Translating in your head

The kids have caught on to "vaadaa maaplai" a song from the movie Villu (which was played repeatedly on Vijay TV as part of singing, dancing competitions). They have also watched this song a gazillion times now on youtube and amused themselves with Vadivelu saying "bad girl" in his Tamlish accent.

Jr. even sings the song out loud and they both jump up and down in an attempt to dance to her singing (they have eluded the secret video so far. They stop dancing when they see me have the iPhone in the horizontal position.

So I just gave up and sat down to watch them sing and dance.

There is a line in that song which says "ratham varaadhu" which translates to "you won't bleed" or "no blood will come"..

Jr. actually sang "bloodtham varaadhu"!

I laughed and asked her why she sang that and she said "I know what the tamil words mean, but I go from the meaning in english to remember the Tamil song!"

It was amazing to see a six year old clearly understand what was going on in her head. What is really interesting here is that when it comes to English or Spanish songs, I would internally guide myself with Tamil for english songs and english for spanish songs.

Looks like speaking Tamlish in the house is not enough. It is very obvious that the primary language in our kid's head is English. Not that we expected anything different, but we know that Jr. thinks in english and then answers in Tamil.

Hopefully, a secret video will follow....

ps. the whole song is full of double meaning and the kids don't have a clue what they are singing.. while it is amusing to watch, it is also sad to see how a TV in the middle of your living room can influence your kids and how it is just not in your control .. then again, I have a reputation as a control freak dad already!

.

Comments

[Aditi]

Would love to see the video!
And, you a control freak dad??? U must be kidding!!

[Kavi]

Control Freak dad ! Thats some tag to carry Sundar !!

On another note, children pick up language like none else. I have been reading Steven Pinker's 'the stuff of thought' for some time now, and the more i think of how children pick up language is just more than fascinating !

But again..Control Freak Dad ! Well, thats a tagline that i am thinking of deploying after modification at appropriate places !

:)