Learn Hardcore Malay: Dalam buku sejarah, kami belajar tentang diskriminasi dan bagaimana undang-undang cuba mengurangkan masalah itu. - In the history book, we learn about discrimination and how laws try to reduce that problem.

di = at / in / on (general location marker)
dalam = in / inside (focuses on being inside something)
di dalam = in / inside (more explicit, sometimes a bit more formal or emphatic)

All of these are possible in certain contexts:

Dalam buku sejarah, kami belajar...
= In the history book, we learned...
Di dalam buku sejarah, kami belajar...
= (Very similar meaning, a bit more explicit: inside the history book)

Using just di buku sejarah would sound less natural here; dalam buku sejarah or di dalam buku sejarah are preferred when talking about content inside a book.

Does buku sejarah mean “history book” or “history class”?

Literally, buku sejarah means history book.

However, in context, Malay speakers might use it in a way that overlaps with history textbook, which is linked to history class. If you specifically want to say:

history class:
- kelas Sejarah
- kelas sejarah (capital S often used when it’s the subject name)
history subject:
- subjek Sejarah
- mata pelajaran Sejarah

So:

Dalam buku sejarah, kami belajar...
Focus is on the book itself.
Dalam kelas Sejarah, kami belajar...
Focus is clearly on being in history class.

Why is kami used instead of kita?

Malay distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive “we”:

kami = we (NOT including the listener)
kita = we (INCLUDING the listener)

In this sentence:

kami belajar...
suggests we (my group, e.g., my class) learned, and you (the listener) were not part of that group.

If the speaker and the listener were in the same history class and the speaker wanted to include the listener, they might say:

Dalam buku sejarah, kita belajar tentang...
= In the history book, we (you and I) learn/learned about...

Why is it belajar tentang and not just belajar?

Belajar means to study / to learn.

Tentang means about.

belajar on its own often takes a direct object when you say what you learn:
- Kami belajar sejarah. = We study history.
belajar tentang X means to learn about X:
- Kami belajar tentang diskriminasi.
  = We learn about discrimination.

So here:

belajar tentang diskriminasi
= learn about discrimination

You could also say, with a slightly more formal feel:

Kami mempelajari diskriminasi.
(no tentang needed, because mempelajari already takes a direct object)

Can tentang always be translated as “about”? Are there synonyms?

Tentang usually corresponds to about / regarding.

Examples:

buku tentang sejarah = a book about history
ceramah tentang kesihatan = a talk about health

Common synonyms (with slightly different feel or formality):

mengenai = about, concerning (often a bit more formal)
- belajar mengenai diskriminasi
perihal = about, concerning (formal/literary)
pasal = about (very colloquial / informal, common in speech)
- belajar pasal diskriminasi (spoken, casual)

In formal or neutral writing, tentang and mengenai are safest.

Is diskriminasi just a loanword from English? Does it have the same meaning?

Yes, diskriminasi is a loanword (ultimately from the same Latin root as discrimination in English) and its meaning is very similar:

unfair treatment based on race, gender, religion, etc.
it can be used in legal, academic and everyday contexts

Examples:

diskriminasi kaum = racial discrimination
menentang diskriminasi = to oppose discrimination

It is generally uncountable in Malay, like discrimination in English (you don’t usually say “three discriminations”).

How does dan bagaimana undang-undang cuba mengurangkan masalah itu fit grammatically? Is it a separate clause?

Yes, it’s effectively a second clause, linked with dan (and).

The structure is:

Dalam buku sejarah,
(prepositional phrase: in the history book)
kami belajar tentang [A] dan [B].

Where:

[A] = diskriminasi (discrimination)
[B] = bagaimana undang-undang cuba mengurangkan masalah itu
(how the law tries to reduce that problem)

So tentang semantically covers both:

belajar tentang diskriminasi
(belajar tentang) bagaimana undang-undang cuba mengurangkan masalah itu

Malay often allows the preposition (tentang) to be mentioned once and understood for both items joined by dan.

Why is undang-undang written with a hyphen and repeated? Does it mean “laws” (plural)?

Undang-undang is a reduplicated noun:

undang (alone) is not normally used in modern Malay to mean “law”.
undang-undang together means law / the law / legislation.

Reduplication in Malay can:

form plural meanings,
or create a new word with a specific meaning.

In this case, undang-undang is really a fixed word meaning law(s) in general. It can be singular or plural depending on context, similar to the law in English.

Examples:

undang-undang negara = the country’s laws
mematuhi undang-undang = obey the law
undang-undang baru = a new law / new laws

What is the role of cuba here? Is it “try” as in “attempt”, or “try” as in “test/experiment”?

In this context, cuba means to try (to do something) / to attempt.

undang-undang cuba mengurangkan masalah itu
= the law tries / attempts to reduce that problem

This is not the “try (taste/test)” meaning. For “try (taste)”, Malay often uses:

cuba (in context, with food/clothes etc.)
- Cuba makanan ini. = Try this food.
or rasa = taste

But in your sentence, it’s clearly the attempt meaning, because it’s followed by another verb:

cuba mengurangkan = try to reduce

How is mengurangkan formed, and what exactly does it mean?

Mengurangkan is built from:

base adjective/verb: kurang = less, lacking, to be less
prefix meN-
- kurang
  - suffix -kan
    → mengurangkan

Meaning: to reduce / to lessen / to decrease (something).

So:

kurang = less / to be less
mengurang (less common alone) = to lessen
mengurangkan sesuatu = to reduce something

Examples:

mengurangkan kos = to reduce costs
mengurangkan pencemaran = to reduce pollution
mengurangkan masalah itu = to reduce that problem

What does masalah itu mean exactly? Why itu and not ini?

masalah = problem
itu = that / the (referring to something already mentioned or more distant)
ini = this (near to the speaker, or just introduced)

Here, masalah itu refers back to the specific problem just mentioned: diskriminasi.

So:

masalah itu ≈ that problem / the problem (just mentioned)

If you said masalah ini, it would sound more like this problem (near me / that I’m currently focusing on). It’s not wrong, but with itu the sentence clearly points back to the earlier idea of discrimination.

Why is there a comma after Dalam buku sejarah? Is it required?

The comma marks a fronted prepositional phrase:

Dalam buku sejarah, kami belajar...
= In the history book, we learned...

Word order in Malay is flexible enough that you can front such phrases for emphasis or clarity. The comma is:

very common in writing,
helpful to show the break between the introductory phrase and the main clause.

You might also see:

Kami belajar tentang diskriminasi... dalam buku sejarah.

Both are grammatically fine; the comma version you have is very natural in written Malay.

Could you drop kami and just say Dalam buku sejarah, belajar tentang...?

In very casual speech, Malay sometimes drops subject pronouns if they are clear from context, so you might hear:

Dalam buku sejarah, belajar tentang diskriminasi...

However:

In standard written Malay, it’s better and clearer to include the subject (kami).
Without kami, the sentence is a bit incomplete/ambiguous: Who is doing the learning?

So for correct, neutral writing:

Dalam buku sejarah, kami belajar tentang...
is the preferred form.

How do we know whether this sentence is past tense (“we learned”) or present tense (“we learn”)?

Malay verbs generally do not change form for tense. There is no special past tense marking on belajar, cuba, or mengurangkan.

Tense is understood from:

context,
time expressions (e.g. semalam = yesterday, setiap hari = every day).

Your sentence can be translated as:

We learned about discrimination... (past)
We learn about discrimination... (habitual present, e.g. what the curriculum covers)

Both are possible; an English translator chooses based on context. If you want to make it clearly past in Malay, you can add a time expression, for example:

Pada tahun lepas, dalam buku sejarah, kami belajar tentang...
= Last year, in the history book, we learned about...

What is the overall level of formality of this sentence? Is it suitable for essays?

The sentence is:

neutral to slightly formal,
very suitable for school essays, academic writing, and general formal contexts.

Key reasons:

It uses standard Malay grammar and vocabulary: dalam, belajar tentang, undang-undang, mengurangkan, masalah itu.
It avoids very colloquial words like pasal or kita orang.

You could make it even more formal by small changes, for example:

Dalam buku teks Sejarah, kami mempelajari tentang diskriminasi dan cara-cara undang-undang cuba mengurangkan masalah tersebut.

But the original sentence is already good, standard, and natural.