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There’s no better place for an eat-pray-love journey other than Indonesia, the Emerald of the Equator!Â
Home to fiery volcanoes, komodo dragons, and—most famously—the lush paradise of Bali, it’s no wonder why dozens of travelers and tourists flock to the country. It’s simply divine!
If you want to learn Indonesian on Rosetta Stone, I have bad news for you: Indonesian isn’t available on the Rosetta Stone app at the moment.
There is, however, a Level 1 program from back when Rosetta Stone was available as a language learning software for Windows and Macintosh. In case that’s too outdated for you, there are plenty of other great alternatives to choose from.
What is Rosetta Stone and why look for an alternative?
What is Rosetta Stone?
Learning on the move? Need a quick recap? Well, Rosetta Stone’s got a neat solution to that!
Developed to suit your needs, schedule, and lifestyle, Rosetta Stone is as flexible as ever and will get you speaking a new language right away! They squeeze in a wide variety of tutorials—from grammar basics to real-world conversations—in their app, which you can sync across all your devices.
By customizing Your Plan, Rosetta Stone lets you study at your own pace and find the tailor-fitted lessons you require, whether that’s reading, writing, or simple dialogue. Should you want to arrange brief, 10-minute recaps or intensive, 30-minute sessions, it’s completely up to you!
With their bite-sized courses, TruAccent speech recognition tech, extensive phrasebook, and finely-tuned audio companion waiting in store, for certain, you’ll never go wrong!
Why look for an alternative?
As much as I love Rosetta Stone’s versatility, one of the main reasons why you should get an alternative is because they don’t have an Indonesian course—not for now, at least.
Furthermore, if you don’t think Rosetta Stone suits your learning style and preferences, then it’s completely fine to switch to another platform. Good for you, there are plenty of awesome alternatives to choose from!
Apps to learn Indonesian other than Rosetta Stone
No Rosetta Stone Indonesian? Not a problem!
Nowadays, many Indonesian learning apps have graced the market, with a number of them offering a similar teaching style. Try these Rosetta Stone alternatives instead:
1. Babbel
If you’re into fast-paced, customized lessons, then Babbel is the way to go. In fact, Babbel will get you to speak Indonesian from just the first lesson!
Best for beginner and intermediate students, the app has a lot of features to show. From fun games to interactive courses, its dynamic review sessions strengthen your long-term memory by adjusting to your needs and repeating past lessons.
On top of that, its advanced speech recognition technology could aid your conversation practice!
Key features:
- Made for beginner to intermediate students
- Engage in 10-15 minute lessons developed by language experts
- Wide array of lessons, games, and media files
2. Pimsleur
Listen and learn with Pimsleur, an audio-based Indonesian course.
Let me clue you in on the Pimsleur Method. It’s a scientifically proven approach that’ll get you reading, speaking, and—most importantly—understanding a new language quickly and organically.
In this case, rather than overloading on vocabulary and grammar lessons, you’ll instead study Indonesian in the context of day-to-day conversations. Immersive, methodological, and best of all, authentic—essentially, this app will prepare you for real-life interactions.
Key features:
- Designed for long-term language retention
- Learn on the go with daily, 30-minute core audio lessons
- Focused on conversational skills
3. Mondly
Mondly’s got courses for all levels of study! Game-like in nature, this app manages to keep its lessons short but sweet, giving you enough practice in just 10 minutes a day.
With its activities and exercises centered on your core skills—those being reading, writing, listening, and speaking—what you’ll get is a well-rounded learning platform that knows how to keep users engaged.
It even has a competitive leaderboard system to track your stats, as well as a special hands-free mode for easy, mobile review! How about that?
Key features:
- Brief yet playful lessons
- Helps you get a good grasp on vocabulary, grammar, and dialogue
- Includes high-quality audio recorded by native speakers
Other great resources to learn Indonesian
Should you need a good book, game, or podcast, know that there are plenty of supplementary materials out there for you to discover, starting with these few:
italki: Get talking on italki, a platform for online language tutoring sessions! Here, you could choose between community and professional teachers and schedule 1-on-1 classes at affordable rates.
Preply: For more tutor options, head to Preply. You’ll find hundreds of native and near-native tutors who can help you with your Indonesian learning needs — whether that’s beginner or intensive lessons, Business Indonesian, or conversation practice.
IndonesianPod101: This app has a huge audio and video library of tutorials that you can stream and/or download! And if you’re really into it, you can also get line-by-line breakdowns or slowed-down audio, so that you can track every Indonesian word and phrase.
Cudoo: With Cudoo’s interactive video courses, you can study Indonesian at your own pace and at the level that fits you. The classes include lessons on vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
Bahasa Kita: This Indonesian website has free lessons on vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and even colloquial talk! For more intensive training, they also offer paid courses that span numerous topics, such as sentence-making, foreign loanwords, and the like.
Ling: From beginner to pro, this app’s got gamified courses, mini-games, and audio samples to level up your skills. It also has an interactive chatbot for dialogue practice!
Drops: Drops is a one-stop destination for all things vocabulary! With eye-catching visuals and engaging quizzes, this app makes a super fun companion to your core studies.
SBS Radio Indonesia: One of the best ways to learn a new language is to hear it being used in real-life. This podcast updates by the day and mostly contains Indonesian news and interviews.
Expat Indo Forum: Want a chatting buddy? Need to ask a question? Well, this Indonesian online forum helps you connect with native speakers and foreigners! Although this isn’t purely an education platform, you may be able to gather some insights and resources over here.
TVRI Nasional: TVRI is the country’s main public television channel, which routinely livestreams its content (national and regional) on YouTube. If you’re interested in Indonesian news and public affairs, give it a watch!
Conclusion
Light, handy, and interactive—Rosetta Stone’s language courses will surely be missed, for their immersive approach would’ve been great for learning Indonesian.
Nevertheless, should you want to get lessons of the same nature, these three alternatives will set you up just fine. Paired with these extra resources, you’ll get the right dose of study and play!