Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya daftar lagi satu bengkel supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas bertambah baik. - I register for another workshop so that the quality of my classroom presentation improves.

lagi satu bengkel can sound a bit like “an additional workshop” (adding one more to some you already have).
satu lagi bengkel can more easily be understood as “one more / one other workshop (among possible others)”.

For a learner, you can safely treat both as “another (workshop)” in most contexts.

Is daftar a verb or a noun here? Should it be mendaftar instead?

Here, daftar is used as a verb, meaning “to register / to sign up”.

Saya daftar lagi satu bengkel → “I registered / I signed up for another workshop.”

In more formal or standard Malay, you might often see:

Saya mendaftar lagi satu bengkel.

mendaftar is the meN- (verbal) form of the root daftar, and is very common in written and formal speech.

So:

daftar (as a bare verb) → very common in informal / spoken Malay.
mendaftar → more formal / standard, common in writing and official contexts.

Both are understandable; the sentence as given just sounds more colloquial.

Do I need a preposition after daftar, like daftar untuk bengkel?

You can use a preposition, but it’s not mandatory here.

Current sentence:

Saya daftar lagi satu bengkel.

More explicit versions:

Saya daftar untuk lagi satu bengkel.
Saya mendaftar untuk satu lagi bengkel.

Notes:

daftar (bengkel) is fine in spoken Malay; the object directly follows the verb.
daftar untuk (bengkel) is a bit more formal/explicit: literally “register for (a workshop)”.

For everyday speech, the original is natural:

Saya daftar lagi satu bengkel…

What exactly does supaya mean, and how is it different from untuk or agar?

supaya is a conjunction meaning “so that / in order that”, introducing a clause that states the intended result or purpose.

In the sentence:

…supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas bertambah baik.
“…so that the quality of my presentation in class improves.”

Comparison:

supaya
- Links two clauses: Action
  - Result/Goal
- Very common in both spoken and written Malay.
- Example: Saya belajar kuat supaya saya lulus. (“I study hard so that I pass.”)
agar
- Very similar meaning to supaya, often a bit more formal/literary.
- Example: Saya belajar kuat agar saya lulus.
untuk
- Literally “for / to”, usually before a noun or verb phrase, not a full finite clause.
- Often: untuk + verb or untuk + noun, e.g.
  - Saya belajar untuk lulus. (“I study to pass.”)
  - Bengkel ini untuk pelajar baru. (“This workshop is for new students.”)

In your sentence, supaya is natural because it’s followed by a full clause:

kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas bertambah baik (subject + predicate).

Why is saya used twice? Can I drop the second saya in kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas?

The two saya have different roles:

First saya → subject of the main clause
- Saya daftar lagi satu bengkel…
- “I registered for another workshop…”
Second saya → possessive pronoun (“my”) inside a noun phrase
- kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas…
- “…the quality of my presentation in class…”

Can you drop the second saya?

No, not if you still want to specifically say “my presentation”.
If you removed it:
- kualiti pembentangan di kelas → “the quality of the presentation in class” (no longer clearly “my”).

So the repetition is normal:

First saya = “I”
Second saya = “my”

How is the noun phrase kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas structured? Which word modifies which?

The structure (from left to right) is:

kualiti – “quality” (head noun)
pembentangan – “presentation” (noun modifying “quality”)
saya – “my” (possessive, modifying “presentation”)
di kelas – “in class” (prepositional phrase, further specifying the situation)

So the overall meaning:

kualiti → the quality
pembentangan saya → of my presentation
di kelas → in class

Put together:
kualiti [pembentangan saya] [di kelas]
= “the quality of my presentation in class”.

Malay noun phrases generally go:

Head noun + modifiers (other nouns, possessives, adjectives, prepositional phrases)

You don’t reverse the order like in English; you just keep adding details to the right.

Why is it di kelas and not dalam kelas? What’s the difference between di and dalam here?

Both di and dalam can relate to location, but:

di = a basic preposition meaning “at / in / on”
dalam = “inside / within”, often more literal, internal, or abstract (within a scope)

In many expressions of location like “in class”, Malay prefers di:

di kelas → “in class” / “in the classroom” (normal, idiomatic)
di rumah → “at home”
di sekolah → “at school”

dalam kelas would emphasize the inside-ness more literally:

“inside the classroom (as opposed to outside)”. It’s not wrong, but it feels a bit more physical or specific in contrast with outside.

For “presentation in class”, di kelas is the natural, standard choice.

What does bertambah baik mean exactly? Could I just say lebih baik instead?

bertambah baik literally means “to become better / to improve”.

bertambah = “to increase / to grow”
baik = “good”

Combined: bertambah baik → “to increase in goodness” → “to improve / to get better”.

You can say lebih baik (“better / more good”), but the nuance is slightly different:

bertambah baik = focuses on the process of improvement.
- “…so that the quality improves.”
lebih baik = focuses on a comparative state (“better than before / than something else”).
- “…so that the quality is better.”

In your sentence, both are possible:

…supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas bertambah baik.
→ “…so that the quality of my presentation in class improves.”
…supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas lebih baik.
→ “…so that the quality of my presentation in class is better.”

Both are natural; bertambah baik makes the idea of improvement a bit more explicit.

How do we know this means “I registered (past)” and not “I register / I will register”? There’s no tense marker.

Malay doesn’t mark tense grammatically the way English does. The verb form daftar itself does not change for past, present, or future.

The time is understood from:

Context (previous sentences, situation)
Optional time words:
- tadi (just now)
- semalam (yesterday)
- nanti (later)
- akan (will), etc.

Your sentence as is can technically be interpreted as:

“I register another workshop…” (present, less likely)
“I registered another workshop…” (past)
“I will register another workshop…” (future)

In realistic usage, context usually makes it clear.
If you want to be explicit:

Past: Saya tadi daftar lagi satu bengkel… / Saya sudah mendaftar…
Future: Saya akan daftar lagi satu bengkel…

Is this sentence formal, neutral, or informal? In what context would it sound natural?

The sentence is neutral leaning informal, mainly because of:

Saya daftar… (bare verb without meN- prefix)
Everyday phrasing like lagi satu bengkel.

Contexts where it sounds natural:

Chatting with friends or classmates.
Speaking to a teacher in a relaxed environment.
Messaging (WhatsApp, etc.).

For something more formal (e.g. an email to a lecturer or in an essay), you might adjust it slightly:

Saya telah mendaftar satu lagi bengkel supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di dalam kelas bertambah baik.

But your original sentence is perfectly fine in everyday spoken Malay.

Could I rewrite this in a more formal or “textbook” style while keeping the same meaning?

Yes. Here are a couple of more formal-sounding variants:

Saya telah mendaftar satu lagi bengkel supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas bertambah baik.
Saya telah mendaftar untuk satu lagi bengkel supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di dalam kelas bertambah baik.

Notes:

telah = marks past action (formal “have/has”).
mendaftar = formal/standard verb form.
untuk (optional) = “for”, makes the structure explicit.
di dalam kelas slightly more formal than di kelas, but both are acceptable.

All of these keep the same overall meaning:
“I registered for another workshop so that the quality of my presentation in class would improve.”

Why is there no plural marker on bengkel? How would I say “several workshops” or “a few workshops”?

Malay usually doesn’t mark plural with an ending like English -s. bengkel can mean “workshop” or “workshops” depending on context.

In your sentence:

lagi satu bengkel = “one more workshop / another workshop”
→ clearly singular because of satu (“one”).

If you want to say “several workshops” / “a few workshops”, you can use:

beberapa bengkel = several workshops / a few workshops
beberapa = “several / some (countable)”

Example:

Saya daftar beberapa bengkel supaya kualiti pembentangan saya di kelas bertambah baik.
→ “I registered for several workshops so that the quality of my presentation in class would improve.”