"Salam."

Translation: Greetings.

[duolingotfek]

Honestly, when meeting someone, nobody will use 'Salam'.

When meeting someone, just stick with "Apa kabar".

[Angela927992]

Salam is a common way to sign off a letter etc. I would translate it as "regards"

[Flannery65]

This feels Islamic. Is it common in general Indonesian?

[joeHF]

Yes, it's from Islamic Arabic. There's a bunch of Bahasa phrases that came by that route - including the more complete Asalamualaikum, the reply Walaikumsalam, and Inshallah (god willing). (not sure on the spellings here)

I guess being something like 80% Muslim-majority, it's not really surprising some Islamic phrases get adopted into the general language. English has done the same with a bunch of Christianity-derived phrases - things like "Bless you" as the response to a sneeze.

Just like the "bless you" case, the use in Bahasa seems to have diverged a bit from the the strict Islamic interpretation, and can be used by non-Muslims.

Especially for "inshallah", it's diverged quite a bit, and has become almost a way to politely dismiss an obligation:

"Will you come back (next week, etc)?"
"Inshallah"

Literally meaning- "if god wills"
But more colloquially; it's more of a "I might, but won't make a commitment to it" - or even "probably not"

[1CN5ijzC]

it's neutral, but it's rarely used (or at least for me)

[Bev425285]

So its like ada halangan when you missed being somewhere?

[Indo-Nihon]

DID SOMEONE SAY ISLAMIC

[Jun-Dai]

What's the difference between greetings and hello? Why doesn't it accept both?

[Dogidork]

no one uses salam for greetings... even most muslim in Indonesia never uses it. I never heard anyone using that, it's usually just assalamualaikum.

[caesar_solid]

welcome should be accepted here imo

[Roundtheworld159]

Why are the two options both "salam"?