BBIP member and keen student of bahasa Indonesia, Naomi Arrowsmith shares some of her journey of learning online and at sea.

I have been learning Bahasa Indonesia with Balai Bahasa for the past 5 years – three years face to face at the Indonesian Consulate, and about 2 years on-line since Covid started.

Naomi, centre in the top row of the online conversation class.

The on-line classes with Pak Andre Maure are fantastic and have enabled me to continue learning while travelling around Australia on our catamaran Mad Fish. Hang on.What did she say?

We left Perth in April this year, travelling up the west coast, through the Kimberley, then across Arnhem Land and around Cape York, and we are currently on the Capricorn Coast in Queensland.

Our original plan was to sail our boat through the Indonesian Archipelago, visiting lots of islands, meeting with lots of wonderful Indonesians, and doing lots of scuba diving! But Covid made that difficult this year. Instead we are spending a year on the Queensland coast, and hope to enter Indonesia in August/September next year.

Learning Bahasa Indonesia with Balai Bahasa has been really wonderful and I recommend it to all – fantastic teachers and great content which shares much about Indonesian culture. I know that speaking Bahasa Indonesia, even at a basic level, will help make our Indonesian travels much more rewarding.

Terima kasih, Ibu Naomi. We look forward to more stories of your travels in 2022. Selamat jalan. Selamat merantau.