Bali Travel Guide -> Language
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| The official
language and lingua franca in Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia. It is
an artificial language based on Malay with a very simple grammar. In
addition, all over Indonesia local languages are spoken. Balinese
is, in contrast to Bahasa Indonesia, a very complicated and difficult language
(with, for instance, different vocabularies for the various social castes).
You will in most parts of Bali be able to communicate in English, especially
in the tourism-associated industries.
In case you should pick up some words or phrases in Balinese, please be careful when using them because you might fail to consider the social rank distinctions and offend people. Bahasa Indonesia is much less dangerous in this respect and most Balinese are delighted when a foreigner uses some phrases like "selamat pagi/siang" ("good morning/afternoon") or "terima kasih" ("thank you"). |
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