Are the differences between Malay and Indonesian language akin to those of differences between American and British English?

Answer 1

First of all, what do you define as "American English"? There are regional differences in American English. Someone from New York will speak differently than someone from down South, such as Georgia. And there are regional differences in England too. Someone from Yorkshire will speak differently than someone from London.

Bahasa Indonesia or Indonesian is actually based on Malay, which is also known as Bahasa Malaysia There are many regional dialects spoken in Indonesia, all with varying degrees of similarity to Malay. Therefore, to standardize language in Indonesia, the Indonesian government went and "borrowed" the Malay language and this is basically what they teach in classrooms in Indonesia. Essentially, classroom Indonesian is practically identical to Malay.

If you know classroom Indonesian, you should be able to communicate with anyone from any part of Indonesia, even if you don't know their regional dialect.