Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Menjadi dewasa bukan hanya soal umur; kadang orang muda bisa sangat bijak, sedangkan orang tua bisa tetap egois. - Being an adult is not just about age; sometimes young people can be very wise, while older people can still be selfish.

dewasa can be used as an adjective (adult / mature) and as a sort of “state” (adjectival noun).
menjadi dewasa literally means “to become adult / to become mature” as a state, not as a countable person.

If you say:

menjadi seorang dewasa – this sounds like “to become an adult person” (focusing on the role as a person). It’s not wrong, but much less common and a bit awkward here.
menjadi kedewasaan – incorrect. kedewasaan is an abstract noun (adulthood, maturity). You can reach it (mencapai kedewasaan), but not normally become it.

In general, menjadi + adjective is very common and natural:

menjadi kaya – to become rich
menjadi terkenal – to become famous
menjadi tua – to become old

So menjadi dewasa fits that same pattern.

Why is “bukan” used in “bukan hanya soal umur”, not “tidak”?

Indonesian distinguishes bukan and tidak:

bukan negates nouns and noun phrases
tidak negates verbs, adjectives, and whole clauses

In bukan hanya soal umur:

The core phrase is soal umur (a matter of age, a noun phrase).
bukan is therefore the correct negator: bukan soal umur = not a matter of age.

Compare:

Ini bukan masalah besar. – This is not a big problem. (noun: masalah)
Dia tidak dewasa. – He/She is not mature. (adjective: dewasa)

So you say:

bukan hanya soal umur (not just a matter of age)
but you would say:
tidak hanya tua secara umur (not only old in terms of age)

What does “soal” mean in “bukan hanya soal umur”, and how is it different from words like “tentang” or “masalah”?

In this sentence, soal means “a matter of / about / concerning” in a very informal, natural way.

soal umur ≈ a matter of age / about age

Differences:

soal
- Can mean “matter / issue / topic” (noun) or function like “about”.
- Slightly informal, very common in speech.
- Contoh: Soal uang, nanti kita bicarakan lagi. – About money / As for money, we’ll talk again later.
tentang
- A preposition meaning “about / regarding”.
- More neutral/formal and cannot be used exactly the same way here.
- You can say tentang umur (about age), but bukan hanya tentang umur sounds less idiomatic than bukan hanya soal umur.
masalah
- Noun meaning “problem / issue”.
- masalah umur would mean age problem, which is not what we want.

So bukan hanya soal umur is best translated as “it’s not just about age” or “it’s not just a matter of age”.

What is the difference between “kadang” and “kadang-kadang”?

Both mean “sometimes”, and both are correct.

kadang-kadang
- Slightly more emphatic or “full form.”
- Very common in both speech and writing.
kadang
- Shortened, a bit more informal / conversational.
- Extremely common in speech; also acceptable in writing.

In your sentence:

kadang orang muda bisa sangat bijak
= sometimes young people can be very wise

You could also say:

kadang-kadang orang muda bisa sangat bijak

No change in meaning; just a slight stylistic difference.

Why is it “orang muda” and not “anak muda”? Do they mean the same thing?

Both are used, but there are nuances:

orang muda
- Literally “young person/people”.
- Slightly more neutral or formal.
- Can sound a bit “category-like”: the young.
anak muda
- Literally “young kid/person”, but used for youth, young people.
- Very common and feels more colloquial / everyday.

In this sentence, both would make sense:

kadang orang muda bisa sangat bijak
kadang anak muda bisa sangat bijak

The meaning is practically the same: sometimes young people can be very wise.
If you want an even more formal word, there is pemuda (and pemudi, though that’s less used now), but pemuda often suggests “youth” in a slightly official or historical tone.

Why is “bisa” used in “orang muda bisa sangat bijak”? Could we say “orang muda sangat bijak” instead?

bisa means “can / is able to / is capable of”.

orang muda bisa sangat bijak
→ young people can be very wise (it is possible; sometimes they are)

If you say:

orang muda sangat bijak
→ young people are very wise (as a general statement, almost always true)

In context, the sentence is saying this sometimes happens, not that all young people are very wise.
So bisa expresses possibility / potential, which fits the meaning better.

You could also replace bisa with dapat (a bit more formal):

orang muda dapat sangat bijak – also correct, but bisa is more common in speech.

What does “sedangkan” do here, and how is it different from just using “dan” or words like “sementara” or “padahal”?

sedangkan is a conjunction meaning something like “whereas / while (in contrast)”.
It introduces a contrast between two clauses.

kadang orang muda bisa sangat bijak, sedangkan orang tua bisa tetap egois.
→ sometimes young people can be very wise, whereas older people can remain selfish.

If you used dan (and):

…, dan orang tua bisa tetap egois.
→ Just adds another fact; it weakens the contrast.

Comparisons:

sedangkan – shows contrast between two parallel subjects/situations.
- Dia suka bekerja di kantor, sedangkan saya lebih suka bekerja dari rumah.
sementara – can also mean while, often with time or contrast, but slightly more neutral.
- Saya makan, sementara dia menonton TV. – I eat while he watches TV.
padahal – more like “even though / whereas actually”, often implying something surprising or contrary to expectation.
- Dia marah, padahal saya sudah minta maaf. – He is angry, even though I already apologized.

Here, sedangkan is ideal because we’re simply contrasting young people vs old people.

Does “orang tua” here mean “parents” or “old people”? How can you tell?

orang tua is ambiguous in Indonesian:

parents
- Common everyday meaning: orang tua saya = my parents.
old people / older people
- When used generically or contrasted with orang muda, it means older people.

In this sentence:

orang muda is explicitly young people, so orang tua clearly means old(er) people or older adults, not parents.

You’ll also see orangtua written as one word to clearly mean “parents”, but usage is inconsistent. Context is usually enough:

Orang tua bisa tetap egois. (no possessor, paired with orang muda)
→ older people
Orang tua saya marah.
→ my parents are angry

What does “tetap” mean in “bisa tetap egois”, and why is it placed before “egois”?

tetap means “still / remain / keep on being”.

bisa tetap egois
→ can remain selfish / can still be selfish

Word order:

In Indonesian, adverbs like tetap usually go before adjectives/verbs they modify:
- masih muda – still young
- sangat bijak – very wise
- tetap tenang – remain calm

So tetap egois = remain selfish / continue to be selfish.

Contrast with:

masih egois – still selfish (as in: they were selfish before, and they’re still selfish)
tetap egois – remain selfish (despite expectations or opportunities to change)

In this context, it implies “despite their age, they can still remain selfish.”

Why do adjectives appear after the noun, like “orang muda” and “orang tua”, but “sangat bijak” has the adjective after “sangat”?

Indonesian basic patterns:

Noun + Adjective
- The adjective usually comes after the noun:
  - orang muda – young person
  - orang tua – old person
  - rumah besar – big house
Adverb + Adjective
- Intensifiers like sangat, cukup, terlalu come before the adjective:
  - sangat bijak – very wise
  - cukup tua – quite old
  - terlalu egois – too selfish

So in the sentence:

orang muda – noun (orang) + adjective (muda)
orang tua – noun (orang) + adjective (tua)
sangat bijak – adverb (sangat) + adjective (bijak)

All of these follow normal Indonesian word order rules.

What does “egois” mean exactly? Is it rude or neutral? Are there more “Indonesian-sounding” alternatives?

egois means “selfish / self-centered”.
It’s borrowed (via Dutch/French/English) but is fully natural Indonesian now.

Tone:

It’s negative, but not extremely vulgar.
Similar strength to calling someone “selfish” in English.

Alternatives (often a bit softer or more descriptive):

mementingkan diri sendiri – to put one’s own interest first / self-centered
tidak mau mengalah – never wants to give in
kurang peduli pada orang lain – doesn’t really care about others

In this sentence, egois is concise, clear, and natural.