Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pengasuh di rumah tetangga saya sangat sabar ketika menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri. - The caregiver at my neighbor’s house is very patient when accompanying the children to learn to eat by themselves.

pengasuh
- Focus: caretaker role and emotional/physical care
- Can be a nanny, babysitter, caregiver in an orphanage, etc.
baby sitter (often borrowed as babysitter in Indonesian speech)
- Sounds more temporary, part-time, casual
pembantu / asisten rumah tangga
- Housemaid / domestic helper
- Main focus is on housework; they may also look after children, but the caring role is not the core meaning of the word

So pengasuh here emphasizes the caregiving role for the children, not just doing house chores.

What does “di rumah tetangga saya” modify? Is it “pengasuh” or the verb (sangat sabar / menemani)?

By default, di rumah tetangga saya is understood to modify pengasuh:

pengasuh di rumah tetangga saya
→ the caregiver who is at my neighbor’s house / my neighbor’s caregiver

If the speaker wanted to emphasize that the action happens at the neighbor’s house, they would usually make it clearer, for example:

Pengasuh saya sangat sabar ketika menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri di rumah tetangga saya.
→ My caregiver is very patient when accompanying the children to learn to eat by themselves at my neighbor’s house.

So in your sentence, the natural reading is:

The nanny who works at my neighbor’s house is very patient…

Why is there no “yang” after pengasuh? Could I say “Pengasuh yang di rumah tetangga saya …”?

You could say Pengasuh yang di rumah tetangga saya …, but it sounds a bit awkward or overly specific, as if there were several caregivers and you’re picking out the one who is at my neighbor’s house.

Compare:

Pengasuh di rumah tetangga saya sangat sabar.
→ Natural, like everyday speech: The caregiver at my neighbor’s house is very patient.
Pengasuh yang di rumah tetangga saya sangat sabar.
→ Sounds like you’re contrasting: → The caregiver who is (the one) at my neighbor’s house is very patient (as opposed to another one somewhere else).

In Indonesian, when a prepositional phrase (di rumah tetangga saya, di sekolah, di kantor) directly follows a noun, it very often works smoothly as a modifier without needing yang.

Why is “anak-anak” repeated like that? Does it always mean plural? Could I just say “anak”?

The repetition in anak-anak is called reduplication, and here it marks plural:

anak = child (could be “a child” or “children” depending on context)
anak-anak = clearly “children”

In this sentence:

anak-anak = the children (more than one)

You could say anak and it would still probably be understood as plural, because kids learning to eat by themselves is typically a group situation. But:

anak-anak = makes the plural meaning explicit and is very natural.
anak alone would be more neutral and could be read as singular in some contexts.

Other ways to mark plural:

para anak → grammatically fine, but para sounds a bit more formal/literary and is more natural with certain nouns (para guru, para tamu). Para anak is possible but less common than anak-anak.

What is the function of “ketika” here? Can I replace it with “saat” or “waktu”?

Ketika is a conjunction meaning “when” (for a point or period in time).

… sangat sabar ketika menemani anak-anak …
→ … is very patient when accompanying the children …

You can replace ketika with:

saat
→ Very common in both spoken and written Indonesian.
→ Pengasuh … sangat sabar saat menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri.
waktu
→ More colloquial / casual; often used in spoken language.
→ Pengasuh … sangat sabar waktu menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri.

Subtle nuances:

ketika: neutral, standard written and spoken Indonesian.
saat: also neutral, maybe slightly more formal/modern-sounding.
waktu: more conversational/informal in this usage.

All three are acceptable here.

Why is there no subject like “dia” before “menemani”? Who is the subject of “menemani”?

In Indonesian, if the subject is obvious from context, you can drop it.

The understood subject of menemani here is pengasuh:

Pengasuh … sangat sabar ketika (dia) menemani anak-anak … → The caregiver … is very patient when (she/he) accompanies the children …

Because pengasuh is the subject of the main clause (sangat sabar), and nothing else could reasonably be the subject of menemani, Indonesians naturally omit dia.

If you add dia, it’s grammatically okay but usually unnecessary:

Pengasuh di rumah tetangga saya sangat sabar ketika dia menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri.

Omitting repeated subjects like this is very common in Indonesian.

What does “menemani” mean exactly, and how is it used grammatically here?

Menemani comes from the root teman (friend) and means:

to accompany, to keep someone company

It is a transitive verb, so it takes a direct object:

menemani anak-anak → accompany the children

In the sentence:

ketika menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri
- menemani = verb
- anak-anak = its object
- belajar makan sendiri = what the children are doing (a verb phrase attached to anak-anak)

You can think of it as:

when (she) accompanies the children (who are) learning to eat by themselves

How does “belajar makan sendiri” work? Why no “untuk” (belajar untuk makan sendiri)?

Belajar means to learn, followed by what someone is learning:

belajar + [verb] = learn to [do something]

So:

belajar makan sendiri
→ learn to eat by themselves

Adding untuk is not needed and would sound less natural in everyday Indonesian:

belajar untuk makan sendiri
→ Grammatically possible, but feels heavier/more formal and is less common in simple sentences like this.

Common patterns:

belajar membaca → learn to read
belajar berenang → learn to swim
belajar memasak → learn to cook

So the pattern belajar + verb (without untuk) is the standard way to say “learn to [verb]”.

What is the role of “sendiri” here? Does it mean “by themselves” or “self”?

Sendiri can mean:

alone, by oneself / by themselves
or emphasize self (reflexive), like “himself”, “herself”

In makan sendiri, it means “eat by themselves”:

makan = eat
sendiri = on their own, without help

So:

belajar makan sendiri = learn to eat by themselves (i.e., not being fed by adults).

You might also see:

makan sendiri-sendiri
→ Each person eats separately, not together / not sharing.
→ Different nuance: focus on separation between people, not independence from help.

Is the word order “sangat sabar” fixed? Could I say “sabar sekali” or “sabar banget” instead?

The word order sangat sabar (very patient) is normal:

sangat (very) comes before adjectives.

You have several common options with slightly different tones:

sangat sabar
- Neutral, standard, works in spoken and written Indonesian.
sabar sekali
- Also neutral and natural, maybe slightly more casual/conversational than sangat sabar.
- Pengasuh … sabar sekali ketika menemani anak-anak …
sabar banget
- Very informal / colloquial, often used in casual speech or writing (chats, social media).
- banget is like really / so / very.
- Pengasuh … sabar banget kalau menemani anak-anak …

All three can express the same idea; the difference is mostly formality level.

Could I put “sangat” after “sabar”, like “sabar sangat”?

No. Sabar sangat is not natural Indonesian.

For “very patient”, you normally say either:

sangat sabar (adverb before adjective), or
sabar sekali, sabar banget, etc. (intensifier after adjective)

So:

✔ Pengasuh … sangat sabar …
✔ Pengasuh … sabar sekali …
✖ Pengasuh … sabar sangat … (unnatural)

Can I move parts of the sentence around, like putting “ketika …” at the beginning?

Yes, Indonesian word order is relatively flexible as long as the relationships are clear. For example:

Original:
- Pengasuh di rumah tetangga saya sangat sabar ketika menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri.
Time clause first:
- Ketika menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri, pengasuh di rumah tetangga saya sangat sabar.

Both are correct. The second version puts more emphasis on the situation (when she’s accompanying the kids), but the meaning is basically the same.

What you generally can’t do is split closely related parts in a confusing way, e.g.:

✖ Pengasuh sangat sabar di rumah tetangga saya ketika menemani anak-anak belajar makan sendiri.
→ This could be misread as “The caregiver is very patient at my neighbor’s house when…” and sounds clumsy.

Keeping pengasuh di rumah tetangga saya together as one unit is clearer.