Almost forgotten..
Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 9:44PM This year we did not put the kids in Tamil school. The 2 plus hour time commit every sunday, not to mention the 5+ hours spent by San for preparing them for exams and such were simply out of reach even by thought in August. Why?
At that time it was a very likely possibility that yours truly would be traveling to Austin more frequently this Tamil School year. That concept came to an untimely end, but nevertheless it seems to have been a wise move. What with grand parents being around and our ability to take them to visit local places on Sunday, me going to Yoga Sunday morning to compensate for all the absenteeism during weekdays, long bike rides with kids on Sunday mornings after yoga class.. it has definitely been a plus getting those two hours back on Sunday.
However.. there is a big however here.. The kids have almost forgotten everything they learned in the last three years of Tamil school in less than three months. One would think that the grandparents being physically here and all what with them talking exclusively in Tamil with the kids and between themselves, their proficicency in the spoken language would improve! Not really.
Apparently the little one overheard grandma betting with Sangeetha "give me one month and will make her talk to me in Tamil".. so she takes this up as a personal challenge of sorts and tells herself "give me one month and I will make granda talk to me in English".
So we are now 4/12 months into my parents 5 1/2 month trip and Grandma is exclusively talking to grand daughter in English. The little one came and bragged to me at bedtime last week "You know. Grandma thought she was going to make me talk in Tamil. Guess who is talking in English now?"
Told her "Shame on you. Grandma knows English and Tamil. She taught English and is a school teacher. You have forgotten Tamil. This is not a challenge. She said it as a wish". Somehow my little beration didn't make any impact and was promptly brushed aside as "rantings from a patriarch not worth giving a damn" and off she went to watching some more Phineas and Ferb on youtube.
So the last one week has seen a revival of the bedtime Tamil Quiz. We sure had some fun early rounds with the kids making up imaginary words when asked to translate words from English to Tamil.
Asked the little one what is the word for Wheel?
She goes "Is it tayaru?"
We all burst out laughing. Told her Tyre is an English word even if spoken in this house with a Tamil accent.
Even Jr. starts forgetting things and when I ask her what is for Clouds she goes "Vaanam panju?" (Cloud cotton?). Seriously didn't know at that point if I should laugh or cry.
We have now covered all animals, birds, fruits, vegetables, landforms and everyday objects around the house.
The bedtime crash course is in full swing. They also seem to have lost the abiltiy to identify any Carnatic music ragas. They could identify 20+ last year. Now it is down to random guessing.
Lot of work ahead.... but bedtime is becoming a laugh riot!
Reader Comments (5)
I remember my little one used to say "Nose-u", 'Ear-u", "Eye-u", when we'd point to those body parts. She was about two then and it was the cutest thing. I enjoy reading your posts Sundar, though I rarely comment.
Don' worry Sundar annah,there is still hope. My dad used to force Tamil down my throat as a kid, it got a point where he mixed Tamil class with Math class. Not surprisingly, I hated every moment of it. Through most of my teens, i had no choice but to converse in Tamil with Ammah as her English was limited, but so was my Tamil. Still, you'd be surprised at how many of my friends with even less Tamil knowledge managed.
Anyways, long story short, the only thing that was consistent was Tamil movies, I loved watching them and I maintained most of my Tamil because of it, but I was being difficult and refused to speak.I suppose it was a phase simply because my parents were forcing me.It wasn't till they had lost all hope that I started coming around, by then I was in Uni and decided to take a humanities as a bird course. I was introduced to Thiruvalluvar and found it interesting that were using things from a Tamil scholar. My interest and passion for Tamil increased from that point. It got to a point where I purchased a Tamil novel by Kalki and my dad started laughing at me saying you can barely read the Tamil headings in the newspapers how are you going to manage this, but i took it as a challenge and ended up reading it through. I now actually work with Tamil clients as well and they are always surprised when I tell them I was raised here.
I think as long as you don't force them to learn it and take a casual approach they will be fine.I actually have many friends who like me grew up here with little to no Tamil but have had a renewed interest in their culture as they were trying to figure out their identities as young adults. My best suggestion to you, just don't force them. I think they'll be fine as they already love dressing up in pattu pavadai's and going to golu visits and things like that. Get them in to short stories from Hinduism, music, dance whatever aspect they like and I think the interest will eventually come on their own :)
'Asked the little one what is the word for Wheel?
She goes "Is it tayaru?"'
rotfl! looks like someone has been taking kannada lessons on the sly! ;-)
next time she asks for tayaru saadam ... ;-)
- s.b.
Priya, thanks. They used to count in Tamil as Onneu, Twovu, Threeu.. so it is the same in every household!
Sivajini, thanks for the note. You gave me a lot of hope. So definitely not forcing them. that is why this year we pulled them out of Tamil school to give them a break. Tonight learned that they can be quite fluent if they want to do it for fun! and creative too..
s.b., she really thought tyre was a tamil alternate for wheel.
:)
Oh...so hilarious. Well, at least they remember what vaanam and panju mean :)
Very creative!