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Looking for the best online Indonesian course to learn the language?
Indonesian is rising in popularity, as more and more course options are being released.
In addition to tourism and foreign language careers, the benefits of speaking Indonesian cannot be overstated.
Today I’m going to give you my rundown of the best (and worst) online Indonesian courses.
Below you’ll find pros and cons for each Indonesian course, pricing and a summary. Where applicable, I’ll link to a review of the course.
Table Of Contents
IMPORTANT: Some of the items listed below are probably only loosely defined as “courses” for Indonesian. The reason I’ve included them is that they’re popular enough Indonesian tools and therefore should be included.
DISCLAIMER: The comments below are personal opinions and some affiliate links are used.
The best Indonesian courses online (most popular Indonesian resources)
1. IndonesianPod101
Cost: Starts as low as $4 a month.
Summary: IndonesianPod101 is a brilliant online resource for learning Indonesian (especially listening comprehension). If you’re into podcast learning especially, this might be the course for you.
IndonesianPod101 uses audio lessons similar to podcasts. Lessons are suitable for beginners through more advanced levels. The instruction not only includes listening skills but also incorporates essential vocabulary and grammar with loads of other useful features.
What I like:
- Large and always expanding variety of Indonesian lesson material
- Clean lesson interface and downloadable content
What I don’t like:
- Content choices are sparse beyond the beginner level
- Too much English banter
- While the lesson interface is nice, the rest of the site is overwhelming and confusing to navigate
UNIQUE OFFER: Use the code MEZZOGUILD to save 25% on any of their Indonesian course options.
2. Babbel Indonesian
Cost: Subscriptions start at $12.95/month.
Summary: One of the best and most well-known online Indonesian courses, Babbel, is a great tool for learning the language and very budget friendly. Babbel’s online Indonesian course platform focuses on writing and reading, listening and spelling. It aims to give you all the tools you need to start learning the language immediately. It’s often described as a paid, and more professional alternative to Duolingo (see below).
Read this extensive Babbel review.
What I like:
- Flexibility and variety in their teaching style
- Incorporates several different learning styles to effectively teach Indonesian
- Developed by in-house linguists
What I don’t like:
- Uninspiring course
- No downloadable materials
3. Pimsleur Indonesian
Cost: $14.95 a month subscription (or $119.95 per level)
Summary: Pimsleur’s a household name for learning Indonesian using spaced repetition recall. The lessons focus on practical vocabulary and expressions one might need in various scenarios. This includes greetings, common phrases, and vocabulary you might need when talking to native speakers.
In terms of just how much you get out of it, I’d say Pimsleur is a good entry point for Indonesian but it will only familiarize you with the basics. Treat its Indonesian course as a foundational course and then move on to something more comprehensive.
Pimsleur does not offer any video or written content. It’s audio only.
Read this Pimsleur review.
What I like:
- Pimsleur was based on solid research in second language acquisition.
- Extremely effective method despite its age.
- Heavy repetition of Indonesian language samples.
What I don’t like:
- Outdated scenario examples.
- Too much English.
4. Duolingo Indonesian
Cost: Free.
Summary: Duolingo has become a staple for many language learners – a completely free household name to rival established companies like Babbel and Rosetta Stone.
I’ve personally have never liked Duolingo and I think it’s an overrated, infantile game that offers little value other than being an addictive distraction and procrastination from real learning. People go through entire courses on the Duolingo platform and come away with little more than a cartoon trophy.
Their Indonesian course might serve you well to get you acquainted but there are better ways to spend your study time in my opinion.
Check out my comparison of Duolingo and Babbel.
What I like:
- Free to use.
- Fun downtime activity in between real study periods.
- Appealing to young people and those experimenting with Indonesian before committing to a paid resource.
What I don’t like:
- Tedious, repetitive point and click on easily predictable answers.
- Addictive gamification that feels productive but is, in fact, time-wasting.
5. uTalk
Cost: $4.99 monthly per language, $9.99 for all 140 languages, $99.99 for a lifetime subscription
Summary: uTalk is essentially a fancy flashcard app, an alternative to Memrise and a great way to learn words and phrases in hundreds of different languages.
There are thousands of potential language pair combinations and tons of native speaker audio recordings with picture associations.
What I like:
- Authentic native speaker audio
- Hundreds of available languages
- Thousands of potential language combinations
- Easily affordable
What I don’t like:
- Sloppy UI
- Games are mediocre
- Broad approach that isn’t tailored for specific languages
6. Assimil (L’Indonésien)
Cost: Prices vary widely
Summary: The Assimil method is old and outdated, and its ‘two wave’ approach has little value in light of current Second Language Acquisition trends (although its focus on patterns rather than grammar drills is ahead of its time). The Assimil dialogues are extremely useful, however.
Read this Assimil review.
What I like:
- High quality dialogues
- Perfectly arranged audio library
- Very comprehensive
What I don’t like:
- Translation-based
- French only
- Doesn’t appear to be backed by research or case studies
- Unusual and bizarre situational topics
7. italki
Cost: Prices vary widely
Summary: italki connects learners with tutors, teachers and conversation partners. As with similar services, it doesn’t a curriculum or content to instructors - just facilitates.
The good thing about italki is their vetted onboarding process for teachers which ensures quality. italki has earned its amazing reputation.
Teachers succeed on italki through client feedback, meaning subpar teachers simply will not cut it on the platform.
What I like:
- Facilitates great connections with expert teachers.
What I don’t like:
- No set curriculum means you could be paired with an inexperienced new teacher not yet weeded out by italki’s review system.
8. Glossika Indonesian
Cost: $30 a month.
Summary: I’m a huge fan of the Glossika series.
Glossika is one of the most unique language products available and, in my opinion, one of the very few that uses a natural, research-grounded method. In fact, the Glossika method aligns very closely with how I personally learned Indonesian and I’ve seen tremendous success doing it.
Glossika focuses on high repetition of lexical chunks – in other words, listening over and over to a sequence of sentences at natural speed and repeating them.
It is hands down the most effective trainer for Indonesian listening comprehension and requires little else but frequent, daily listening/repeating to audio.
See this massive Glossika review and interview I put together.
What I like:
- One of the most truly unique and effective methods available, in my opinion.
- I personally had tremendous success using Glossika for Indonesian (and Russian).
- Focuses on heavy repetition of natural language chunks.
What I don’t like:
- Difficult concept to grasp for new learners of Indonesian.
- Natural approach requiring heavy repetition may feel tedious to some people.
- Slightly higher priced monthly subscription.
9. Mango Languages
Cost: $7.99 a month
Summary: Mango Languages has implemented what I believe to be one of the best ‘chunking’ approaches in its course style I’ve ever seen (very close to my own successful method). It does this by avoiding grammar Indonesian explanations and instead highlighting lexical chunks in colors to help you learn language patterns.
One of the best features I’ve seen in a language product. Period.
The only problem with Mango is that it’s quite lightweight on its course depth. If they developed an advanced course for Indonesian, I’d be a raging fan.
What I like:
- Beautifully designed Indonesian course
- Focuses on lexical chunks (color coded) rather than rules which is how I prefer to learn
What I don’t like:
- Minimal grammar focus
- Lack of content depth for higher-level learners
10. Mondly Indonesian
Cost: Starts at $9.99/month.
Summary: Mondly offers courses for loads of different languages including Indonesian and is similar in style to Duolingo and Babbel. There are even hints of Rosetta Stone in its delivery.
It’s a beautifully-designed web app and a pleasure to navigate the Indonesian course content.
Some of the language courses aren’t that great (e.g. Arabic) but Indonesian and others are done fairly well.
What I like:
- Beautifully designed app and web interface makes it a pleasure to use
- Clear and easy progression through the Indonesian lessons
- Inexpensive
What I don’t like:
- Linear learning path
- Fairly repetitive and monotonous
See this Mondly review to learn more.
11. Memrise
Cost: Free
Summary: Memrise moved its free “community” courses to a site called Memrise a while back, while it continues to run a premium subscription on the original Memrise site.
From what I see, Memrise is identical to what Memrise use to offer.
Memrise are 100% free community-added courses (Indonesian and others) in the form of a gamified flashcard deck. You select a language or dialect, then go through a flashcard game of “watering plants”. It’s highly addictive and actually quite effective.
Some courses are excellent but not all courses are good. Look for ones that include audio and ones that teach phrases rather than single words.
See my video on downloading Memrise to Anki.
What I like:
- It’s an effective memorization tool for phrases and words.
- The addictive nature of the game gets you coming back often to continue learning.
- It’s all free.
- There are loads of community-driven courses to choose from.
What I don’t like:
- As it’s community-driven, you can’t always guarantee quality.
Summary: Best online Indonesian courses
This pretty much sums up every online Indonesian course option currently available (if I missed one, let me know!).
In addition to an Indonesian course, make sure you’re getting regular Indonesian practice with native speakers.
For that, italki is the easiest way to find really inexpensive practice partners and tutors.
Just remember that even if you have all the courses on this list, you’ll still fail at Indonesian without the right motivation, and even a poor Indonesian course can be effective in the hands of someone with the right amount of determination to succeed.
For tips on how to learn Indonesian and overcoming various language learning struggles, subscribe below by ‘Joining the Guild’ (select Indonesian as your target language).
Know of an Indonesian course that I didn’t mention?
Share it below in the comment section.
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