Setelah rapat, kami berfoto; aku terakhir pulang dari kantor cabang.

to be

Breakdown of Setelah rapat, kami berfoto; aku terakhir pulang dari kantor cabang.

• kami: we
• rapat: the meeting
• pulang: to go home

Questions & Answers about Setelah rapat, kami berfoto; aku terakhir pulang dari kantor cabang.

Is the semicolon (;) natural in Indonesian here, or should I use something else?

• Semicolons are grammatical but not very common in everyday Indonesian. A period is more typical.
• Alternatives:
  • Period: Setelah rapat, kami berfoto. Aku pulang terakhir dari kantor cabang.
  • Connector: Setelah rapat, kami berfoto lalu aku pulang terakhir dari kantor cabang. You can also use kemudian or setelah itu.

Why kami and not kita?

• Kami = we, excluding the listener.
• Kita = we, including the listener.
• If the listener wasn’t part of the meeting/photo, kami is correct. If the listener was involved, use kita.

What’s the difference between aku and saya, and is mixing registers OK?

• Aku: informal/intimate. Saya: neutral–polite, preferred in professional settings.
• In a business context, use saya: Setelah rapat, kami berfoto; saya...
• Be consistent in formal writing; mixing is common in speech but looks sloppy in formal text.

What exactly does berfoto mean? How is it different from memotret or memfoto?