Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kakak laki-laki saya ingin jadi desainer, sedangkan kakak perempuan saya mau jadi musisi. - My older brother wants to be a designer, while my older sister wants to be a musician.

Kakak by itself is gender-neutral and means “older sibling.”
It only tells you that the person is older than you, not whether they are male or female.

kakak = older sibling (no gender specified)
kakak laki-laki = older brother
kakak perempuan = older sister

So in the sentence:

kakak laki-laki saya = my older brother
kakak perempuan saya = my older sister

Why do we say kakak laki-laki and kakak perempuan if kakak already means “older sibling”? Isn’t that redundant?

It’s not considered redundant in Indonesian; it’s just how you specify gender clearly:

kakak → older sibling in general
kakak laki-laki → explicitly male
kakak perempuan → explicitly female

If the gender is already clear from context, speakers often just say kakak:

Kakak saya dokter.
My older sibling is a doctor. (gender unknown or irrelevant)

In this sentence, the speaker wants to contrast a brother with a sister, so they explicitly say kakak laki-laki and kakak perempuan.

Why is it kakak laki-laki saya (my older brother) and not kakak saya laki-laki? What’s the normal word order?

The safest and most natural patterns are:

kakak laki-laki saya = my older brother
kakak perempuan saya = my older sister

The order is:

kinship word: kakak
gender descriptor: laki-laki / perempuan
possessor: saya

You can say kakak saya yang laki-laki, but that has a slightly different feel: it’s like saying “my sibling who is male.”
*kakak saya laki-laki (without yang) sounds incomplete or unnatural.

So: kakak laki-laki saya is the best, simplest pattern to memorize.

What’s the difference between ingin and mau? Why use both in one sentence?

Both ingin and mau can mean “to want (to)”, but they differ in tone:

mau
- very common in everyday speech
- neutral or slightly informal
- also means “will” / “going to” in some contexts
ingin
- sounds a bit more formal or “careful”
- can feel slightly more deliberate or aspirational

In this sentence:

kakak laki-laki saya ingin jadi desainer
kakak perempuan saya mau jadi musisi

The meaning difference is minimal; it’s more about style. A speaker might mix them without a strong reason, or to avoid repetition. You could also say:

…kakak laki-laki saya mau jadi desainer, sedangkan kakak perempuan saya mau jadi musisi.
…kakak laki-laki saya ingin jadi desainer, sedangkan kakak perempuan saya ingin jadi musisi.

Both are acceptable.

Why is it jadi and not menjadi? Are ingin jadi and ingin menjadi different?

Jadi and menjadi are closely related:

jadi (verb) = to become
menjadi (verb) = to become (more formal / standard)

In many everyday sentences, they are interchangeable:

ingin jadi desainer
ingin menjadi desainer

Both mean “want to become a designer.”
Differences:

jadi sounds a bit more casual, common in speech.
menjadi is slightly more formal, common in writing or careful speech.

So the sentence could also be:

Kakak laki-laki saya ingin menjadi desainer, sedangkan kakak perempuan saya mau menjadi musisi.

No real change in meaning.

In English we say “a designer, a musician.” Why doesn’t Indonesian use something like seorang here?

Indonesian often omits an article-like word before professions.

So these are all acceptable:

ingin jadi desainer
ingin jadi seorang desainer

Both mean “want to be a designer.”
Nuance:

seorang emphasizes “one person / a person who is a …” and can feel slightly more formal or explicit.
In casual speech, people commonly drop seorang and just say jadi desainer / jadi musisi.

That’s why the sentence is perfectly natural without seorang.

What does sedangkan do here? How is it different from dan or tapi?

Sedangkan introduces a contrast between two different subjects and is similar to “whereas” / “while” in English.

In the sentence:

Kakak laki-laki saya ingin jadi desainer, sedangkan kakak perempuan saya mau jadi musisi.

it means:

My older brother wants to be a designer, *whereas my older sister wants to be a musician.*

Comparison:

dan = and
- just adds information, no contrast:
  - Kakak laki-laki saya ingin jadi desainer dan kakak perempuan saya mau jadi musisi.
    (grammatical, but the contrast feels weaker)
tapi / tetapi = but
- contrasts something, but usually within the same subject or idea:
  - Saya ingin jadi desainer, tapi orang tua saya tidak setuju.
    I want to be a designer, but my parents don’t agree.
sedangkan
- specifically contrasts two different subjects or situations placed side-by-side.

Why is there a comma before sedangkan?

The comma separates two independent clauses:

Kakak laki-laki saya ingin jadi desainer
kakak perempuan saya mau jadi musisi

Sedangkan joins them and shows contrast. In standard Indonesian writing, it’s normal to put a comma before conjunctions like sedangkan, tetapi, karena, etc., especially when they join full clauses.

In informal writing (chats, texts), people often ignore this punctuation rule, but in careful Indonesian, the comma is expected.

Is kakak laki-laki saya definitely singular? How would you say “my older brothers” or “my older sisters”?

By default, kakak laki-laki saya is understood as singular: my older brother.

To make it clearly plural, Indonesian often uses:

reduplication (repeating the noun) or
a plural marker like banyak, para, etc.

Examples:

kakak-kakak laki-laki saya = my older brothers
kakak-kakak perempuan saya = my older sisters
banyak kakak laki-laki saya = many of my older brothers (context-specific, sounds a bit unusual unless you really have many)
para kakak perempuan saya = my (group of) older sisters (formal/literary)

In casual speech, context sometimes makes plural clear, and people might still say just kakak even if they actually mean more than one, but kakak-kakak is the explicit plural form.

Why is saya at the end (kakak laki-laki saya) instead of before, like saya kakak laki-laki?

Possession in Indonesian is normally:

possessed + possessor

So:

kakak saya = my older sibling
rumah saya = my house
teman saya = my friend

Putting saya in front (saya kakak…, saya rumah…) does not mark possession and usually becomes ungrammatical or changes the meaning completely.

So kakak laki-laki saya is the normal, correct pattern for “my older brother.”

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Would people say it in conversation?

It’s basically neutral and very natural in conversation.

kakak laki-laki / kakak perempuan → neutral
saya → neutral (slightly formal compared to aku, but used everywhere)
ingin → slightly formal/neutral
mau → neutral/informal
jadi desainer / jadi musisi → neutral, very common
sedangkan → neutral/standard

In casual spoken Indonesian you might also hear variations like:

Abang saya mau jadi desainer, sedangkan kakak saya mau jadi musisi. (regional)
Kakak cowok saya mau jadi desainer, sedangkan kakak cewek saya mau jadi musisi. (very informal, colloquial: cowok = guy, cewek = girl)

But the original sentence is perfectly natural, clear, and safe to use in most contexts.

Are desainer and musisi Indonesian words or English loans? Are there other ways to say them?

Both are loanwords that are now fully accepted in Indonesian:

desainer ← from English designer
musisi ← from English musician (via another language; the form matches Indonesian phonology)

Alternative words:

desainer
- more formal/Indonesian alternative: perancang
  - perancang busana = fashion designer
musisi
- another word (less common in daily speech): pemusik

In practice, desainer and musisi are very common and sound natural and modern, especially for professions. The sentence sounds up-to-date and normal with these words.