Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Setelah kencan di restoran Jepang, dia mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelayan dan pulang dengan senyum lebar. - After the date at the Japanese restaurant, she/he thanked the server and went home with a big smile.

Setelah is slightly more common in written/neutral style.
Sesudah can sound just a bit more formal or traditional in some contexts, but the difference is small.

So yes, you can say Sesudah kencan di restoran Jepang, dia... without changing the meaning.

Does kencan always mean a romantic date, or can it just mean any appointment or meeting?

In modern Indonesian, kencan most commonly means a romantic date.

kencan = going out as a couple, dating
For a non-romantic appointment/meeting, people usually say janji or janji temu, or more specifically rapat (meeting), pertemuan, etc.

So in this sentence, kencan di restoran Jepang strongly suggests a romantic date at a Japanese restaurant, not just any appointment.

Does di restoran Jepang mean “at a Japanese restaurant” or “at a restaurant in Japan”?

di restoran Jepang is usually understood as at a Japanese restaurant (a restaurant that serves Japanese food), not necessarily in the country Japan.

restoran Jepang: a Japanese restaurant (type of restaurant)
di Jepang: in Japan (the country)

If you wanted to say at a restaurant in Japan, you’d normally say:

di sebuah restoran di Jepang
di restoran di Jepang

So in this sentence, the natural reading is that the date took place at a Japanese restaurant (wherever it is located).

Is dia male or female here? How do Indonesians know?

Dia is gender-neutral; it can mean he, she, or sometimes they (singular) depending on context.

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark gender in third-person pronouns. Speakers rely on:

Earlier context in the conversation/text
Names: Dia, Rina, pergi duluan (Rina = likely female)
Extra explanations if needed

If you really need to specify gender:

laki-laki itu / pria itu = that man
perempuan itu / wanita itu = that woman

But in most real conversations, dia is enough, and the gender is either clear from context or not important.

Why is it mengucapkan terima kasih and not just terima kasih? What’s the difference between mengucapkan terima kasih and berterima kasih?

terima kasih by itself is the set phrase “thank you”.
mengucapkan terima kasih literally means to express / say thanks.
- mengucapkan = to utter / to say (from ucap
  - prefix me-
    - suffix -kan)
- Object: terima kasih

So:

Dia mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelayan.
= He/She said thank you to the waiter.

berterima kasih is another verb meaning to be thankful / to thank:

Dia berterima kasih kepada pelayan.
= He/She thanked the waiter.

In this sentence:

mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelayan sounds slightly more explicit (literally “uttered thanks to the waiter”).
berterima kasih kepada pelayan is also correct and natural, just a bit more compact.

Why do we use kepada before pelayan and not pada?

Both kepada and pada are often translated as to, but:

kepada is used mainly:
- before people or personified things
- when there is a sense of direction of an action or feeling towards someone
  Example: mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelayan (to say thank you to the waiter)
pada is more general:
- before things, situations, abstract nouns, or as a neutral “at/on/in/to”
  Examples: pada hari Senin (on Monday), pada waktu itu (at that time)

In practice:

kepada pelayan (to the waiter) is the natural choice here because a person is receiving the action of thanking.

What does pelayan mean exactly? Is it specifically “waiter”? Is it polite?

Pelayan literally means server/attendant, and in a restaurant context it is usually understood as waiter/waitress.

Nuances:

It’s a neutral word in many contexts, but in some modern, more formal hospitality settings, pramusaji is preferred for “wait staff”.
You typically wouldn’t call someone Hei, pelayan! directly; that can sound rude. Instead, you might say:
- Mas / Mbak (common in many areas, informal/polite)
- Pak / Bu (Mr./Mrs., more formal)

In narration like this sentence, pelayan is fine and natural: it just refers to the waiter who served them.

Why is there no dia before pulang? How do we know who pulang refers to?

In Indonesian, once the subject is clear, you don’t need to repeat it for each verb in the same clause or sentence.

dia mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelayan dan pulang
literally: “he/she said thank you to the waiter and went home”

The subject dia is understood to apply to both verbs:

dia (subject)
→ mengucapkan (verb 1)
→ pulang (verb 2, shares the same subject)

You could say …kepada pelayan dan dia pulang…, but it’s less smooth and less natural here. Native speakers will automatically understand that pulang still refers to dia.

What’s the difference between pulang, pergi, and balik? Why use pulang here?

All three can relate to movement, but they’re used differently:

pulang = to go home / to return to one’s home base
Focus on going back to where you belong.
- Dia pulang. = He/She went home.
pergi = to go (away)
Neutral, doesn’t imply “home”.
- Dia pergi ke restoran. = He/She went to the restaurant.
balik = to go/come back, to return, more general/informal.
Often used with pulang: pulang balik in some dialects, or alone in casual speech:
- Dia balik ke rumah. (He/She went back home.)

Here, pulang is chosen because the person is going home after the date. That’s exactly the nuance pulang carries.

Why is it dengan senyum lebar and not dengan senyuman lebar? Are both correct?

Both are grammatically correct, but slightly different in feel:

dengan senyum lebar
literally: with a wide smile
Very common, sounds simple and natural.
dengan senyuman lebar
senyuman = the noun form (smile), from senyum
- suffix -an.
  This can sound a bit more formal or descriptive, depending on context.

In everyday narrative, dengan senyum lebar is very normal. You could also say:

dengan tersenyum lebar (while smiling widely)
but that slightly changes the structure (using a verb form tersenyum).

Does senyum lebar really mean “big smile”? What does lebar usually mean?

Yes, in this context senyum lebar naturally corresponds to a big / wide smile.

lebar literally means wide (opposite of sempit = narrow).
- jalan lebar = a wide road
- pintu lebar = a wide door

When used with senyum, senyum lebar is an idiomatic collocation meaning a broad/wide smile, exactly like a big smile in English. It’s a normal and imagery-rich expression.

How do we know this sentence is in the past? There’s no past tense marker like “-ed”.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past, present, future). Instead, time is understood from:

Time words: kemarin (yesterday), tadi malam (last night), besok (tomorrow), etc.
Context and logic: Setelah kencan… naturally suggests a sequence that has already happened.

This sentence is interpreted as past because:

Having a date, then saying thank you, then going home describes a completed sequence of events. If you wanted to make the past time explicit, you could add a time expression:
Tadi malam, setelah kencan di restoran Jepang, dia…
= Last night, after the date at the Japanese restaurant, he/she…

Could we move setelah kencan di restoran Jepang to the end of the sentence? Is the word order flexible?

Yes, Indonesian allows flexible placement of time clauses like this.

Original:

Setelah kencan di restoran Jepang, dia mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelayan dan pulang dengan senyum lebar.

You can also say:

Dia mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelayan dan pulang dengan senyum lebar setelah kencan di restoran Jepang.

Both are correct and natural. Differences:

Putting Setelah kencan di restoran Jepang at the start emphasizes the time/condition first.
Putting it at the end sounds a bit more neutral and linear, like English.

In spoken Indonesian, both orders are very common.