How Long Does It Take to Learn Indonesian?

Most English speakers can hold simple conversations in Indonesian after about three months of daily study, and reach comfortable everyday conversation in six to twelve months. The US Foreign Service Institute puts professional working proficiency at about 36 weeks of full-time study, or 900 class hours. How long it takes you depends on the level you are aiming for and the hours you put in each week.

How long by level

These are realistic ranges for an English speaker learning from zero, counted in hours of real study and practice.

• Survival (30 to 50 hours): greet, order food, shop, take a taxi.
• Simple conversation (150 to 200 hours): talk about yourself, your day and your plans with a patient speaker.
• Everyday conversation (400 to 600 hours): follow most casual talk, chat with friends, handle daily life.
• Professional (900 hours or more): work in Indonesian, follow the news, discuss abstract topics.

The first three are our own estimates, not an official scale. The last is the FSI figure.

What that means in months

• 15 minutes a day: simple conversation in 20 to 26 months, everyday conversation in 4 years or more.
• 30 minutes a day: simple conversation in 10 to 13 months, everyday conversation in 2 to 3 years.
• 1 hour a day: simple conversation in 5 to 7 months, everyday conversation in 13 to 20 months.
• 2 hours a day: simple conversation in about 3 months, everyday conversation in 7 to 10 months.

Living in Indonesia, or speaking with Indonesians every day, shortens all of these, because conversation counts as study.

Why Indonesian is faster than most Asian languages

Indonesian uses the Latin alphabet, has no tones and does not conjugate verbs. You do not spend months learning a script before you can read a menu. FSI lists about 36 weeks for Indonesian against about 44 for Thai and Vietnamese and about 88 for Mandarin, Japanese and Korean. See Is Indonesian hard to learn? for what is easy and what is not.

What slows learners down

• Studying only formal Indonesian. Textbook Indonesian and everyday speech differ: tidak becomes nggak, sudah becomes udah. Learners who skip the spoken form reach a point where they can read but cannot follow a conversation.
• Too little listening. Listening is the slowest skill to build. Leave it for later and it holds everything else back.
• Memorising single words. Indonesian builds word families from roots. Learning ajar, belajar, mengajar and pelajaran together is quicker than meeting each one separately.
• Stopping and starting. Twenty minutes every day beats two hours on Sunday.

How to get there sooner

1. Learn pronunciation properly in the first few days. It is regular and it makes everything after it easier.
2. Listen daily from week one, with a transcript. The JADI podcast has short episodes with Indonesian and English captions.
3. Learn the casual forms alongside the formal ones.
4. Use spaced repetition so that words you learned last month are still there next month.
5. Speak every week with a tutor, a partner or Indonesians around you.

Our guide to learning Indonesian covers these steps in order.

JADI is built around the same points: daily lessons written by Yohana, a native teacher, in the Indonesian people actually speak, with audio for every sentence, root word families and spaced repetition. The first 6 lesson days are free; see pricing.

FAQ

Can I learn Indonesian in 3 months?

You can reach simple conversations in three months if you study one to two hours a day. Fluency in three months is not realistic.

How long does it take to become fluent in Indonesian?

For comfortable everyday conversation, plan on 400 to 600 hours: a year to a year and a half at an hour a day. For professional fluency, FSI estimates about 900 class hours.

How many hours a day should I study Indonesian?

Thirty minutes to an hour a day is enough for steady progress. Consistency matters more than long sessions.

Is Indonesian faster to learn than Spanish?

No. Spanish shares much more vocabulary with English, and FSI lists 24 to 30 weeks for it against about 36 for Indonesian. Indonesian is, however, much faster than most other Asian languages.

Can I learn Indonesian in a month before a trip?

Yes, to survival level. Thirty to fifty hours covers greetings, numbers, food, shopping and directions, which is enough to make a trip to Bali or Java far more enjoyable.