Is it a must to know to read and write tamil?

[chandra mukhi]

Yes, according to me. Being a tamilian we must know to read and write.

Mrs. Bharathy Baskar made it very clear. In the materialisitc world it might not be 'useful' to know to read or write Tamil. She said that its fortunate that we have this ancient language as our mother tongue. So we should be proud to know to read and write in our mother tongue.

IMO if we are passionate to our mother tongue, we SHOULD be knowing to read and write also.

I enjoyed it, a very good topic and well executed.

[N.Dhanalakshmi]

I AGREE with ur point. everybody excecuted very well about knowing write n read tamil. Be a tamilian if u r not do dis then only it is shameful.A german person speak tamil well compare 2 some thanglish people.

[Bakoda]

indru yaarumae thalaipu veithu paesavillai...
enaku tamizh theriyum,ungaluku theriyuma endru oru kuzhuvum
engaluku tamizh theriyum endru mattroru kuzhuvum paesinaargal...:D
aen tamizh ezhuthavum padikavum theriyavillai endru yaarumae paesavillai...

[Bakoda]

Yes, according to me. Being a tamilian we must know to read and write.

Mrs. Bharathy Baskar made it very clear. In the materialisitc world it might not be 'useful' to know to read or write Tamil. She said that its fortunate that we have this ancient language as our mother tongue. So we should be proud to know to read and write in our mother tongue.

IMO if we are passionate to our mother tongue, we SHOULD be knowing to read and write also.

I enjoyed it, a very good topic and well executed.

we shud not take tamizh as a subject...thats the main problem here...:(
(not only tamizh)

[Acchu]

Being a Tamilian, why do people hesitate to learn to read and write tamil?....As the spl guest said, people speak their own languages in countries like china, korea, japan and hav attained their goals .... but in our country we giv importance to other langs except tamil... IMO, Our govt should introduce rule to teach regional languages as 1st lang, then national lang as 2nd lang and english as 3rd language.... Only then there will be no commn barrier and our country will develop more faster.... be'e wen u c other developed countries like USA, china......they have a common language...but in india every state has their own regnl language..Its quite hard to communicate with other state ppl if we do not know their lang.....

Tamil is not only the oldest lang but the first Indian language to be declared as a classical language (by the government of India)......so we should feel proud and superior abt our mother tongue...


As usual nice topic on a nice occasion:)

[AkilaMani]

First of all thanks Vijay TV for such a great show and congrats Mr. Gopinath for brilliantly conducting it (as usual). I was educated in a school where there was no Tamil taught AT ALL, but that was purely due to the fact that my father had a transferable gov job and we had to keep moving from state to state, so the obvious choice was Hindi. This however did not deter my parents from instilling the desire to learn Tamil in me at a very early age. They exposed me to all the nice pattimanrams based on epics aired on DD, involved me in crossword puzzles they solved in Tamil magazines and read short stories and jokes to me. As a result, I self taught myself to read and write Tamil, of course with a little help from my parents. I might not be able to read and understand thirukural or barathiyar poetry without help, but I can still manage to read headlines etc.

Since I really missed learning Tamil as a language in school I am determined to educate my children in Tamil. Whatever medium they study in, I am making sure they learn Tamil as well. My daughter's school teaches only Chinese, but I am proud to say that she is learning Tamil at home and when she joins primary she is definitely going to learn Tamil in school.

What I would like every tamillian to know is that we could have missed the opportunity to learn Tamil due to any reason, but there is no reason to stop our children from learning our mother tongue. It may not benefit them monetarily, but it will enrich their souls and make them feel proud about themselves and their rich heritage.

Of course it is never too late to learn even for us. Beyond time, money and other commitments that we cite as reasons for not learning Tamil, what really is holding us back is the fact that we have a false pride in saying that we don't know Tamil, which is such a shame. All through my life I have felt ashamed to admit that I do not know to read and write in Tamil.

This show has really made my resolve to learn Tamil even stronger. I am determined to get a degree in Tamil just to feel complete as a tamilian.

Tamizhan enru sollada... thalai nemirndu nillada......

[shakshi]

First of all thanks Vijay TV for such a great show and congrats Mr. Gopinath for brilliantly conducting it (as usual). I was educated in a school where there was no Tamil taught AT ALL, but that was purely due to the fact that my father had a transferable gov job and we had to keep moving from state to state, so the obvious choice was Hindi. This however did not deter my parents from instilling the desire to learn Tamil in me at a very early age. They exposed me to all the nice pattimanrams based on epics aired on DD, involved me in crossword puzzles they solved in Tamil magazines and read short stories and jokes to me. As a result, I self taught myself to read and write Tamil, of course with a little help from my parents. I might not be able to read and understand thirukural or barathiyar poetry without help, but I can still manage to read headlines etc.

Since I really missed learning Tamil as a language in school I am determined to educate my children in Tamil. Whatever medium they study in, I am making sure they learn Tamil as well. My daughter's school teaches only Chinese, but I am proud to say that she is learning Tamil at home and when she joins primary she is definitely going to learn Tamil in school.

What I would like every tamillian to know is that we could have missed the opportunity to learn Tamil due to any reason, but there is no reason to stop our children from learning our mother tongue. It may not benefit them monetarily, but it will enrich their souls and make them feel proud about themselves and their rich heritage.

Of course it is never too late to learn even for us. Beyond time, money and other commitments that we cite as reasons for not learning Tamil, what really is holding us back is the fact that we have a false pride in saying that we don't know Tamil, which is such a shame. All through my life I have felt ashamed to admit that I do not know to read and write in Tamil.

This show has really made my resolve to learn Tamil even stronger. I am determined to get a degree in Tamil just to feel complete as a tamilian.

Tamizhan enru sollada... thalai nemirndu nillada......


Well said akila..
even i hv seen few ppl saying "I don read tamil mails/novels/news papers, bcoz i don like it.."
damn................ if u r not respecting ur mother tongue, u r not respecting urself..
im very proud to say i am very gud in reading n writing my mother tongue, TAMIL..n i love my mother tongue...

ppl.. plz understand onething... its not fault in learning any other new languages, but at any cost, don dare to leave ur mother tongue..:( i really hope ppl change their attitude towards d mother tongue.........god, plz help them..

[hplunafan]

Yes, according to me. Being a tamilian we must know to read and write.

Mrs. Bharathy Baskar made it very clear. In the materialisitc world it might not be 'useful' to know to read or write Tamil. She said that its fortunate that we have this ancient language as our mother tongue. So we should be proud to know to read and write in our mother tongue.

IMO if we are passionate to our mother tongue, we SHOULD be knowing to read and write also.

I enjoyed it, a very good topic and well executed.

I think not just tamil,we should know to read and write our mother languages
actually,I am not a tamilian,I can hardly speak tamil fluently let alone read and write
but I do admit,I cannot read and write my mother tongue.......*sighs*
Its more of english......

[chandra mukhi]

First of all thanks Vijay TV for such a great show and congrats Mr. Gopinath for brilliantly conducting it (as usual). I was educated in a school where there was no Tamil taught AT ALL, but that was purely due to the fact that my father had a transferable gov job and we had to keep moving from state to state, so the obvious choice was Hindi. This however did not deter my parents from instilling the desire to learn Tamil in me at a very early age. They exposed me to all the nice pattimanrams based on epics aired on DD, involved me in crossword puzzles they solved in Tamil magazines and read short stories and jokes to me. As a result, I self taught myself to read and write Tamil, of course with a little help from my parents. I might not be able to read and understand thirukural or barathiyar poetry without help, but I can still manage to read headlines etc.

Since I really missed learning Tamil as a language in school I am determined to educate my children in Tamil. Whatever medium they study in, I am making sure they learn Tamil as well. My daughter's school teaches only Chinese, but I am proud to say that she is learning Tamil at home and when she joins primary she is definitely going to learn Tamil in school.

What I would like every tamillian to know is that we could have missed the opportunity to learn Tamil due to any reason, but there is no reason to stop our children from learning our mother tongue. It may not benefit them monetarily, but it will enrich their souls and make them feel proud about themselves and their rich heritage.

Of course it is never too late to learn even for us. Beyond time, money and other commitments that we cite as reasons for not learning Tamil, what really is holding us back is the fact that we have a false pride in saying that we don't know Tamil, which is such a shame. All through my life I have felt ashamed to admit that I do not know to read and write in Tamil.

This show has really made my resolve to learn Tamil even stronger. I am determined to get a degree in Tamil just to feel complete as a tamilian.

Tamizhan enru sollada... thalai nemirndu nillada......


I endorse your views and I really salute you for the passion you have towards tamil.

[vimalan_51]

very well said..being in an alien land ( in my case US ), i know how much we long to converse in Tamil here. But there are many in TN who think Tamil as an alien thing. They are living in a dream world where speaking english is considered as a style statement. Let these come and live in an alien land like me and they will know how much they'll miss their motherland and language. Language is something everyone must be proud of especially when you are blessed with Tamil as mother language. Honestly these people are missing the essence of their life. I hate those Tamilians who hate to learn Tamil.

[mirth]

A perspective from one who does not read or write much Tamil.

I'm not from India but in my country, we have to learn our mother tongue as a second language (English is our first language) and sit for examinations from ages 7 to 18. And before age 7, I did speak Tamil at home as my grandfather speaks mostly Tamil. So during that period, my written and spoken Tamil was reasonable.

Now I watch Tamil movies and programmes and listen to Tamil songs. But I can't read or write Tamil very well anymore as it has been many years since I did so. Even my spoken Tamil now leaves much to be desired for. I guess that the main reason for this is that I did not enjoy learning Tamil. I am proud that Tamil is probably the oldest language that is still is used widely in the spoken and written forms. But I found Tamil as a language difficult. Although I started to learn English slightly later than Tamil, English just came so much easier to me; the pronunciations, the sentence structures, etc. I guess that it helped that every other subject from maths to Science was taught in English and my close friends during the early years are non-Tamil. My earliest memory of learning Tamil is of me struggling to pronounce the "zha" sound. But I still did reasonably well in my examinations. After 18, when we did not have to take mother tongue as a compulsory subject anymore, I just let it go because I genuinely did not enjoy learning it. And as I do not require Tamil in my line of work and as majority of my friends speak other mother tongues, I lost touch. Even with my Tamil friends, I speak English because that comes more naturally to me.

What I'm saying here is that I do not despise Tamil or that I think it is beneath me or hold a sense of pride that I do not know Tamil. I do not speak English as a style statement. I just speak it as it comes more easily for me. And it is not just Tamil, I did try to learn another language when i was 13 to 14 years old but that did not work out either. I guess that I'm just not all that for multiple languages.

Also, that it does not mean that just because one does not know Tamil, Tamil culture and heritage cannot be appreciated. Ironically, I have read articles about the greatness of different aspects like the dances, music, etc but in English. Although I agree that the complete effect is lost if you do not know the language.

[Eka]

A perspective from one who does not read or write much Tamil.

I'm not from India but in my country, we have to learn our mother tongue as a second language (English is our first language) and sit for examinations from ages 7 to 18. And before age 7, I did speak Tamil at home as my grandfather speaks mostly Tamil. So during that period, my written and spoken Tamil was reasonable.

Now I watch Tamil movies and programmes and listen to Tamil songs. But I can't read or write Tamil very well anymore as it has been many years since I did so. Even my spoken Tamil now leaves much to be desired for. I guess that the main reason for this is that I did not enjoy learning Tamil. I am proud that Tamil is probably the oldest language that is still is used widely in the spoken and written forms. But I found Tamil as a language difficult. Although I started to learn English slightly later than Tamil, English just came so much easier to me; the pronunciations, the sentence structures, etc. I guess that it helped that every other subject from maths to Science was taught in English and my close friends during the early years are non-Tamil. My earliest memory of learning Tamil is of me struggling to pronounce the "zha" sound. But I still did reasonably well in my examinations. After 18, when we did not have to take mother tongue as a compulsory subject anymore, I just let it go because I genuinely did not enjoy learning it. And as I do not require Tamil in my line of work and as majority of my friends speak other mother tongues, I lost touch. Even with my Tamil friends, I speak English because that comes more naturally to me.

What I'm saying here is that I do not despise Tamil or that I think it is beneath me or hold a sense of pride that I do not know Tamil. I do not speak English as a style statement. I just speak it as it comes more easily for me. And it is not just Tamil, I did try to learn another language when i was 13 to 14 years old but that did not work out either. I guess that I'm just not all that for multiple languages.

Also, that it does not mean that just because one does not know Tamil, Tamil culture and heritage cannot be appreciated. Ironically, I have read articles about the greatness of different aspects like the dances, music, etc but in English. Although I agree that the complete effect is lost if you do not know the language.

same story, different place. I do feel like a jack when I have to constantly ring my mom up and ask her the meaning of some difficult words, especially ones in a particular song or in shows like Neeya Naana. Itz not that we don't appreciate, it cause we feel that comprehension is enough and there are a million more things to do.

[jayden]

My dear fellow indians,

The language issue has been prevailent for ages. As a patriotic Indian I feel that National Language should be given the first preference.

The irony is that even in India when we visit other states we donot have a common language to communicate (other than English). It will be a dream come true to see all the people in India communicating in one common language.

One example to follow is Malaysia. There are different states but all people speak one language - Malay.

I do agree that mother tongue is equally important but for national growth, a common platform is very important.

Love and Peace to All