Menurut awak feri, anak-anak harus duduk dekat orang tua mereka selama kapal bergerak.

Menurut means according to.

So Menurut awak feri means According to the ferry crew.

It often comes at the start of a sentence to show whose opinion, rule, or statement is being reported. Indonesian commonly puts this kind of phrase first:

• Menurut saya, ... = According to me / In my opinion, ...
• Menurut dokter, ... = According to the doctor, ...

So the sentence structure is:

• Menurut awak feri = according to the ferry crew
• anak-anak harus... = children must...

Awak means crew in Indonesian, especially the staff operating a vehicle or vessel.

So:

• awak feri = ferry crew
• awak kapal = ship crew
• awak pesawat = aircrew / flight crew

A native English speaker may expect crew members one by one, but in Indonesian awak can refer to the crew collectively.

The repetition is called reduplication, and in this case it marks plurality.

• anak = child
• anak-anak = children

This is very common in Indonesian:

• buku = book
• buku-buku = books

That said, Indonesian does not always have to mark plural explicitly if the meaning is already clear from context. But here anak-anak clearly emphasizes that we are talking about children in general, not one child.

Usually yes, in normal learning contexts it is understood as children.

However, in real Indonesian, reduplication can sometimes suggest a general category rather than a strict counted plural. For learners, though, the safest understanding is:

• anak = child
• anak-anak = children

Yes, literally orang tua is made of:

• orang = person
• tua = old

But as a fixed expression, orang tua commonly means parents.

So in this sentence:

• orang tua mereka = their parents

Context is very important, because orang tua can also mean elderly person / old people in some situations. Here, because the sentence is about children sitting near them, parents is the natural meaning.

In Indonesian, possessors usually come after the noun.

So:

• orang tua mereka = their parents
• rumah saya = my house
• nama Anda = your name

This is a very common Indonesian pattern:

noun + possessor

So orang tua mereka is the normal way to say their parents.

Yes, in some contexts you could say:

• orang tua mereka = their parents
• orang tuanya = their parent(s)

But there is a nuance.

Mereka clearly means their and explicitly refers back to the children.
-nya is more flexible and can mean his/her/their, depending on context.

So orang tua mereka is a bit clearer for learners and in formal statements.

Indonesian does not have articles like English a, an, and the.

So:

• kapal can mean ship, a ship, or the ship
• anak-anak can mean children or the children

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English may naturally translate kapal as the ferry / the boat / the vessel, but Indonesian does not need a separate word for the.

Harus usually expresses obligation: must / have to / should, depending on context.

Its strength can vary:

• in a rule or instruction, it often feels like must
• in softer advice, it may be translated as should

In this sentence, because it sounds like a safety instruction from the ferry crew, harus is quite strong, closer to must or have to.

Both are possible, but they are slightly different in feel.

• duduk dekat orang tua mereka = sit near their parents
• duduk di dekat orang tua mereka = sit in a place near their parents

Dekat can function like near / close to.
Adding di makes the location phrase more explicit.

In everyday Indonesian, especially after a verb like duduk, leaving out di is very natural.

It means while the ship/ferry is moving.

Breakdown:

• selama = during / while / for
• kapal = ship / boat / vessel
• bergerak = move / be moving

So:

• selama kapal bergerak = while the vessel is moving

This whole phrase tells you when the children must sit near their parents.

Both are possible, but they are used a little differently.

• kapal bergerak = the ship moves / is moving
• kapal sedang bergerak = the ship is in the process of moving right now

In a general rule or instruction, Indonesian often does not need sedang.
So selama kapal bergerak works well for while the ferry is moving in a general sense.

If you said selama kapal sedang bergerak, it would still be understandable, but it sounds a bit more specifically focused on the ongoing action.

Because kapal is a broader word meaning ship / boat / vessel, and Indonesian often avoids unnecessary repetition by switching to a more general word when the meaning is already clear.

Here:

• awak feri identifies the setting as a ferry
• kapal bergerak then refers to that vessel

So the meaning is still clearly about the ferry.

The core sentence is:

• anak-anak harus duduk dekat orang tua mereka selama kapal bergerak
• Children must sit near their parents while the ship is moving

And before that, Indonesian adds:

• Menurut awak feri
• According to the ferry crew

So the full structure is roughly:

According to X, subject + must + verb + place/relationship + time clause

More specifically:

• Menurut awak feri = according to the ferry crew
• anak-anak = children
• harus duduk = must sit
• dekat orang tua mereka = near their parents
• selama kapal bergerak = while the vessel is moving

In some situations, orang tua can refer more generally to elders or older people, but in this sentence parents is the most natural reading.

Because the subject is anak-anak (children), the phrase dekat orang tua mereka strongly suggests near their parents.

So although Indonesian expressions can be context-dependent, learners should understand it here as their parents.

It sounds fairly neutral to formal, like something you might see in an announcement, rule, or safety notice.

Reasons:

• Menurut awak feri sounds like a reported instruction or policy
• harus gives it a rule-like tone
• the vocabulary is standard and clear

A more casual spoken version might be shorter or use different wording, but this sentence is perfectly normal standard Indonesian.

Yes. This can be confusing.

In Indonesian, awak usually means crew.
In some varieties of Malay, awak can mean you or have other uses.

So in this Indonesian sentence, awak feri definitely means ferry crew, not you ferry or anything like that.

This is a good reminder that Indonesian and Malay are closely related but not identical.

Yes. Some alternatives are:

• Menurut awak feri, anak-anak harus duduk di dekat orang tua mereka selama kapal bergerak.
• Awak feri mengatakan bahwa anak-anak harus duduk dekat orang tua mereka selama kapal bergerak.
• Selama kapal bergerak, anak-anak harus duduk dekat orang tua mereka.

These all keep basically the same meaning, but the focus and style change slightly.

For example:

• starting with Selama kapal bergerak emphasizes the time condition
• adding mengatakan bahwa makes the reporting more explicit
• using di dekat sounds a little more spatially explicit than just dekat