Why I Built Munshi

For more than a decade, I have been teaching Malay to people who did not grow up speaking it.

Over the years, I have taught students from different countries, different backgrounds and different reasons for learning Malay. Some wanted to communicate with their Malaysian friends. Some were living in Malaysia. Some had Malaysian partners or families. Some simply wanted to feel more connected to the country they were living in.

And through all those years, I kept seeing the same problem.

People wanted to learn Malay, but learning Malay as a foreign language was not always easy.

There are textbooks. There are apps. There are online videos. There are language courses.

But learning a language is not simply about memorising vocabulary or completing exercises.

You need someone to help you understand how people actually speak.

You need to know what to say when ordering food, talking to your neighbour, speaking to a colleague, dealing with a delivery rider, making small talk, or simply trying to understand what someone just said to you.

Most importantly, you need opportunities to actually use the language with another human being.

That is where the idea for Munshi began.

I wanted to build something I wished existed

My work started with MalayWithAinur.

For years, I created materials, taught students, answered questions, developed courses and tried different ways of helping people learn Malay online.

I learned a lot from that journey.

I learned that people don't necessarily need more Malay content.

They need better learning experiences.

They need structure.

They need consistency.

They need a teacher who understands what it is like to learn Malay as a foreign language.

And they need a safe environment where making mistakes is part of learning.

That became the foundation of Munshi.

Why “Munshi”?

The word munshi has a long history in this region. Traditionally, a munshi was a teacher, writer, scribe or learned person.

I liked the idea because it represents something beyond simply teaching words.

A language teacher helps people navigate a culture, a community and a different way of seeing the world.

That is what I want Munshi to become.

A place where people don't just study Malay — they learn how to live, communicate and connect through Malay.

Malay is more than a language

One of the things I love about teaching Malay is seeing what happens when a learner becomes comfortable enough to actually use it.

At first, they might be nervous about saying the wrong thing.

Then one day, they order their own food.

They understand a conversation.

They make a joke in Malay.

They speak to their Malaysian colleagues without immediately switching to English.

And suddenly, Malaysia feels a little less foreign.

That moment is incredibly meaningful to me.

Because language creates access.

It allows you to participate rather than simply observe.

And I believe that people who live, work, study or build relationships in Malaysia deserve that opportunity.

Why live classes?

Technology has made language learning more accessible than ever.

But I don't believe technology should replace human connection.

A language is fundamentally social.

You learn it by listening to another person. By responding. By making mistakes. By asking questions. By hearing different accents and expressions. By having conversations that don't go exactly according to the textbook.

That is why Munshi is built around live, human-tutor-led learning.

Our tutors aren't there simply to deliver a lesson.

They create opportunities for learners to communicate.

The goal isn't to make someone perfect.

The goal is to make them confident enough to speak.

Starting small

Munshi is still young.

We launched our first classes in 2026 with a small group of learners from different parts of the world.

Our first students came from countries including the UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Malaysia.

We had a small team of tutors, a lot of ideas, and plenty of things to figure out.

But watching those first classes happen made the idea feel real.

It reminded me why I started.

Not because I wanted to build another online course.

Not because the world needed another language-learning platform.

But because I saw a genuine need — and I knew that this was something I could contribute to.

Where I hope Munshi goes

I don't want Munshi to become a place where people simply collect certificates or complete levels.

I want someone to finish a Munshi class and think:

“I can actually use this.”

I want a learner arriving in Malaysia to feel more confident speaking to people.

I want international students to feel more connected to their new home.

I want expatriates to be able to participate more fully in everyday Malaysian life.

I want families with Malaysian connections to have a way to pass the language on.

And eventually, I want Munshi to become a trusted home for learning Malay as a foreign language — from the very first words to confident, real-world communication.

This is only the beginning

Building something from scratch is rarely as neat as it looks from the outside.

There are lessons to write, classes to organise, tutors to train, systems to build, students to support and a hundred small problems to solve.

But there is something special about building something you genuinely believe should exist.

Munshi is my attempt to make Malay learning more practical, more human and more accessible.

It comes from more than a decade of teaching.

It comes from listening to learners.

And it comes from a simple belief:

If you are going to live in Malaysia, you shouldn't have to feel like an outsider just because you don't speak Malay yet.

So, this is why I built Munshi.

And we are only getting started.