Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Beberapa sarjana dari jurusan hukum langsung mencari lowongan, yang lain ingin istirahat dulu. - Some graduates from the law major immediately look for vacancies, others want to rest first.

sarjana = a person who has completed a university degree
- sarjana hukum = law graduate
- sarjana teknik = engineering graduate
It can also mean scholar in some contexts, but in everyday usage about jobs, it almost always means degree holder / graduate.

It does not mean student. A student is usually mahasiswa (university student).

What does jurusan mean in sarjana dari jurusan hukum? Is it like faculty, major, or department?

Jurusan is closest to major or department of study.

jurusan hukum = law major / law program / law department
jurusan kedokteran = medical major / medical school
jurusan teknik sipil = civil engineering major

So sarjana dari jurusan hukum literally means graduates from the law major (program).

Why is it sarjana dari jurusan hukum and not just sarjana hukum? Are both correct?

Both are grammatically correct, but they sound slightly different.

sarjana hukum
- Very common and natural.
- Feels like a fixed label: law graduate or law degree holder.
sarjana dari jurusan hukum
- More descriptive and a bit longer.
- Literally: graduates from the law major/department.
- Emphasises the origin: they come from that specific department or major.

In many everyday contexts, sarjana hukum would be more concise and equally natural; the given sentence just chooses a more explicit phrasing.

What does lowongan mean by itself? Why isn’t it lowongan kerja?

Lowongan comes from lowong, meaning vacant / empty (position).

lowongan by itself is commonly understood as job vacancies, especially if the context is about careers.
lowongan kerja or lowongan pekerjaan = job vacancies (more explicit)

In this sentence:

mencari lowongan is understood as looking for job openings.
Saying mencari lowongan kerja would also be natural and clear; it just spells it out more fully.

Why is it mencari lowongan, not mencari untuk lowongan like “look for vacancies” vs “look for” in English?

In Indonesian, mencari (to search/look for) is transitive and usually takes a direct object without a preposition.

So you say:

mencari lowongan = to look for job openings
mencari pekerjaan = to look for a job
mencari rumah = to look for a house

You don’t add untuk here. Using mencari untuk lowongan would sound unnatural in Indonesian.

What does langsung add to the meaning in langsung mencari lowongan? Is it like immediately?

Yes, langsung here means directly / immediately / right away.

mencari lowongan = look for job openings
langsung mencari lowongan = immediately start looking for job openings, without delay or without doing something else first.

It adds the idea of no break / no intermediate step: as soon as they graduate, they go straight into job hunting.

Can the position of langsung change? Is mencari lowongan langsung also correct?

In this sentence, langsung should come before the verb:

Natural: langsung mencari lowongan
Unnatural/odd: mencari lowongan langsung

General pattern:

adverb like langsung usually appears before the verb or at the beginning of the clause:
- Saya langsung pergi. = I went immediately.
- Mereka langsung pulang. = They went straight home.

Mencari lowongan langsung could be interpreted as modifying lowongan instead of the action, and it sounds wrong in this context.

How does yang lain work here? Is it like “the others”? Could I say yang lainnya?

Yes, yang lain here means the others (the other graduates, implied from context).

First part: Beberapa sarjana … langsung mencari lowongan
Second part: yang lain ingin istirahat dulu
→ the others want to rest first.

About forms:

yang lain = the other (ones), the rest
yang lainnya = also possible, often slightly more definite/emphatic, like the other ones / the rest of them.

In this sentence:

yang lain is perfectly natural and unmarked.
yang lainnya would also be acceptable and would still mean the others, with a tiny nuance of the rest of them.

Why isn’t the subject repeated in the second clause? Why not say yang lain dari jurusan hukum ingin istirahat dulu?

Indonesian often omits repeated information when it’s clear from context.

The first clause already tells you we’re talking about sarjana dari jurusan hukum.
In the second clause, yang lain (“the others”) clearly refers to the same group.

So the full, fully explicit version would be:

Beberapa sarjana dari jurusan hukum langsung mencari lowongan, sedangkan sarjana lain dari jurusan hukum ingin istirahat dulu.

But that sounds long and repetitive. Native speakers prefer the shorter:

… langsung mencari lowongan, yang lain ingin istirahat dulu.

What does istirahat dulu mean exactly? Is dulu just “first / before that”?

Istirahat = to rest / to take a break.
Dulu literally means before / earlier / first, but it has some softer, pragmatic uses.

In ingin istirahat dulu, dulu:

indicates doing this before some later action, e.g. working, applying for jobs, etc.
also softens the statement, making it sound less absolute and more like “for the time being”.

So ingin istirahat dulu ≈

“(they) want to take a break first (before doing something else)”
“(they) want to rest for now”

It doesn’t necessarily specify what comes next; it just implies rest first, other things later.

Is istirahat a verb or a noun here? There’s no prefix like meng-.

Istirahat can function as both noun and verb, depending on context.

Here, ingin istirahat dulu:

ingin (“to want”) is followed by an action, so istirahat functions like a verb: to rest.
Indonesian does not always need a prefix (meng-) to mark an action.

Other examples:

Saya mau istirahat. = I want to rest.
Istirahat sebentar. = Take a short break. / A short break.
Waktunya istirahat. = It’s time for a break.

The form stays istirahat; the role (verb vs noun) comes from context.

Why is a comma used before yang lain instead of a word like sedangkan or sementara?

The comma here separates two clauses that contrast with each other:

Clause 1: some graduates immediately look for jobs.
Clause 2: the others want to rest first.

Indonesian allows:

Just a comma:
- … langsung mencari lowongan, yang lain ingin istirahat dulu.
Or a contrastive conjunction:
- … langsung mencari lowongan, sedangkan yang lain ingin istirahat dulu.
- … langsung mencari lowongan, sementara yang lain ingin istirahat dulu.

Adding sedangkan or sementara makes the contrast more explicit (similar to “whereas”), but it’s not required; the contrast is already clear from context.

What is the difference between beberapa and para in beberapa sarjana? Could we say para sarjana here?

Yes, both are possible but the meaning shifts slightly.

beberapa sarjana = some graduates (an unspecified subset)
- Highlights that only some of them do this.
para sarjana = (all) the graduates / graduates in general
- para is a plural marker for people, often used to refer to a group as a whole.

In this sentence:

Beberapa sarjana … yang lain … clearly sets up a contrast:
- some do X, others do Y.
If you used para sarjana, you’d lose the idea of “some vs others” and might need to change the structure.

So beberapa sarjana … yang lain … is the natural choice to express that only some immediately look for jobs, while others rest.

Why is hukum not pluralized (e.g., hukum-hukum)? In English we say “law graduates”.

Indonesian generally does not mark plural on nouns unless needed for clarity or emphasis.

jurusan hukum = law major / department of law
It refers to the field of law as a whole; there’s no need to mark it as plural.

Reduplication (hukum-hukum) would mean various laws (individual laws), which is not what we mean here. We’re talking about the study program of law, which is singular in concept.

Plurality is usually shown by:

context: beberapa sarjana (some graduates)
quantifiers: banyak, beberapa, para, etc.

So jurusan hukum is correct and natural; no plural ending is required.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Could it be used in spoken conversation and in writing?

The sentence is neutral and works in both spoken and written Indonesian.

Reasons:

Vocabulary is standard: sarjana, jurusan, hukum, mencari, lowongan, ingin, istirahat.
Structure is clear and not slangy.
It’s not overly formal either; you could hear this in everyday conversation, in a news article, or in a casual academic context.

For slightly more formal writing, someone might add sedangkan:

Beberapa sarjana dari jurusan hukum langsung mencari lowongan, sedangkan yang lain ingin istirahat dulu.

But the original is already acceptable in many contexts.