Speaking Selves: The Malay Language as a Negotiated Identity [Design]

A Design-Led Inquiry into the Linguistic Decline and the Creation of Pro-Social Habitat for Identity Performance

This post covers the design solution and impact.
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To encourage knowledge transfer from the last of our Malay-speaking elders, we must ensure that the youth can speak and understand the language.

Design Brief 1

Build a list of Malay words/phrases/idioms rich in imagery, metaphor, or cultural meaning but rarely used in modern Singaporean conversation. Pick words that are lost in translation, or where the English equivalent is used in conversations between the two types of speakers, and document these words — capturing their literal meaning, figurative usage, and the “lost” cultural layer that diminishes when a term falls out of speech.

1. Its literal meaning and origin (historical, environmental, or social roots).
2. Its figurative meaning and traditional usage in conversation, storytelling, or advice.
3. The “lost” cultural layer — the specific piece of wisdom, value, or worldview that diminishes when this term falls out of speech.

Solution for Design Brief 1

This movement started between friends so that I could practice my Malay. Every Monday, we challenged each other to speak only Malay in the group chat. Eventually, when I started this project, I added some words on Instagram. It turns out many people are interested in practising their mother tongue.

Over the course of a year, I learned that MalayMondays followers are interested in colloquial words that are either rarely used anymore or have interesting origins.
Impact: This ‘Setotet Let’ post reached 137,000 views.

Design Brief #2

If we can create a beautiful, intriguing, and respectful ritual that places the elder as the sole storyteller/knowledge-keeper and the youth as an eager knowledge seeker, anxiety around language proficiency will be superseded by the desire for connection and the specific wisdom offered.

The two rituals (social experiments):

1. Letter-writing: Postcard

Form: A mailbox and writing station, installed in community spaces, void decks, libraries or controlled environments like schools, where the letters can be replied to.

Artefact: Blank postcards for youth to write to elders. Open-ended — they can ask whatever their heart desires. Prompts will be available nearby if they need inspiration.

Interaction: The youth writes a postcard in Malay (however simple) asking for a story, advice, or any topic of their choice. They post it. The letters are collected, delivered to partnered elders (via community groups), and replies are uploaded to the website alongside the initial postcards. This ritual values slowness, tangibility, and deep reflection.

2. Spoken Conversation: Phonebooth

Form: An intimate, semi-private phone booth set up in high-traffic, intergenerational nodes (void decks near coffee shops, community centres).

Interaction: The youth picks up the phone and hears a recorded message from an elderly person. They are then prompted to answer and end with a question. This ritual values immediacy, voice, tone, and spontaneous exchange. This interaction will be recorded. The questions will be answered on a website, where the person asking is anonymous.

The Installation

Creating a space for youth and elders of the community to communicate in Malay through voice or written postcards.

Venue: Tampines Primary School & Our Tampines Hub
Duration: 5.5 weeks

Impact

2143 Total Phone Engagements
529 Total Postcards Received from the Public
107 Total Postcards Responded to by Elders

MalayMondays Website

All communications are uploaded to www.malaymondays.com as a repository, with elders' profiles attached to each response.

Speaking Selves Toolkit

To enable scalability of Speaking Selves installation in various spaces like Residents’ Corner, Community Centres, etc. This toolkit guides participating organisations to run the installation and do the interviews without the researcher.

Knowledge Keepers Podcast

A discourse on the use of the Malay language in Singapore’s current landscape, and why it matters. This 4-part series features guests Aidli Mosbit, Sani Hussin, Yasmin Asyura and Minister David Neo

Impact

216 minutes on air
960 views
50.3 hours of watch time

Direct Impact (Newspaper Features)

Berita MediaCorp, 27 April 2026 Headline: ‘Speaking Selves’ initiative instills love for the Malay language; bridges the gap between students, seniors in Tampines

Berita Harian, 27 July 2026Headline: Interactive project encourages youth to speak Malay

Direct Impact from the Community

Quotes in-person and online via Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp. The most touching was the campus custodian knocking on the studio door on the Monday the newspaper article was published and being very excited to know that the project was mine.

Speaking Selves: The Malay Language as a Negotiated Identity [Design] was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.