Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya ingin hidup seimbang antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga. - I want a balanced life between work and time with family.

ingin
- Slightly more formal and neutral.
- Common in writing, speeches, and polite conversation.
- Sounds a bit more thoughtful or aspirational.
- Fits well with ideas like life goals, dreams, and ideals.
mau
- More colloquial and casual.
- Extremely common in everyday speech.
- Used a lot for immediate wants: Saya mau makan (I want to eat).

In this sentence, Saya ingin hidup seimbang... sounds like a life aspiration, so ingin feels very natural.

You can say Saya mau hidup seimbang antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga, and it is grammatically correct. It just sounds slightly more casual.

Why is hidup used here and not kehidupan? What is the difference?

Both relate to life, but they are used differently:

hidup
- Can be a verb: to live
  - Saya ingin hidup di desa. = I want to live in the village.
- Can also function as a noun-like concept: life, way of living
  - hidup sehat, hidup sederhana, hidup seimbang.
kehidupan
- Clearly a noun: life / lifestyle / existence.
- Often sounds a bit more abstract or formal.
- Examples:
  - kehidupan sehari-hari = daily life
  - kehidupan keluarga = family life
  - kehidupan di kota besar = life in big cities

In Saya ingin hidup seimbang..., hidup seimbang is like saying “to live in a balanced way” or “to have a balanced life”. You could also say:

Saya menginginkan kehidupan yang seimbang antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga.

This is more formal and heavier. The original sentence with hidup seimbang is more natural and conversational.

What exactly is seimbang? Is it an adjective, and where does it go in the sentence?

Seimbang is an adjective meaning balanced.

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe:

hidup seimbang = a balanced life
makanan sehat = healthy food
kota besar = big city

So in the sentence:

hidup = life / living
seimbang = balanced

Together, hidup seimbang means “to live in a balanced way” or “a balanced life.”

Why is it antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga? What does antara do?

antara means “between”. It’s used to show balance, choice, or comparison between two (or more) things.

Structure:
antara X dan Y = between X and Y

In this sentence:

antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga
= between work and time with (my) family

Other examples:

Saya harus memilih antara tinggal di sini dan pindah ke luar negeri.
I have to choose between staying here and moving abroad.
Dia membagi waktunya antara kuliah dan bekerja.
He/she divides his/her time between studying and working.

So antara is necessary here to express the balance between two areas of life.

Why is it kerja and not bekerja or pekerjaan? What’s the difference?

All three are related but not identical:

kerja
- Can be a noun: work, job
- Can also be used colloquially as a verb: to work
- Here it functions as a noun: work (as an area of life).
bekerja
- A clear verb: to work
- Example: Saya bekerja di bank. = I work at a bank.
pekerjaan
- A noun: job, occupation, task
- More specific than kerja
- Examples:
  - pekerjaan saya = my job (profession)
  - pekerjaan rumah = homework / housework

In antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga, we’re talking about work as a general life domain, so kerja is natural. You could say antara pekerjaan dan waktu bersama keluarga, but that leans more toward “between my job and time with family” and can sound slightly more formal or specific.

What does waktu bersama keluarga literally mean, and why isn’t it waktu dengan keluarga?

Literally, waktu bersama keluarga is:

waktu = time
bersama = together (with)
keluarga = family

So: time together with (my) family.

About bersama vs dengan:

bersama
- Emphasizes togetherness.
- Often feels warmer or more emotional.
- Saya ingin menghabiskan waktu bersama keluarga.
  I want to spend time together with my family.
dengan
- Literally with, more neutral.
- Saya tinggal dengan keluarga saya.
  I live with my family.

You can say waktu dengan keluarga, and it’s correct, but waktu bersama keluarga highlights the shared, quality time aspect more clearly, which fits the idea of a balanced life.

Why is the order waktu bersama keluarga, not bersama keluarga waktu?

Indonesian usually puts descriptions and modifiers after the noun they describe.

Here:

Head noun: waktu (time)
Modifier phrase: bersama keluarga (together with family)

So the pattern is:

waktu bersama keluarga = time (spent) together with family

If you said bersama keluarga waktu, a native speaker would find it ungrammatical or very odd. It breaks the normal order: [noun] + [adjective/phrase].

Can I drop Saya and just say Ingin hidup seimbang antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga?

Yes, in many contexts you can omit the subject pronoun in Indonesian if it’s clear from context.

Saya ingin hidup seimbang...
Ingin hidup seimbang...

Both are grammatically fine.

However:

Using Saya is clearer when:
- The subject might be ambiguous.
- You want to explicitly say I (for emphasis or clarity).
Dropping Saya:
- Very common in casual speech and writing.
- Feels a bit more like a general statement about your own wish, especially if it’s already obvious that you’re talking about yourself.

In isolation (just the sentence by itself), Saya makes it completely clear that the subject is I.

What level of formality does this sentence have? How would it change in casual speech?

Saya ingin hidup seimbang antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga. is:

Polite
Neutral
Suitable for:
- Talking to colleagues
- Writing (social media, essays, etc.)
- Semi-formal conversation

In more casual speech, people might say:

Aku pengin hidup seimbang antara kerja dan waktu sama keluarga.
- Aku instead of Saya (more informal “I”)
- pengin (or pengen) instead of ingin (slangy “want”)
- sama instead of bersama (colloquial “with”)

So you can adjust Saya → Aku, ingin → mau / pengin, bersama → sama depending on how informal you want to sound.

Could I instead say Saya ingin menyeimbangkan kerja dan keluarga? How is that different?

Yes, that’s a good alternative, but the nuance changes slightly.

Saya ingin hidup seimbang antara kerja dan waktu bersama keluarga.
- Focus on your way of living being balanced.
- Emphasizes the state: a balanced life.
Saya ingin menyeimbangkan kerja dan keluarga.
- menyeimbangkan = to balance (verb, transitive)
- Focus on the action of balancing those two areas.
- More like: “I want to balance work and family.”

Both are natural. The original sentence sounds a bit more like talking about your overall lifestyle goal; the alternative highlights the effort to balance those two parts.

How do we know the tense here? Why does it mean “I want to live...” and not “I wanted to live...” or “I will want to live...” ?

Indonesian does not mark tense with verb changes like English does. The verb ingin stays the same for past, present, and future. The time is understood from context or from time words.

This sentence by itself is time-neutral:

Saya ingin hidup seimbang...
Could mean:
- I want to live a balanced life...
- I wanted to live a balanced life...
- I will want to live a balanced life...

In real usage, context usually makes it clear, or you add time markers:

Dulu saya ingin hidup seimbang...
In the past, I wanted to live a balanced life...
Sekarang saya ingin hidup seimbang...
Now I want to live a balanced life...
Nanti saya ingin hidup seimbang...
Later I want to live a balanced life...

So in a typical learning example, it’s understood as present: “I want to live a balanced life...”.

In English we say “a balanced life”, but there’s no a in hidup seimbang. Is anything missing in Indonesian?

Nothing is missing; Indonesian simply does not use articles like “a” or “the.”

hidup seimbang can be understood as:
- a balanced life
- the balanced life
- just balanced life (in general)

Indonesian relies on context instead of articles. If you really needed to specify one or a, you might add a word like sebuah, but here it would sound unnatural. Hidup seimbang is already the natural way to express “a balanced life” in Indonesian.