Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Guru fisika kami meminta kami membuat catatan lapangan setelah kunjungan ke planetarium. - Our physics teacher asks us to make field notes after the visit to the planetarium.

Guru fisika kami = our physics teacher (subject)
meminta kami = asked us (verb + object)
membuat catatan lapangan = to make field notes (what we were asked to do)

If you say meminta membuat, there’s no clear object after meminta (no one is being asked), so it sounds incomplete or wrong.

You need:

meminta [who?] [to do what?]
meminta kami membuat catatan lapangan = asked us to make field notes.

So both kami are doing different jobs:

first kami = possessor (our physics teacher)
second kami = object (asked us).

What’s the exact structure of meminta kami membuat catatan lapangan?

Grammatically, it’s:

meminta (verb: to ask / to request)
kami (object: us)
membuat catatan lapangan (another verb phrase: to make field notes)

This is a common pattern:

meminta [someone] [to do something]

Examples:

Ibu meminta saya datang lebih awal.
Mother asked me to come earlier.
Bos meminta mereka menyelesaikan laporan.
The boss asked them to finish the report.

So here:

meminta kami = asked us
membuat catatan lapangan = to make field notes.

Can I add untuk and say meminta kami untuk membuat catatan lapangan? Is that better?

Yes, that’s also correct:

meminta kami membuat catatan lapangan
meminta kami untuk membuat catatan lapangan

Both are grammatical and natural.

Nuance:

Without untuk is slightly more compact and very common in speech and writing.
With untuk can sound a bit more formal or careful, but it’s not a big difference.

So you can safely use either form in most situations.

What’s the difference between meminta and menyuruh in this kind of sentence?

Both can fit in a similar structure, but the nuance is different:

meminta = to ask, to request
→ sounds more polite, like giving an assignment or request.
menyuruh = to tell, to order (someone to do something)
→ sounds more like giving an order or command, stronger than meminta.

Compare:

Guru fisika kami meminta kami membuat catatan lapangan.
Our physics teacher asked us to make field notes. (neutral, polite)
Guru fisika kami menyuruh kami membuat catatan lapangan.
Our physics teacher told/ordered us to make field notes. (more forceful)

For teachers giving homework or assignments, meminta is very typical.

Why is it guru fisika kami and not guru kami fisika?

In Indonesian, the normal order is:

[noun] [specifier / descriptor] [possessor]

Here:

guru = teacher
fisika = physics (describes what kind of teacher)
kami = our (possessor)

So:

guru fisika kami = our physics teacher

If you said guru kami fisika, it would sound strange and ungrammatical.
To change the wording while keeping the meaning, you could say:

Guru kami yang mengajar fisika …
Our teacher who teaches physics …

What exactly does catatan lapangan mean? Does lapangan just mean “field” like a sports field?

Literally, yes:

catatan = notes
lapangan = field (as in a physical field, sports field, open area)

But catatan lapangan is an established term meaning field notes:

notes taken during an observation, experiment, site visit, or fieldwork.

So in this sentence, catatan lapangan is best understood as field notes, not “notes about a sports field.”
It’s commonly used in academic, scientific, or research contexts.

Is catatan singular or plural? How do I know if it means “note” or “notes”?

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark singular vs plural on the noun itself.
Catatan can mean:

a note
notes
a record
records

You understand whether it’s singular or plural from context.

Here, membuat catatan lapangan in a school/science context is naturally understood as to make field notes (plural in English), even though Indonesian doesn’t add anything special to mark the plural.

Why is it kami and not kita? What’s the difference again?

Both kami and kita mean we / us, but:

kami = we (NOT including the person you’re talking to)
kita = we (INCLUDING the person you’re talking to)

In this sentence:

The students (including the speaker) are kami.
The listener (for example, someone else being told the story) is probably not part of that class.

So kami is correct because:

The teacher and that group of students are involved,
but the person you’re talking to is not necessarily included.

If the teacher is speaking directly to the class, the teacher would use kita:

Setelah kunjungan ke planetarium, kita akan membuat catatan lapangan.
After the visit to the planetarium, we (you students + me) will make field notes.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before guru or planetarium?

Indonesian has no articles like a, an, the.
The definiteness is understood from context.

Guru fisika kami clearly means our physics teacher → it’s specific because of kami.
planetarium here is also specific from context: it’s the planetarium the class visited.

If you really want to make something clearly specific, you might add a word like itu (that), but it’s not needed here:

kunjungan ke planetarium itu = visit to that/the planetarium.

Why is it setelah kunjungan ke planetarium, not something like setelah kami mengunjungi planetarium? Are both correct?

Both are correct, but the structure is different:

setelah kunjungan ke planetarium
- kunjungan = visit (noun)
- literally: after the visit to the planetarium
  → noun phrase
setelah kami mengunjungi planetarium
- mengunjungi = to visit (verb)
- literally: after we visited the planetarium
  → full clause

They mean almost the same thing. The original sentence chooses the noun form kunjungan to keep it compact and slightly more formal.

What is the difference between setelah and sesudah? Could I say sesudah kunjungan ke planetarium?

Yes, you can say:

setelah kunjungan ke planetarium
sesudah kunjungan ke planetarium

Both mean after the visit to the planetarium.

Differences:

setelah is a bit more common in modern usage and in writing.
sesudah is also correct and widely used; some people feel it’s a little more formal or traditional, but in everyday speech they’re almost interchangeable.

Why is it ke planetarium and not di planetarium?

ke = to (movement towards a place)
di = at / in (location, no movement)

Here we talk about a visit to the planetarium, so it involves going there:

kunjungan ke planetarium = a visit to the planetarium.

If you want to express location only (no movement), you use di:

Kami belajar di planetarium.
We studied at the planetarium.

How are meminta, membuat, and kunjungan formed? They look related to other words.

Yes, they’re from common roots and affixes:

meminta
- root: minta = to ask/request
- meN-
  - minta → meminta (standard verb form)
membuat
- root: buat = to make
- meN-
  - buat → membuat = to make
kunjungan
- related verb: mengunjungi = to visit
- kunjung (root idea: visit) + -an → kunjungan = a visit (noun)

So:

mengunjungi planetarium = to visit the planetarium (verb)
kunjungan ke planetarium = a visit to the planetarium (noun phrase)