Affinity for English over Tamil

[renuka]

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Dear RR ji,


I some how like Udit Narayan's tamil songs...its too cute the way he pronounces Tamil..listen to this song.


[video=youtube_share;CcT2i8Bqyvo]http://youtu.be/CcT2i8Bqyvo[/video]

 

[Asirvadam]

dear sir,
When people FEEL proud by claiming that
they do not know Tamil/ Hindi/ Sanskrit etc
I feel sympathetic and sad at heart.
Is NOT knowing one's own mother tongue
something to be proud about??? :wacko:

Attaching pride to anything related to language is inappropriate. At the same time being ashamed of speaking in one's own mother tongue or vernacular is far from being wise. But this attitude is mostly found in southern states of India. North of the Vindhyas, they neither feel ashamed of their regional language nor feel proud when they speak in English.

Fluency in any language is good but need not carry pride with it. Eloquence is good but excess eloquence is unwelcome.

We need to change our psyche first. Anything foreign, especially western, is deemed superior and has value attached to it. So is English.

 

[Asirvadam]

Well we all seem to prefer English over Tamil since we are typing in English!LOL

Frankly speaking most of us speak English as a mode of communication and not as a pride.

There are some sections especially in Tamil Nadu villages, who look at awe and wonder when they see/hear someone speaking in English.

I wish to share a joke I read in one of the Tamil magazines years ago. 2 villagers met and one who had watched an English film recently, said to the other,

"Enna irundhaalum vellaikkaaran vellaikkaarandhampa. Periya aalungappa"

The other asked,

Eppidi solre

The 1st villager replied

Oru saadharana vealaikkaran kooda ennaama englishla polandhu katran paaru

I still like to use Tamil when I fight!

It is power packed.

In TN, an abusive word when said in Tamil is condemned. However it's equalent in English is accepted and the abuser is admired for his/her English vocabulary.

 

[Brahmanyan]

I went to school where English was taught in Tamil. When I started PUC I just didn't understand much of what my teachers were saying because they were speaking in English -- one exception was of course the Tamil class. My cousins from the North spoke in Hindi and English and they put down Tamil in every way possible, especially as a symbol of the Dravidians of the DMK kind. To them anything Tamil was uncivilized. I often felt inferior because I didn't know Hindi at all and couldn't hold a conversation in English like my cousins could.

Today, I feel sorry for my cousins, they have no knowledge of the treasures of Tamil literature -- they don 't know what they don't know. This would be no big deal except that they are Tamils.

Dear Sri "Nara",

Your post reminds me of my school and college days.
I belong to older generation who studied at the end of Lord Macauley's education system. I studied in a Municipal School.Though I had English as First language all other subjects were taught in Tamil. As a student my conversational skill in English was poor. Since I took Sanskrit as my second language, my Tamil Grammar also was elementary and not upto the mark. But I developed liking for Tamil, my mother tongue, and developed the skill of reading minor literature in Tamil with my own efforts. Hindi was taught as compulsory language with out examinations. Hence We did not take the language seriously.

When I entered College where all subjects were taught in English this great leap affected my understanding the subjects, Suddenly I felt like fish out of water. It took quite some months for me to gain my hold of the subjects.

Well, My view is that one should gain complete control over his/her mother tongue, this should be a continuous life long love. We should have knowledge of our classical language Sanskrit, which has wonderful treasure-trove of literature. We should learn English, which opens up to gain knowledge outside. Any other language we learn should have functional utility, depending on the place where we stay. Above all as a knowledge seeker I have no dislike of hatred towards any other language. For me knowledge of another language is a gain.

Warm Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[Vaagmi]

I did my schooling up to third standard sitting in floor in a Jilla Board School in my village. I graduated to wooden plank in 4th and 5th standars. Then I had to move to a christian missionary school 2 miles away to study 6th and 7th standard. Then to a High school in a nearby town to complete schooling by passing SSLC. All the while the medium of study was Tamil. Thus I studied piththakorus thetram and not Pythagoras Theorem. It was a chengonam and not a right angle and it was a mukkonam and not a triangle. Then it was college where the medium was English. When I look back, as for as knowledge acquisition part of it is concerned, it would have made little difference if I had continued in Tamil. May be the initial mental stress I suffered grappling with English and its syntax for expression of ideas could have been avoided. I learn from friends that in China every thing including higher level mathematics is taught in Chinese language. May be it would have been an advantage to learn science and maths in my mother tongue. grasping the essence of Certain complicated ideas wou;d have been effortless. But I would have remained confined to my state. To communicate with others in some of the research institutes across the country would have been that much more difficult. And what more India might not have been the favoured destination for software business. The extra effort I put has not gone waste. I am quite at home in both the languages. I enjoy good quality literary outputs in them. I can write more. But this has become already long.

 

[vgane]

There are some sections especially in Tamil Nadu villages, who look at awe and wonder when they see/hear someone speaking in English.

I wish to share a joke I read in one of the Tamil magazines years ago. 2 villagers met and one who had watched an English film recently, said to the other,



The other asked,

The 1st villager replied



In TN, an abusive word when said in Tamil is condemned. However it's equalent in English is accepted and the abuser is admired for his/her English vocabulary.

The superior hegemony for English is not attached in other Tamil areas such as Singapore, Indonesia, Mauritius , Malaysia & Srilanka

In Mauritius there are separate Tamil classes & Thai poosam is a National Holiday

I think we accorded too much superiority to English in Tamil Nadu due to the white skinned rulers

Outside the state, we need to inculcate learning of Tamil to understand the cultural nuances and appreciate its ancient literature

In a place such as Gurgaon near Delhi, there are Tamil classes that are conducted but participation is less from the Tamils

Much needs to be done as there is a large gap between precept & practice; intention and execution

 

[sangom]

Tamil won't give even a subsistence earning. Knowing only Tamil will bind you to the village/s in TN. English is a passport to better paying jobs, and to the wide world outside (TN villages).

 

[renuka]

In TN, an abusive word when said in Tamil is condemned. However it's equalent in English is accepted and the abuser is admired for his/her English vocabulary.

Out here from my personal experiences..people get scared to hear abuses in other languages besides English.

English abusive words are too Kosher and too light and not really reaching the target but if a person uses his native language while swearing..people get scared of him thinking he must be some big time "Dada" types and everyone gets scared.

No one would mess with a person who swears in any other language besides English.

 

[Brahmanyan]

Tamil won't give even a subsistence earning. Knowing only Tamil will bind you to the village/s in TN. English is a passport to better paying jobs, and to the wide world outside (TN villages).

Dear Sri Sangom,

You are correct, when I was in college (1950s) the then State Government under Congress rule with Sri T.S.Avinasilingam Chettiar as Education Minister introduced Graduate Course taught fully in Tamil Medium. Though he honestly tried to bring Tamil fully in the education field, he could not succeed in end results. Some people opt for this course and came out with degree certificate. A good friend of mine with this Degree had to run pillar to post to find a job, ultimately settled down with Cooperative Department as a junior clerk. Through out his life he cursed himself for his "Tamil patriotic spirit". Practical life demands money, it is different from idealism, which is not enough to run a family life for professional earners, who have come out of village life.

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[Vaagmi]

​

Sangom said,

Tamil won't give even a subsistence earning. Knowing only Tamil will bind you to the village/s in TN. English is a passport to better paying jobs, and to the [COLOR=#DA7911 !important]wide world[/COLOR] outside (TN villages).

Tamil can give enough wealth,fame, notoriety, money and power if you properly invest in it. If proof is needed come to Tamilnadu and see some of the popular political leaders here. Their only capital in their younger days was their fluency in Tamil.

Brahmanyan said

Practical life demands [COLOR=#DA7911 !important]money[/COLOR], it is different from idealism, which is not enough to run a family life for professional earners, who have come out of village life.

I know people who have a passion for something. There are friends who wanted to become only teachers and they became good teachers. There are those who wanted to take up only research and they did that with success. There are those who wanted to become just soldiers and they became that. At least such people could have studied their sciences and maths in Tamil( because they did not have the economic viability of that venture in view) and gone for higher research work. They would have understood the intricate nuances of the subject better because they did not have to go through English. Their knowledge acquisition process would have been just a natural happening in a beautiful enjoyable way. So they would have been in a position to contribute more to the knowledge in the subject. In research, trying and failing and then picking up the pieces and rebuilding to triumph requires a lot of energy and time. Studying the subject in one's own mother tongue gives you the much needed lead time. I can explain this only this much in English which is not my mother tongue. Hope people perceive.

 

[auh]

Tamil won't give even a subsistence earning. Knowing only Tamil will bind you to the village/s in TN. English is a passport to better paying jobs, and to the wide world outside (TN villages).

This is what my parents thought and put me in a convent with hindi as the second language. They thought that, tamil, being the native language, the child would pick up on its own. And pick up, I did, but not the nuances that could be expressed by one who knows the language.

Tamil is indeed a rich language, and I sometimes wonder, now, that it would have been a nice option to have a depth in the same.

 

[sangom]

This is what my parents thought and put me in a convent with hindi as the second language. They thought that, tamil, being the native language, the child would pick up on its own. And pick up, I did, but not the nuances that could be expressed by one who knows the language.

Tamil is indeed a rich language, and I sometimes wonder, now, that it would have been a nice option to have a depth in the same.

Though I am a tabra by lineage, since we are settled for generations in Kerala side, all of us (myself and my 3 siblings learned only Malayalam and through Malayalam medium up to our SSLC. English was the second language and Hindi, the third language. My father who probably had some good idea about the shape of things to come (like Independence, Hindi as a powerful language of the North Indians and hence of free India, etc.) put my elder sister and myself to study Hindi in a private coaching center. My sister passed 3 exams and myself 2 of the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, by the time I was about 8 years old.

The Tamil we spoke was miles away from even the dialect of Nagercoil side. Ours was mostly Malayalam under Tamil grammar rules. Only after our family migrated to the south of Trivandrum, did we come to know that Tamil alphabets existed and that it was a separate language.

Reading many of the periodicals and some religious books which my grandmother used to read, all of us learned reading & writing Tamil alphabets. After I got a job in Bombay I improved my Tamil by reading books from the Sion Tamil Manram Library and now except for the Cangam style language, it is possible for me to easily understand Tamil.

What I mean to say is that not knowing the finer nuances of Tamil is not a great loss in the overall view of life.

 

[Asirvadam]

Tamil won't give even a subsistence earning. Knowing only Tamil will bind you to the village/s in TN. English is a passport to better paying jobs, and to the wide world outside (TN villages).

It is true that communication skills in English is mandatory to progress in career. But when you and I know Tamil and when you and I are in TN, why do we choose a non-Tamil language, be it English or Hindi, to communicate!!! I have witnessed among Tamilians who work in northern states, when visiting TN, choose to communicate with each other in Hindi when they could very well communicate in Tamil. Why this inferiority complex, mindset and mentality about Tamil? Why this prejudice, if it is the right word, about Tamil?