I'm mainly using the rosetta stone and two books for my studying. The books are Teach Youself Indonesian by Christopher Byrnes, and Colloquial Indonesian by Sutanto Atmosumarto (Although I haven't gone past lesson 3 and lesson 1 respectively, I find that the latter is much better, so I might end up concentrating primarily on this one).
Anyway, as of right now I have finished lesson 1 of Colloquial Indonesian and I have a few questions.
1. Nona vs. Nyonya - Nona doesn't appear in a vocabulary box in the book as nyonya does so I'm not 100% sure that my interpretation is correct. According to the book, nyonya means Mrs. and nona appears translated in a sentence as Miss. Is this right, or is nona just a simplified version of nyonya?
2. -mu - One of the sample dialogues that appears reads:
C: Selamat malam, Budi.
D: Apa kabar?
C: Kabar baik. Bagaimana isterimu?
D: Dia sehat. Terima kasih.
From context I understand that isterimu means your wife however this is not specified in the lesson nor in any other place in the book that I could easily find. Does this means that when -mu is added to a noun it is referring to the noun being a possession of the person one is talking to?
3. I am given these instructions in an excercise:
How would you introduce these people to your host at a party?
(f) John Smith, an English language teacher and Jane, his wife; they are American.
My answer is: Ini John Smith, guru bahasa Indonesia, dan Jane, isteri dia. Mereka orang Amerika Serikat.
However, the book omits the comma between Indonesia and dan in its answer. In English I would always include that comma... Is this a misprint or is that comma optional in Indonesian?
4. Tourist - One of my books uses pelancong for tourist, and the other uses wisatawan. Is one more common than the other, or are there any differences (however suttle) between the two?
5. Saudara, Bapak, Tuan - Are they interchangable in any context?