Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Selama pandemi, keluarga kami belajar di rumah. - During the pandemic, our family studied at home.

Selama means “for the duration of / during (a period of time)”. It is used with something that is understood as a time span, like selama pandemi, selama dua tahun (for two years), selama liburan (during the holidays).

Selama pandemi = “for the duration of the pandemic / during the pandemic period.”
Ketika / waktu = “when” (used with an event or moment, not a span).
- Ketika pandemi mulai, ... = When the pandemic started, …
- Waktu pandemi mulai, ... = When the pandemic started, …

In this sentence, selama is natural because pandemi is being treated as a stretch of time, not a single event.

Why doesn’t Indonesian say “the pandemic” (with “the”)? How do you say “during the pandemic” properly?

Indonesian has no articles like “a/an/the”. So pandemi can mean “a pandemic” or “the pandemic”, depending on context.

Selama pandemi, keluarga kami belajar di rumah.
= During the pandemic, our family studied at home.

If you need to be very specific, you can add more detail:

Selama pandemi COVID-19, ... – During the COVID-19 pandemic, …
Selama pandemi itu, ... – During that pandemic, …

But in most real-life contexts, just selama pandemi is enough and is naturally understood as “during the pandemic” (the known one, usually COVID-19).

Can I move selama pandemi to the end, like Keluarga kami belajar di rumah selama pandemi? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can:

Selama pandemi, keluarga kami belajar di rumah.
Keluarga kami belajar di rumah selama pandemi.

Both are grammatical and mean essentially the same thing.

Nuance:

Putting selama pandemi at the beginning emphasizes the time frame / background: During the pandemic (as a context), our family studied at home.
Putting selama pandemi at the end sounds more neutral, like you are just adding extra information after stating where the studying happened.

In everyday speech, both orders are common.

What does keluarga kami literally mean? Why not keluarga saya or just keluarga?

Literally:

keluarga = family
kami = we / us (excluding the listener)
→ keluarga kami = our family (“the family that belongs to us”)

Why not keluarga saya?

keluarga saya = my family
This is also correct; it just emphasizes “my” instead of “our”.
Many speakers say keluarga kami to stress that it’s a shared family (for example, between husband and wife speaking together) rather than a purely personal possession.

Why not just keluarga?

keluarga alone often means “(the) family” in a general sense (family as a concept) or “someone’s family” with context.
Adding kami makes it clear we’re talking about our own specific family.

Why is it kami and not kita in keluarga kami?

Indonesian distinguishes two kinds of “we/our”:

kami = we / our excluding the listener
kita = we / our including the listener

Keluarga kami means “our family (but not including you, the person I’m talking to)”.
That’s natural if the listener is, for example, a teacher or a friend, not part of the speaker’s family.

If you said keluarga kita, it would sound like you’re saying “our family, including you” — which only fits if the listener really is part of that same family.

In this sentence, what is the subject and what is the verb?

Breakdown:

Selama pandemi – time expression (“during the pandemic”)
keluarga kami – subject (“our family”)
belajar – verb (“studied / studies / learn”)
di rumah – place expression (“at home”)

So the core clause is:

keluarga kami (subject)
belajar (verb)
di rumah (place/time info, not an object)

Does belajar need an object? Why is it just belajar di rumah and not belajar sesuatu?

Belajar is normally intransitive; it does not require an object.

belajar = to study / to learn (in general)
- Saya belajar. – I study.
If you want to specify what you learn, you just add a noun:
- Saya belajar bahasa Indonesia. – I study Indonesian.

In keluarga kami belajar di rumah, the sentence simply says “our family studied / did their learning at home”.
It doesn’t say what they studied because that information isn’t needed or is obvious from context (e.g., school lessons).

Why is it di rumah and not something like ke rumah or pada rumah?

Indonesian uses different prepositions for different relationships:

di = at / in / on (location, “where?”)
- di rumah – at home
- di sekolah – at school
ke = to / toward (direction, “to where?”)
- ke rumah – to (go to) the house
- ke sekolah – to (go to) school
pada = at / on, but used mostly with abstract or non-physical things
- pada hari Senin – on Monday
- pada kesempatan ini – on this occasion

Here we are talking about location (where the studying happened), so di rumah is correct: “at home”.

Is the comma after pandemi necessary?

In Indonesian, the comma after an initial time or place expression like Selama pandemi is common and recommended, but not absolutely mandatory in casual writing.

Selama pandemi, keluarga kami belajar di rumah. – Standard, clear.
Selama pandemi keluarga kami belajar di rumah. – Still readable, but a bit less clear in writing.

In formal texts and learning materials, you will almost always see the comma.

How do we know this is past tense (“studied”) and not present (“study”)?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense. The verb belajar can mean:

study / are studying (present)
studied / were studying (past)
will study (future)

Tense is usually understood from context or from extra time words:

Dulu, selama pandemi, keluarga kami belajar di rumah.
– In the past, during the pandemic, our family studied at home.
Sekarang, keluarga kami belajar di rumah.
– Now, our family studies at home.

In your sentence, because “the pandemic” (COVID) is generally seen as a finished or past period, English speakers naturally read it as past tense: “During the pandemic, our family studied at home.”