On Friday, 24 January 2025, Kristang became the fourteenth language formally regularly offered at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Language Studies, and can now be studied formally and regularly in an institute of higher learning for the first time in history. Level 1 Kristang classes for complete beginners will now be held at NUS CLS, while higher level classes from 2A and beyond will continue to be run by Kodrah Kristang for the moment. Level 1 Kristang classes will be offered every quarter of the year in January, April, July and October, but NUS requires 10 people to sign up for each level 1 Kristang class before they will proceed with actually running the class, so if there are less than 10 people, the class will not be offered in that quarter. In April 2025, we secured 7 out of 10 registrants, and so the class was postponed to July.
Next possible level 1 class for complete beginners (July 2025): online and open to anyone anywhere in the world
Kodrah Kristang Group 20 is the next class for complete beginners and first-ever NUS level 1 Kristang class, and is planned to run online on Saturdays from 9am to 12pm starting in July 2025 if 10 or more people register for the class. You do not need to be a student of NUS to register for this class, and it is open to the general public, including people who are not based in Singapore. This class has been postponed once from April 2025 due to an insufficient number of registrants in the April 2025 intake.
NUS Level 1 Kristang (July 2025 intake, corresponding to Kodrah Kristang Group 20 if it actually runs)
Course Fee: SGD 654 | Fee after NSA subsidy: SGD 354
Materials cost (separate from course fee): SGD 45 (for the textbook Animumbes)
Date and Time: Saturdays, 9am to 12pm
Venue: Online
Course Start Date: July 2025, exact date TBC
Course End Date: July 2025, exact date TBC
Registration start: June 2025, exact date TBC
Registration end: June 2025, exact date TBC
Registration link: (will be available in June 2025)
Prerequisites: None
Minimum number of people to start: 10
More information: NUS course page
All self-sponsored Singapore Citizens aged 25 and above may use available funds in their SkillsFuture Credit account to pay their course fees.
SFC Course Code: ***TGS-2024052146*** Learn more
This course is approved by National Silver Academy (NSA). Singapore Citizens aged 50 and above will be eligible for a subsidy of up to 50% off the course fee. For more information on NSA, please visit www.nsa.org.sg
For NUS Alumni/Staff/ Student, there will be a 10% discount off the course fee before GST.
Course Objectives:
The course seeks to provide a basic understanding of Kristang such that learners will be able to achieve basic communicative competence with speakers in Singapore, Melaka, Perth and the Eurasian diaspora around the world, produce and understand short written, multimodal and ICT texts in Kristang, and have a clearer overall view of the dynamics of language and community revitalisation efforts taking place in Singapore and Melaka.
By the end of the course, students will also have a unique appreciation of creole and indigenous ways of being in contemporary Singapore as experienced by Kristang people, and will also have a richer understanding of the little-known Kristang / Portuguese-Eurasian culture.
Course Content:
- Greetings and salutations in Kristang and overview of Kristang culture and language
- Identifying and talking about everyday objects and classroom items
- Talking about and introducing oneself (where one is from etc.)
- Basic numbers, counting and money
- Exploring nature and the environment / landscape
- Describing everyday actions in one’s own daily life
- Talking about movement and places around the city
- Introducing family, age and larger numbers
- Measurements, cooking and recipe words
- Writing one’s own recipe in Kristang
Mailing list and purchasing the Kristang textbook
Email us at kodrah@kristang.com to request to purchase the textbook, Animumbes.
