just make the acronyms based on our judgement convenient to us. Because of this reason, the words will be confusing sometimes the other people don't understand what you mean because you make it based on your assumption. 

Not all of the acronyms in Indonesia are understood by the local Indonesian People, sometimes people just wanna become a CREATOR of something so they make the slang, but maybe only small group of people understand while the others are not familiar with it.

So to write shortened words in Indonesia, just write the common words that many people understand like Bagaimana (Bgmn), Dimana (dmn), tetapi (tp). All of these acronyms are understood.

Besides making a note, they use it while sending message (sms) by phone. But to write the shortened words when sending sms, you can make it by your own judgement and from the context you're talking about. For example:Besok pagi gua mau ke Vihara (Tomorrow morning, I wanna go to Temple) can be written as "Bsk pg, g mo k Vhr" No rule to write Vihara as Vhr,but if people know that you are a Buddhist and you are talking about Buddhism before, they will assume that the Vhr is Vihara. 

Thank you,


Flora

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## NickA

> Bsk pg, g mo k Vhr


A KW post if ever I saw one

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## kingwilly

^^ - That's awesome Flora, Trims.

*trims = terima kasih or thank-you*

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## Flora

> ^^ - That's awesome Flora, Trims.
> 
> *trims = terima kasih or thank-you*


 
Sama2 ya Kingwilly.

_Notes: When someone say thank you, you should reply "Terima kasih kembali or Sama - sama". Both to express "you're welcome". You see how I write "sama-sama" the word. I just write only one word "sama" followed by 2. It means "Sama - sama" and people understand the acronym._

_Other example like: Ramai-ramai (together with many people) we can write "Ramai2"_
_Orang-orang (people) can be written as "orang2" or "org2"._

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## buad hai

It's called reduplication.

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## Flora

And as you have to know that learning Indonesian language is very easy. Unlike Thai or Chinese, Indonesian is not tonal language, and it uses Latin alphabets A-Z.

There's grammar in Indonesian language but easy to learn. Even you don't speak in the right grammar, people can still understand you. I can say that although you learn by yourself Bahasa Indonesia without any teacher, you still can have the result speaking with local people. Ya only by reading dictionary or  other book. Once you know about how to read and pronounce the ABC, only that, you will be able to read and pronounce the whole words.

In Indonesia, many Thai monks can speak bahasa Indonesia fluently, Very Fluent and even they can speak the informal daily words.
I remember last year a Thai monk, just came to Indonesia, I remembered that he was little difficult to have conversation with me in Bahasa Indonesia. If I ask something in Indonesian, sometimes he didn't understand, but he always learned Indonesian. Surprisingly, now whatever I ask him in Indonesian, he can answer in Indonesian, and more surprising is he can send me sms uses the acronym or shortened words. That's very great.

Thanks,

Flora

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## Wayne Kerr

> NATO = No action, Talk only.


Sums up nearly all Indos I work with.

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## Redneck

HP = handphone

Spoken "HAHPAY"

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## kingwilly

> There's grammar in Indonesian language but easy to learn. Even you don't speak in the right grammar, people can still understand you. I can say that although you learn by yourself Bahasa Indonesia without any teacher, you still can have the result speaking with local people. Ya only by reading dictionary or other book. Once you know about how to read and pronounce the ABC, only that, you will be able to read and pronounce the whole words.


_Asik dong!   


_

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## momo8

M-may
W-Willy
A-always
H-hump

 :Smile:

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## kingwilly

> Other example like: Ramai-ramai (together with many people) we can write "Ramai2" Orang-orang (people) can be written as "orang2" or "org2".


yup, also cepat2 = hurry up!

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## good2bhappy

AK KW

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## Flora

Ya emang asik bgt (banget) Kingwilly.

Sorry Kingwilly if you can not receive private message from me. I've replied to you but I can not send message because I'm not able to send private message until I have 20 posts to this forum. Tell me if you have received my message because I don't know if my message has been successfully sent to you.

If you have not received my message, please send me private message again indicating your email address. I'll reply to you through your email address not through this website forum.

Thanks,

Flora

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## kingwilly

Maaf, Sy tk lihat email flora. KW email kingwilly100 at hotmail.com

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## Flora

There are still several acronyms using this sign " / " , for example :
Untuk (For, To) can be written as "utk" or " u/ "
Oleh (By) can be written as "o/"
Sampai dengan (until) can be written as "s/d"

Thanks,

Flora

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## Flora

> Maaf, Sy tk lihat email flora. KW email kingwilly100 at hotmail.com


Now you may check your email, I've sent it to you. Let me know if it's not sent.

Thanks,

Flora

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## kingwilly

Udah. reply otw

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## kingwilly

And of course, the word _Sudah_, meaning already can be shortened in speech to _Udah..._

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## Flora

Honestly, I don't like writting the acronyms or shortened words unless it's a quick dictation or sending sms using Handphone which has limited letters for sms. Usually I write the full words. But when sending sms, if the receipient is foreigner, although my handphone has limited words, I always use the full words, I know they will not understand

Sometimes not only acronyms they use, but also symbol. When I studied at university, I was really confused when borrowing my friend's book. She used many symbol and took longer time for me to understand the whole book. 
She drew picture on her notebook like flower to indicate bunga or interest rate.

Interest in bahasa Indonesia is bunga(flower), so she drew the flower, and many more. I was really confused.

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## Tobi8551

what dies the words mean:

Smg and
bsk

thank you

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## GRUMPY

You taking the piss? Or serious.

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## Tobi8551

sure serious..i want to learn indonesian slang

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## GRUMPY

sKg (sekarang) means now. bsk (besok) means tomorrow.

That's hand phone slang.

smg doesn't mean anything.

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## GRUMPY

I think you're taking the piss.

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## Tobi8551

thanks a lot
but it was written smg..

but okay, thank you

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## GRUMPY

smg, nah. Nothing. Texts or messenger? It's a typo if it's smg.

I don't mean to be nasty. Urban slang Indo and handphone abbreviations aren't the same.

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## Tobi8551

yes was with phone!
okay that helped me  :Smile: 

terima kasih!

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## GRUMPY

Sama2  :Smile: 

that's you're welcome

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## Tobi8551

Exuse me please i need a translatin please,

anyone wrote: Masi di Jcc.
is jcc jakarta convention center ? or do know anyone if Jcc could mean yogjakarta also?
and what means masi di Jcc?

thanks a lot please!!

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## GRUMPY

Got me stumped. NFI

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## darkrelic

For those visiting east java a lot of people speak javanese but most speak indo, if you want to impress the locals you can say the follow

yok opo kabare (pronounced yo o po car bar ray) is apa kabar
apik apik wai (pronounced api api y) is I'm fine or baik baik saja

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## fridgemagnet

Canany kind person translate this cryptic message from one girl to another:

gimana sm si Malcolm?

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## alwarner

^Malcolm smells of poo

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## kingwilly

> gimana sm si Malcolm?


She's expressing surprise/annoyance. 

sort of like WTF Malcolom ?

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## The Fresh Prince

Hati Hati!!

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## alwarner

> Hati Hati!!

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## GRUMPY

> Canany kind person translate this cryptic message from one girl to another:
> 
> gimana sm si Malcolm?


One girl to another right?

How you going with Mr Malcom?

Gimana is an abbreviation of Bagimana (how about). Sm is abbreviated sama (same or with). si is mister.

I'm being presumptuous of the conversation lead up. The statement or question prior can make a world of difference.

"Shall we go to Blok M and check out the bules?"

"gimana sm si  mal?" What about your BF Mr Mal?

You're welcome. :Smile:

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## fridgemagnet

Thanks a lot -   "Well, how was Malcolm then?"    -  seems about right, given the context.

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## VocalNeal

That guy Terry McKenzie gets around?

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## kingwilly

byron bay resort accommodation are really shit, bryonquarter are a rip off. bryonquarter are thieves and liars and spammers and plenty of other better places to go to than the dive hell hole shite rip off merchants and crap heads robbers scammers byronquarter.com

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