Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saking sibuknya dengan proyek sampingan, dia hampir lupa menghubungi keluarganya di desa. - Because she/he was so busy with the side project, she/he almost forgot to contact her/his family in the village.

Saking sibuknya dengan proyek sampingan, dia hampir lupa menghubungi keluarganya di desa.
= He/She was so busy with the side project that he/she almost forgot to contact his/her family in the village.

saking = “so (… to such an extent)”
sibuknya = “his/her/its busy-ness” → here it functions as “being so busy”
Pattern: saking + adjective + -nya, (result)

More examples:

Saking capeknya, dia ketiduran di bus.
= He was so tired that he fell asleep on the bus.
Saking marahnya, dia sampai nangis.
= She was so angry that she ended up crying.

It tends to sound a bit expressive or dramatic, often used in storytelling or emphasis.

Why is it sibuknya and not just sibuk? What does the -nya do here?

Here -nya is not a possessive (“his/her”) like in keluarganya. On sibuk, it serves mainly to:

Nominalize / intensify the adjective
- sibuk = busy (adjective)
- sibuknya = the state/degree of being busy → “how extremely busy (he/she was)”
Make it fit the fixed expression:
- The pattern is saking + adjective + -nya, not saking sibuk.
- You’ll almost always see: saking capeknya, saking senangnya, saking panasnya, etc.

Compare:

Dia sangat sibuk. = He/She is very busy.
Saking sibuknya, dia sampai sakit. = He/She was so busy that he/she even got sick.

So in this structure, -nya is required by the pattern and adds that sense of “the extent of (being) X”.

Is saking sibuknya the same as karena sangat sibuk or terlalu sibuk?

They are related but not identical in nuance:

Karena sangat sibuk, …
= Because (he/she was) very busy, …
→ More neutral, just explains the cause.
Terlalu sibuk, …
= (He/She was) too busy, …
→ Suggests excessiveness, maybe a bit of criticism.
Saking sibuknya, …
= So busy (to such an extent) that …
→ Emphasizes the extreme degree and its result. → More expressive / narrative, often with some emotional or dramatic color.

In many contexts you could replace saking sibuknya with karena sangat sibuk, but you’d lose some of the dramatic “to such an extent that…” feeling.

What exactly does dengan proyek sampingan mean here? Why dengan and not something like karena?

Dengan here means “with”, and the phrase sibuk dengan X is a very common collocation:

sibuk dengan proyek sampingan = busy with a side project
Other examples:
- sibuk dengan pekerjaan = busy with work
- sibuk dengan urusan keluarga = busy with family matters

If you used karena, the meaning would change slightly:

Karena proyek sampingan, dia hampir lupa …
= Because of the side project, he/she almost forgot …

So:

sibuk dengan proyek sampingan → describes what he/she is busy with.
karena proyek sampingan → makes the project the cause.

Both are grammatical, but the original emphasizes the state of being busy with something, which fits well with saking sibuknya.

What does proyek sampingan mean exactly? Is it like a “side job” or just a hobby project?

Proyek sampingan literally means “side project”:

proyek = project
sampingan = side, secondary, done on the side

It can be:

A side job / side gig that earns money, or
A non‑main project, maybe more hobby-like, depending on context.

Some related terms:

kerjaan sampingan / pekerjaan sampingan = side job (emphasizes it as work)
bisnis sampingan = side business

In many real-life contexts, proyek sampingan often implies a secondary work or money‑making activity, but it can also be a personal side project if the context points that way.

How does hampir work in dia hampir lupa? Can its position change?

Hampir means “almost” and it normally comes before the verb or adjective it modifies.

In this sentence:

dia hampir lupa = he/she almost forgot

Position:

✅ dia hampir lupa menghubungi … (natural)
✅ hampir lupa, dia … (if you drop the subject or in a restructured sentence)
❌ dia lupa hampir menghubungi … (this is unnatural/wrong in standard usage)

Other examples:

Saya hampir jatuh. = I almost fell.
Kami hampir telat. = We were almost late.

So: place hampir before the main verb/adjective describing what nearly happened.

What’s the difference between menghubungi and other verbs like menghubung, hubungi, or mengontak?

menghubungi
- Root: hubung (connection/link)
- Meaning: to contact / to get in touch with (someone)
- This is the standard, correct verb form.
hubungi
- Imperative form: “contact (someone)!”
- e.g. Silakan hubungi saya. = Please contact me.
menghubung
- Not used. This form is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.
mengontak / menghubungi
- mengontak comes from English “contact”; informal but widely used.
- menghubungi is more neutral/standard, used in both spoken and written Indonesian.

So in your sentence, menghubungi is the natural standard choice for “to contact” one’s family.

Does keluarganya mean “his family” or “her family”? How do we know whose family it is?

Keluarganya literally is “his/her family”:

keluarga = family
-nya = his/her/its/their (depending on context)

In this sentence:

dia = he or she (gender is not specified in Indonesian)
keluarganya = his/her family

Because -nya usually refers back to the nearest logical preceding noun/pronoun, here it naturally refers to dia.

Indonesian doesn’t mark gender in dia or -nya, so:

keluarganya = his family / her family → decided only by context, not grammar.

Why is it keluarganya di desa and not just keluarga di desa? What nuance does -nya add here?

The -nya in keluarganya makes it specific and possessed:

keluarga di desa
= (some) families in the village / a family in the village (very general)
keluarganya di desa
= his/her family in the village

So:

-nya tells you it’s someone’s particular family, not just “families in the village” in general.
It anchors the noun to dia, so we know this is the subject’s own family.

The phrase keluarganya di desa also often carries a cultural nuance of “family back in the (home) village”, contrasting the subject’s current busyness (often in a city).

What does di desa imply? Is it “in the village” in general or a specific village?

Literally, di desa = “in the village”.

Without any additional word (like itu, nama desa, etc.), desa can be:

A specific village already known from context:
- “his/her home village” the speaker/listener already knows about.
Or generically “in the countryside / in a village”, contrasting with the city.

Given typical Indonesian context, keluarganya di desa is often understood as:

“his/her family back in the village (home village / rural hometown)”
Even if the exact village name is not mentioned, both speaker and listener are assumed to know which village is meant (from previous context).

Can we start the sentence with dia instead of saking sibuknya? For example: Dia saking sibuknya dengan proyek sampingan, hampir lupa …?

Putting dia first like that is not natural with this structure. The pattern saking … nya, (result) usually comes:

At the beginning, as a cause clause:
- Saking sibuknya dengan proyek sampingan, dia hampir lupa … ✅
Or in the middle/after, but still as a unit:
- Dia, saking sibuknya dengan proyek sampingan, hampir lupa …
  → Possible, but more written/literary and a bit heavy.

Starting with Dia saking sibuknya … (no comma, no pause) is not how Indonesians normally structure this expression.

Natural alternatives:

Karena terlalu sibuk dengan proyek sampingan, dia hampir lupa …
Dia terlalu sibuk dengan proyek sampingan sampai hampir lupa …

What is the level of formality of this sentence? Would people actually say this in conversation?

The sentence is neutral and natural; it works well in:

Spoken Indonesian, in a polite but casual context.
Written Indonesian: blogs, stories, everyday articles.

It is:

Not very formal (like legal or bureaucratic language).
Not very slangy either.

In more casual speech, people might say variants like:

Saking sibuknya sama proyek sampingannya, dia hampir lupa ngubungin keluarganya di desa.
- sama instead of dengan
- ngubungin instead of menghubungi

But your original sentence is perfectly idiomatic and widely usable.