Magic Thursday: Saving Baba Malay with Theresa Fuller!

In 2020 after Covid hit, I lost 4 uncles and 1 aunt.

At that time Australia was under lockdown. As I couldn’t travel overseas to attend a single funeral, I threw myself into researching my family tree to help me deal with my grief. This was when I discovered that the language of my ancestors – Baba Malay – was on the verge of extinction with less than 2000 speakers worldwide.

I knew that members of my family spoke Malay but for some reason I thought it was Bahasa Melayu. I had no idea that Baba Malay even existed.

Baba Malay is the result of Chinese men sailing down to SE Asia hundreds of years ago. There they intermarried with the local women to form a new race – the Peranakans.

Baba Malay is basically Malay with English, Dutch, Portuguese, and other languages thrown in but with the grammar of Hokkien. When I heard Baba Malay spoken, it was as if my late grandmother was standing in front of me.

I couldn’t let the language die.

 I knew I had to do something. Only what?

The first thing I did was to enrol in a course to learn Baba Malay. I was lucky to enrol in the very last course taught by Ken Chan – author of Baba Malay for Everyone.

But attending a course was not enough.

I truly believe that to save a language one must start with children, but there were no resources for children.

So, I decided to make history. 

As a teacher and a former examiner for the NSW HSC, I found myself in an interesting position. I was able to create the curriculum needed. As a self-published author I was also able to take advantage of my knowledge of self-publishing to publish the much-needed books.

No publisher would have taken this challenge on as the market was too small. 

But I wasn’t doing this to make a profit. 

I was doing this to save a language.

My language.

Somehow, I felt that all the efforts of saving a language rested on me. There were many interested in learning about the culture. In learning about the food. And in the clothing.

But as for the language?

Nada.

My teacher Ken had spent several years maintaining the website at his own cost. He ended the website last year due to the lack of interest.

Even my own children are not interested in learning the language. Growing up in Sydney, isolated from family back in Singapore there was no incentive for them to learn a dying language.

Yet, I felt that I had to keep fighting.

Growing up, one of my favourite stories was of Don Quixote. I felt like I was him. Tilting at windmills.

And so, I fought on.

The tragic thing about languages is that when one dies, the way a people think dies with them. This is probably why there is so much interest in saving Aboriginal languages.

But Baba Malay is not an Aboriginal language. If it was, I would be able to apply for funding in Australia. Being in Australia meant I was excluded from all the funding in Singapore.

I was in no man’s land.

Thankfully, I have a very supportive non-Peranakan husband who supported me financially.

So far as the results of my efforts: Books published as part of the series BABA MALAY TODAY:

6 Sept 2022 – Sapa, Apa, Mana – Who, What Where - Interrogatory

9 Sept 2022 – Amcham, Apasair, Bila – How, Why, When - Interrogatory

2 Jan 2023 – Tapi. Abis, Pasair – But, So, Because - Conjunctions

16 June 2023 – Atair, Kat, Bawah – Top, Near, Bottom - Prepositions

26 June 2023 – Alus, Ka, Kasar – Delicate, Or, Coarse - Antonyms

Coming

2024 – Chakapan Baba Ati – The Essence of Baba Malay. This book is 3 times the size of previous books. 

2025 – Chakapan Baba Pantun – Poetry. 
Any donation of poems from Peranakans greatly appreciated.

But what is the point of simply just producing textbooks?

Any English teacher will tell you that readers are needed.

Now the funny thing was that when I started writing over 20 years ago, I had been trying to write picture books. So, in a way I was returning to my roots.

I enrolled at the Australian Writers’ Centre.

I was rusty and needed to learn how to write picture books once again.

Top editor picture book Cathie Tasker was extremely kind to me and even invited me to her home to help with a picture book.

That is the wonderful thing about this journey – you end up meeting kind and generous people. People like Helen K. who has kindly reduced her prices and given so much of her time to help save a language.

So, coming in 2024 – a new series – New Peranakan Tales – bilingual and blended readers for beginners and children.

I am making history again.

On 9th of September 2023, I was the guest speaker at the Peranakan Association of NSW’s AGM.

Here I am being introduced by President Evelyn Tian.

Nala Lee, author of A Grammar of Modern Baba Malay, will publicise my books at her talks. She will also get the NUS Librarian to help promote the books.

But after all this, interest is low. Learning a language is hard.

To stir up interest in our culture, I have decided that we need to make a game.

I have enlisted the help of an illustrator and am in the process of engaging a programmer. Tim, my son, will be the game designer.

We have no money and no experience, but we will try to make a game.

We hope to get a Kickstarter going in 2024.

I am going to make history again!

WATCH THIS SPACE!

The latest release of the Baba Malay series is:

Alus, Ka, Kasar or Delicate, Or, Coarse

Book 5, Baba Malay Today

Precious Baba Malay is about to go extinct, but you can reverse the process by learning Baba Malay in clearly defined steps. This treasured language can be a part of your life, hopefully to be revived as it is spread through sharing this didactic method.

Former assessor and examiner of the Higher School Certificate (NSW, Australia), Theresa Fuller, known fondly in the Peranakan community as Bibek Theresa, draws on her years of experience in the classroom to create the Baba Malay Today series – a range of chapter books with an easy-to-follow curriculum aimed at the beginner.

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Theresa Fuller

Theresa Fuller was born in Singapore to Peranakan parents. She was encouraged in her writing by her teacher, Chia Hearn Chek, a well-known local author. Educated in Singapore and Australia, she worked as an analyst/programmer and later as a high school teacher. Her first short story THE CRICKET SON was published in VOICES OF THE PAST, An Anthology of Stories Passed Down In Australian Families.

Her breakthrough novel is the Steampunk YA THE GHOST ENGINE, published in March 2018. It won a mentorship at the Australasian Horror Writers’ Association. THE GHOST ENGINE combines her love of technology with her enthusiasm for Victorian England. 

Theresa currently resides with her family in Sydney, Australia.

You can find Theresa at her website: theresafuller.com.