About MalayMondays

Hai!

MalayMondays began as a simple invitation: speak Malay on Mondays. What started as a small Instagram community has grown into a platform for connection — celebrating the beauty of colloquial Malay through stories, conversations, and now, physical installations. We believe that language lives not in textbooks, but in the voices of our elders and the curiosity of our youth. Welcome to MalayMondays.

Founder’s Message

Dear readers,

Thank you for following this journey and efforts into understanding the current landscape of Malay language in Singapore. This movement was catapulted from my research thesis: The Malay Language as a Negotiated Identity, prompting the question: How can we design to empower individuals as active custodians of the Malay language within the community?

My fieldwork revealed the glaringly painful truth about the severed communication between the younger generation and the elder generation, beyond just generational differences––they no longer share a common linguistic ground. This is not just a matter of slang or trends; it is a fracture. When our grandparents speak, and our children cannot fully understand, we lose far more than vocabulary. We lose connection. This is a problem I knew I had to tackle. Ancestral knowledge—the wisdom, the recipes, the stories, the adat—doesn't live in books. It lives in conversations with our Knowledge Keepers, the last of our native Malay speakers in Singapore. I want to inspire you to always be a Knowledge Seeker. To sit, to listen, and to ask questions while we still can.

A lesson from the past:

One case study that haunts me is the near-extinction of Jawi in Singapore. During my fieldwork, when I presented quotes from old Jawi texts to our community members, they were genuinely surprised to discover the heights our ancestors had reached, the sophistication of their thought, and the depth of their records. Why? Because Jawi is no longer a medium of communication. We have lost the key to a treasure chest we didn't even know we owned.

If we do not know our own history, we cannot protect it. And if we are not the ones writing our own story, someone else will.

MalayMondays is my small attempt to bridge that gap. It is a space to re-learn, to re-connect, and to reclaim the language that connects us to our past and guides our future.

Yang Ikhlas,

Masturah Maidin

Founder, MalayMondays

say “hai!”

About MalayMondays

Hai!

MalayMondays began as a simple invitation: speak Malay on Mondays. What started as a small Instagram community has grown into a platform for connection — celebrating the beauty of colloquial Malay through stories, conversations, and now, physical installations. We believe that language lives not in textbooks, but in the voices of our elders and the curiosity of our youth. Welcome to MalayMondays.

Founder’s Message

Dear readers,

Thank you for following this journey and efforts into understanding the current landscape of Malay language in Singapore. This movement was catapulted from my research thesis: The Malay Language as a Negotiated Identity, prompting the question: How can we design to empower individuals as active custodians of the Malay language within the community?

My fieldwork revealed the glaringly painful truth about the severed communication between the younger generation and the elder generation, beyond just generational differences––they no longer share a common linguistic ground. This is not just a matter of slang or trends; it is a fracture. When our grandparents speak, and our children cannot fully understand, we lose far more than vocabulary. We lose connection. This is a problem I knew I had to tackle. Ancestral knowledge—the wisdom, the recipes, the stories, the adat—doesn't live in books. It lives in conversations with our Knowledge Keepers, the last of our native Malay speakers in Singapore. I want to inspire you to always be a Knowledge Seeker. To sit, to listen, and to ask questions while we still can.

A lesson from the past:

One case study that haunts me is the near-extinction of Jawi in Singapore. During my fieldwork, when I presented quotes from old Jawi texts to our community members, they were genuinely surprised to discover the heights our ancestors had reached, the sophistication of their thought, and the depth of their records. Why? Because Jawi is no longer a medium of communication. We have lost the key to a treasure chest we didn't even know we owned.

If we do not know our own history, we cannot protect it. And if we are not the ones writing our own story, someone else will.

MalayMondays is my small attempt to bridge that gap. It is a space to re-learn, to re-connect, and to reclaim the language that connects us to our past and guides our future.

Yang Ikhlas,

Masturah Maidin

Founder, MalayMondays

say “hai!”

About MalayMondays

Hai!

MalayMondays began as a simple invitation: speak Malay on Mondays. What started as a small Instagram community has grown into a platform for connection — celebrating the beauty of colloquial Malay through stories, conversations, and now, physical installations. We believe that language lives not in textbooks, but in the voices of our elders and the curiosity of our youth. Welcome to MalayMondays.

Founder’s Message

Dear readers,

Thank you for following this journey and efforts into understanding the current landscape of Malay language in Singapore. This movement was catapulted from my research thesis: The Malay Language as a Negotiated Identity, prompting the question: How can we design to empower individuals as active custodians of the Malay language within the community?

My fieldwork revealed the glaringly painful truth about the severed communication between the younger generation and the elder generation, beyond just generational differences––they no longer share a common linguistic ground. This is not just a matter of slang or trends; it is a fracture. When our grandparents speak, and our children cannot fully understand, we lose far more than vocabulary. We lose connection. This is a problem I knew I had to tackle. Ancestral knowledge—the wisdom, the recipes, the stories, the adat—doesn't live in books. It lives in conversations with our Knowledge Keepers, the last of our native Malay speakers in Singapore. I want to inspire you to always be a Knowledge Seeker. To sit, to listen, and to ask questions while we still can.

A lesson from the past:

One case study that haunts me is the near-extinction of Jawi in Singapore. During my fieldwork, when I presented quotes from old Jawi texts to our community members, they were genuinely surprised to discover the heights our ancestors had reached, the sophistication of their thought, and the depth of their records. Why? Because Jawi is no longer a medium of communication. We have lost the key to a treasure chest we didn't even know we owned.

If we do not know our own history, we cannot protect it. And if we are not the ones writing our own story, someone else will.

MalayMondays is my small attempt to bridge that gap. It is a space to re-learn, to re-connect, and to reclaim the language that connects us to our past and guides our future.

Yang Ikhlas,

Masturah Maidin

Founder, MalayMondays

say “hai!”