Tuttle's Concise Indonesian Dictionary: English-Indonesian Indonesian-English (Tuttle Language Library) [Paperback]

A.L. N. Kramer (Author), Willie Koen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0804818649 | ISBN-13: 978-0804818643 | Publication Date: June 15, 1993 | Edition: Revised

This dictionary is the most modern reference available, and with 18,000 entries, contains all the vocabulary a traveler or new student needs in order to learn, read, or speak Indonesian.

Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; Revised edition (June 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804818649
• ISBN-13: 978-0804818643
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,711,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars For a tourist muddling through, not for serious learners, August 9, 2004

By 

Ultimate Reviewer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tuttle's Concise Indonesian Dictionary: English-Indonesian Indonesian-English (Tuttle Language Library) (Paperback)

Dictionaries that, for most entries, simply give a selection of foreign words for an English word with no explanation of how they are used, are only of a limited use to a serious language learner. This is one such dictionary. A good dictionary will strive to give contextual clues for the usage of the various translations, and several common expressions and idioms that are related to the words you are looking up or working with. A further complaint, and a quirk of Indonesian resource writers that I can't copmprehend, is that most resources you buy these days do NOT make any attempt to mark in the occurence of the difference in pronunciation of "e" that occurs in some very common words. I can never see why, as the learner is lost without this guidence! The problem is that for Indonesian, there are so few, if any reasonably-prices dictionaries that are of any real benefit to the language learner. As it happens, and thanks to the 2003 edition of "Teach Yourself Indonesian" (which does, incidentally take into account the pronunciations of "e", as does the old version! Incidentally, I recommend the current edition of "Teach Yourself Indonesian" hands-down for anyone considering learning Indonesian - It's fantastic!), there IS a good dictionary available, but is isn't available through any of the Amazon sites. It is, to my knowledge, only available through OUP (Oxford University Press) Australia and it's called "The Oxford Indonesian Starter Dictionary". It's much better than the one I'm reviewing here!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Pocket Dictionary You Will Find!, September 9, 2006

By 

Laszlo Wagner (Hungary) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tuttle's Concise Indonesian Dictionary: English-Indonesian Indonesian-English (Tuttle Language Library) (Paperback)

This is pretty much the best cheap, pocket-sized Indonesian dictionary you can find. Given the size, you obviously can't expect it to be truly comprehensive or to give exhaustive advice on when to use certain words or how to pronounce them (luckily, Indonesian is almost completely phonetically written so this is not a major issue), but it will give you the most reliable translation of most words you will need.
It is also very accurate, free of the errors that abound in most of the cheap, locally published dictionaries you would find in Indonesia itself. I would definitely recommend it to travellers, though of course "serious" language learners will also need to have heavier dictionaries they would probably never lug around the archipelago.
In fact I can share a tip with those headed for Indonesia: local editions of this dictionary (recognizable by having the same authors, a tiny size and a red plastic cover - also by checking the scanned image of it uploaded here) are readily available in Gramedia bookstores in major cities of Indonesia for a fraction of the price overseas.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great value, perfect size, June 12, 2002

By 

Thomas W. Ritchford (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tuttle's Concise Indonesian Dictionary: English-Indonesian Indonesian-English (Tuttle Language Library) (Paperback)

I've been making fairly heavy use of this dictionary and find it indispensible. While there are some words missing (the most surprising being "tanpa", without!), it's quite complete for its size and price. You do need to know the root form of verbs to look some of them up, which requires a little knowledge of the language, but all in all it's a great buy.