In Reply to: Best way to learn is...be there..:) posted by BaliBoundCouple on Monday, 5. March 2007 at 18:23 Bali Time:
Sorry to disagree a bit but the Balinese always use Balinese (Bahasa Bali) at home while Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia is the national language and spoken throughout Indonesia including all official business and with outsiders in Bali. Bahasa just means language and should always be followed by which language - Bali, Indonesia, Inggris, Belanda, Jerman etc. It is very hard to find anything to help learn Balinese but untold books and a few websites to learn Indonesian. Balinese is really three different languages depending on who is speaking to whom and the three are different like English, German and French, so very difficult to be fluent in. Learn Bahasa Indonesia and you will get on well anywhere in Indonesia.