Tokek

Talking to your helper and gardener

A house helper is ordinary here, and cheap enough that refusing on principle is odd: twice a week runs one to one and a half million a month. The term is "asisten rumah tangga"; in conversation just "mbak" for a younger woman or "ibu".

You agree by the month, not the hour. The first question is "berapa sebulan kalau dua kali seminggu": how much a month for twice a week. Then pin down what's included — laundry, ironing and cooking are separate items.

Requests are softened: "tolong" before the verb turns an order into a request. "Tolong cuci baju" — please do the washing. Without "tolong" it lands as a command, and that registers.

And the thing nobody warns you about: holidays. Nobody works on Galungan or Nyepi, and it isn't negotiable. THR — a bonus of one month's pay before Eid — is treated as obligatory here, and it's expected.

Pronunciation below is written to be read out loud in English spelling. It isn't linguistically exact — it's meant to get you understood.

31 phrases

These phrases, out loud and in your pocket

Tokek has all of them with audio, offline, plus a translator that answers in the same transliteration. Free to start, no account needed.

Open Tokek