Indonesian usage of “yang”

One of my many goals living abroad is to finally learn another language. I don’t just mean to pick up some useful phrases just to get by either. I want to become fluent to the point that I don’t have to think about what I’m going to say or translate in my head while someone is speaking. I’ve already noticed the basic to intermediate stuff sinking into my subconscious and my response time is more natural. Indonesian is a pretty easy language to pick up the basics and a lot of fun to practice with people.

I’ll give updates along the way as to how I’m progressing. Right now my biggest hurdle is the vocabulary. I’m learning fewer new words every day and I feel like I’m hitting a wall.

Another really difficult thing about many South East Asian languages is that there are words that don’t have any direct translation to English. One in Indonesian being, “yang.” I have been trying to master it’s usage for awhile now and I finally came across a website that does a pretty good explanation of how it can be used. Like I said previously, I don’t want to just pick up a few phrases. I really want to master the language so that I can speak it confidently and sound like a local. I feel like I have a pretty good ear for the accent and the slang so it’s important that I figure out how to use the non-translatable correctly.

Here is an excerpt: Click Here for the full article

There are several words in Indonesian that don’t have any equivalent in English and “yang” is one of those. “Yang” can mean “that is”, “who is” or “which is” and it can be used in several ways. Let’s have a look at “yang” a bit more closely.

The first use we’ll see is when “yang” emphasises a description of a noun. You’re probaby aware that you need to add the adjective (description word) after the noun in Indonesian. For example, to say “new car” you’d use “mobil baru” – literally “car new”.

You can use “yang” to emphasise the description of the car by saying “mobil yang baru” or “car that is new”. This phrase is very slightly different from “new car” because it emphasises that the car is new.

There are many other words in Indonesian that are untranslatable but I’m going to start with mastering “yang.” I have to really stay focused on vocabulary as it’s easy to become lazy. I think part of the reason I’ve slowed down on the learning process is that I’ve been working for 2 months and I have to use English while at the school. Also, the more busy I am with teaching and planning the less likely I’m out with Indonesians practicing.