Indonesian speakers on the green?

December 8, 2014 6:36 PM

I'm looking for the appropriate translation of a couple of key but relatively obscure phrases for our visit to Indonesia with a baby in tow in a month's time. We'll be in Bali.

I've looked in a few guide books but obviously this is not a super popular phrase.
I want to politely say the following

- the baby's bottle needs to be sterile/it needs to be boiled in order to be clean
And
- she needs to sleep in a dark room.

I realise that neither of these requests are necessarily able to be met and that I'll be doing most of the sterilising myself, but I'd like to be able to explain why I need to decline offers of help, or, if I am lucky, accept it. Any advice about how to make these phrases sound more polite/acceptable will be appreciated.

We'll mostly be in well-touristed areas but I'm not sure if these concepts are culturally common and so perhaps the phrases for them might be confusing to second language English speakers, hence the question.

posted by jojobobo to Education (4 answers total)

Best answer: THis is Malaysian Malay but for what you want to say, it is no different in Indonesian Malay.
except that sometimes Indonesians use 'kamar' for room. And 'ayer masak' ='cooked water ' for boiling water

for the first :

Botol susu anak saya perlu masuk air (ayer ) mendidih supaya mati semua kuman.

and the second :

anak saya perlu tidur dalam bilik gelap.


botol susu = milk bottle
anak= child
saya= my
perlu= need to
masuk = put in
air ( pronounced a-yer ) water
mendidih ( masak for boiling )= boiling
supaya= so that
mati =die
kuman = germs
semua =all

So, it translates as " My baby's milk bottle needs to be put in boiling water so all the germs will die "

and the second :
Anak saya = my child
perlu = needs to
tidur = sleep
bilik ( or kamar ) = room
gelap= dark

Translates to: My child needs to sleep in a darkened ( or dark) room )

Hope that helps...
posted by kryptos at 8:38 PM on December 8, 2014

Response by poster: Thank you very much.
posted by jojobobo at 10:56 PM on December 8, 2014

Best answer: In Indonesian, it would be kamar for room and rebus (reeebooss) for boiled.

The Balinese are really good at understanding ungrammatical tourist Bahasa so:

-Silahkan (please), boleh masuk botol ini (this bottle) di air rebus untuk 5 menit (minute). [I don't think you need to get into the reason, they do this too.]

-Anak saya perlu kamar gelap sekali (very, as in very dark) untuk tidur (for sleeping). [Hotels with air con usually have thick curtains.]

which is not perfect but will get the job done.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:20 AM on December 9, 2014

Best answer: Yeah, I agree on rebus and kamar being better words, I wouldn't have known what the other ones meant. And 5 = lima.
posted by loulou718 at 8:44 AM on December 9, 2014