The little one learns Tamizh (Tamil) !!
Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 7:30PM Grandma was very determined when she came from India last week. Among the countless goodies she got from india (sweets, savories, music CD's, clothes, DVD's of Indian movies etc. ) there was one item that stood out..
Learn Tamil in 30 days !!!
I dont know if she was trying to use this book to be a better teacher or she was really hoping that her toddler grand daughter would pick up Tamil in 30 days..
I was actually happy that grandma was trying, because all my attempts to make my daughter reply in Tamil have recently failed (especially since she started going to daycare !!). She has a thick accent, which I cannot place and calls me sUndAAr instead of Sundar.
To make my little contribution to the teaching effort, I started a little teaching session just before bed time .
Me : What is this ? (pointing to eyes)
Her: Eyes !
Me : In tamil ?
Her: hmmmmm..
Me : it is "Kannu"
Her: Kannu (her eyes light up because she knows this word and uses it in normal conversation.. . i also call her Kannu - "my eyes" along the "you are the apple of my eye" connotation..
Me : What is this ? (pointing to nose)
Her: Nose
Me : In tamil ?
Her: Mookku
Me : Good Job
Me : What is this ? (pointing to my leg)
Her: Leg
Me : In tamil ?
Her: Legguu !!!!
I guess she caught on to the ending for Kannu, Mukku, Kaadhu (ears) and decided Leg would be Legguu..
All we can say at this point is "good luck grandma"..
Reader Comments (13)
badhram..she might start talking in Telugu.!! I mean by Leggu, Handsu..!! etc..etc.
Just kidding.!! Good attempt. Its difficult I know that for sure as I go thru this with my daughter ( younger one).
hmm.. i never thought of the telu-gu connection..
neengale thadavarachhe, enakku enge hope ?
time will tell.
:)
hahaha.. I also thought of the telugu connection when you izhuthufied the words... better to go with just 'kann', 'kaal', 'mookku', etc. Learning process for elders too.
In fact, indha oorule valarra pasanga (like my nephew for example) Thamizhle oru rendu vaarthai pesinaale ok-nnu aayidapporadhu (adhu thooya thamizhaa kooda illaame Tanglish aa irundaalum paravaaillaigara level-ukku) :-)
raju
i tried the kann kaal mook etc.. and she said earuu today.. something else is going on..
thennavan
i am not going to stop here. if the girl can sing "kanda naal mudhalai kadhal perugudhadi" she can do Tamil...
Thats so sweet.
Luckily my son has picked up Tamil pretty well thanks to his stints in India. Gone are the days of asking questions in Tamizh and getting response from in English, now the responses are in a mixture of three different languages often :)
this was a good one on your teaching experience to your daughter.. hilarious. I heard that many expats in US are willingly admitting their kids into some sort of tamil classes.. good that you have these avenues to exploit.
wicked angel,
i guess you are lucky. we cannot do many india trips..
ram
there are lots of avenues like you mention.. tamil sangam classes (where parents go with kids etc).. but motivating the kids to go there is a struggle.. the kids see it as an imposition (have seen many of my friends kids say they hate those classes )!!!
i am seeing everything in different light, now that this is happening to me !!
Heheh ur kid is so adorable ;p but teach her otherwise she'll blame u one day like i do my dad ;p
interestingly i had a cousin in the uk who at 8 could recite most of the thirukural. He was going for classes.
visithira
unga tamilzhukku enna kurachchal.. nalla dhane ezhudhareenga..
:)
i have an english slang - zha pronounciation is hillarious ;p athan kurachal ;)
hi!!!
even if you dont know to speak in tamil, you can post comments peacefully in tamil using this site
http://quillpad.in/tamil
check this out, once you know to speak it will do the rest of the job, so have fun enjoying it
Have you ever wondered how kids being raised in India, but outside of TamilNadu manage to pick up Tamil, Hindi, English and the local language ? In their case too, the only option to learn tamil probably would be at home while conversing with parents.
How is this different from being raised in the US ? I have always been curious about this while watching the visiting-kids.