Bahasa Indonesia 101: For Dummies (and non-dummies)

I have been thinking about this post for months. I'm just...lazy, I guess to type this, but here we go...

Bahasa Indonesia 101 for dummies (and not-dummies).

Bahasa Indonesia is the way we, Indonesians, name our language.
I generally believe that the term 'Indonesian Language' is incorrect in the sense that Germans don't call their language German, they call it Deutsch. Nah, that's a weird reason, but really, what I mean is that we, Indonesians, shall name our own language in the way we call it.

Oh, and anyway, calling Bahasa Indonesia as Indonesian language ain't cool.
Although, if you translate 'Bahasa Indonesia' to English, it basically means Indonesian language.

Well, let's cut the crap and get into the business.

Surviving Jakarta. How?

First of all, Indonesians have different way to pronounce 'a'. Yes, the letter 'A'. We don't pronounce a as ae, but instead, a, just as a in father. Make sense? I hope so. If not, check it out in wiki, amigos. click here for aaaaaahh

Hello - Halo (hah-low)
I am an American - Saya orang Amerika. (Sah-yah oh-rung Ah-mer-ree-kah). mer as in merry.
I am lost - Saya tersesat (Sah-yah thur-seh-shat).
-thur as in Arthur, seh- close e, instead of seh sounds in say
I love you - Aku cinta kamu (Ah-koo chin-tah kaa-moo)

Do you speak English? - Apa kamu bisa berbicara dalam Bahasa Inggris? (Ah-pah kah-moo bee-sah bear-bee-cha-ra duh-lum bah-hah-sah eeng-greece) 

Crap, I just wrote 5 sentences and I'm tired. 
Btw, remember, we pronounce the a as 'a' instead of ae. y'kno just making sure you got that by now.
Oh, and 'i' is just like e. So, 'ri' is pronounced as 'ree'. 
Hmm, another vocal...hmm...e? e is pretty similar to the way Americans pronounce 'a'. 
(Yes, I know it's not easy, bear with it.)
O is just similar to the way you pronounce 'o' in English, but you don't have the long 'w' feeling after it. So, instead of pronouncing o as 'ow', Indonesians pronounce it as 'oh' instead. Got it? Cool  beans.
Next vowel, the letter 'u'. Okay, this may be tricky, but we pronounce it as 'oo'. So, 'pu' is somewhat similar to poo. Got that? Cool.

Alright. Greetings?
Good morning - Selamat pagi. 
Good afternoon - Selamat sore. 
Now, it's tricky. Indonesians usually think of morning as 6-10 am. 11-3pm is not simply considered as morning/afternoon, it's called 'siang' (see-ung). 4-6 pm is considered as afternoon. 7-y'kno midnight and such is considered as 'malam' (mah-lahm) or evening. 
So, good evening is 'selamat malam.' 

Alright, I'm tired. I'll end here.
I may post more later...or maybe not.

Feel free to tell me how to make this pronunciation stuffs easier for y'all. 
I know, it's hard. Bear with it.
Y'all make hard stuffs to y'kno...like 'th', for example. 
This doesn't give you an excuse to ask me how I pronounce father in the class, mmkay?  

ps. This will make you feel smart --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language

part two: http://michellejosephine.blogspot.com/2012/10/bahasa-indonesia-101-part-2.html