Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami akan mengobrol sambil minum kopi besok malam. - We will chat while drinking coffee tomorrow night.

In Indonesian pronouns, kami excludes the person you’re talking to, while kita includes them. By saying kami, the speaker makes it clear that “we” refers only to the speaker plus someone else (not the listener). If you include the listener in “we,” you would use kita.

What does akan mean here, and is it always necessary?

akan is a future-tense marker (“will”). Even though besok (tomorrow) already indicates the future, speakers often add akan to:

Emphasize the action is planned
Keep a more formal or complete structure
You can omit akan if you want a more casual sentence (e.g., Kami mengobrol sambil minum kopi besok malam), but including it is perfectly natural.

What is the difference between mengobrol and ngobrol?

mengobrol is the standard verb form using the active prefix meN- plus the root obrol (“chat”).
ngobrol is colloquial; speakers drop the meN- prefix and nasal assimilation to sound more informal.
Both mean “to chat,” but mengobrol is more formal/literary.

How does sambil work, and could I use another word here?

sambil means “while doing” and links two simultaneous actions. Structure:
sambil + [verb phrase]
Here it connects mengobrol and minum kopi.
You could also say:
Kami akan mengobrol dan minum kopi besok malam.
That uses dan (“and”), which simply lists actions, but doesn’t stress that they happen at the same time as neatly as sambil does.

Why is there no second akan before minum?

Tense markers like akan apply to the whole clause. Once you set the future tense with akan, you don’t repeat it for each verb. The second action (minum kopi) is embedded under the same future timeframe because of sambil.

Why is it besok malam instead of malam besok?

Time expressions in Indonesian generally go from more general to specific:
besok (tomorrow) → malam (night)
So besok malam translates naturally as “tomorrow night.” Saying malam besok is understandable but less idiomatic and can sometimes sound poetic or marked.

Can I move the time phrase besok malam to the front?

Yes. Indonesian word order is relatively flexible. You can say:
Besok malam kami akan mengobrol sambil minum kopi.
Putting the time first often sounds natural and emphasizes when something will happen.

Is this sentence formal or informal? Would it fit in writing?

It’s neutral-to-informal. mengobrol and ngobrol are both conversational. In formal writing or business contexts, you might replace mengobrol with berbicara or berdiskusi, and keep minum kopi for an informal setting or change to minum teh or bersantai in a brochure.