My journey to becoming a polyglot for God's glory

    For many students of Tamil-medium schools, writing Tamil is pretty easy in Tamil Nadu and they generally do not have issues with Tamil as a language because it is their first language in which they study all subjects but usually Tamil-medium students have English as their second language and generally have issues when they move to more technical courses like engineering where all subjects are taught in English in most colleges. For those who study throughout in English-medium schools, we may not have issues with English because it is our medium of instruction but we may have problems in passing our Tamil exams. In fact, such cases are not too uncommon in Tamil Nadu, I remember at least 3 to 4 people in my life who, like myself, have either had issues with Tamil or Hindi as second languages. Some would try to downplay the difficulty of an ancient language such as Tamil by saying that anyone whose mother tongue is either Tamil or Hindi or whichever regional language should ideally be able to write their respective languages flawlessly, right? - No, such a view does not take into consideration the fact that Tamil is a very ancient language with a very rich literature that children are introduced to from the time they start learning their Tamil alphabet in 1st standard. These Tamil textbooks made by the Tamil Nadu stateboard of education seek to introduce children pretty early on to a version of Tamil that is seldom used in our daily lives for communication - Sangathamizh (the Tamil of Tiruvalluvar). Much of what the poet Thiruvalluvar said is written in Sangatamizh which is a very old form of the Tamil language that Tamilians do not use while talking to each other in our daily lives, why?, we would sound ludicrous to others, of course!. So, what is the purpose of learning Thirukkural? - the reason lies in the virtues that Tirukkural passes onto its readers especially if the description of those stanzas are given to the readers in simpler Tamil.

      With respect to students being introduced to Sangathamizh pretty early on at school in Tamil as a second language. I sincerely feel that such works that reflect the deep, linguistic and cultural richness of Tamil as a language should be included in the curricula of people who study BA or MA Tamil literature because these people have chosen to study Tamil as a language in depth instead of overburdening school students with a version of Tamil which we seldom use for communication in our day to day lives with our family members and friends. This actually makes passing Tamil papers at school that much more difficult. Much of what my Tamil teachers used to tell us about various Tamil works went over my head at class and never made sense to me. I remember the days when Mom used to read to me stuff just ahead of the exams because I realised that I had to clear my Tamil paper at school till 8th standard but this was surely no walk in the park!. Although Tamil as a second language at school had a mix of works attributed to authors spanning across several centuries from Tiruvalluvar and Avayar's times to modern literature. Tamil can broadly be classified into 3 categories based on the epoch of the literature that students are introduced to - 
                                               i) Oldest version of Tamil called "Sangathamizh" (language of Tiruvalluvar)
                                               ii) Senthamizh (Middle Tamil) which is slightly more comprehensible compared to Sangathamizh
                                               iii) Kochathamizh (Everyday modern communicative language)
     
          Of these, the 3rd variety which all Tamilians use for communication everyday is largely ignored in Tamil second language text books, although this is the variety that finds practical use for everyday communicative purposes. It is more than enough, if this variety of Tamil is focussed on at school level in Tamil text books but most look down upon this variety of Tamil as poor Tamil. For the same reason, some students struggle with Tamil at school level as a second language especially if they are from English-medium schools. I never managed to pass most of my Tamil exams throughout school and for the very same reason.
             
      The last Tamil exam that I failed in at school was my final exams in my 8th standard (I had joined school earlier than most other class mates of mine). It was my birthday and I was all teary-eyed when I happened to see a lady whose son had ended up with a fracture in his leg and she had come to request the principal to allow him to re-write the exam, since his health did not allow it earlier. She saw me crying and it was a moment of divine Providence to a need - my struggle with Tamil as a second language and I needed a breakthrough, little did I know that this lady that I met was a French teacher and she was more than willing to teach me French, she asked my parents to request the principal to allow me to shift to French the second time I repeated my 8th standard. Although the principal was unwilling at first, he agreed to let me shift to French but then I had to prove my mettle in that by clearing my French paper in the July test. Although I had some issues understanding the grammatical terms used by my French teacher, I eventually went on not just to clear my French paper in the July test and but also score 80%, then in the Quarterly exams I scored 87% in my French-I paper and 95% in French-II, eventually I was one of the top scorers in French till my 12th. God had turned the language which was my way out of Tamil into my strength. This was way before Tamil was made a compulsory subject in schools in Tamil Nadu during M.Karunanidhi's tenure and I was happy that I never had to deal with the likes of Tamil in my school days again!. After my years of schooling, I did my level-1 at the Alliance Française of Madras and then after finishing my engineering studies in Coimbatore, I returned and finished up to by C1 at AFM in French, meanwhile at college, I studied some German and then improved by knowledge in that language and started speaking it with my teacher and others. Then Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch because of a friend and also Latin besides Tamil and English. These are the languages that I speak fairly decently- a total of 9 of which most are European and 1 Indian, besides these, I am also learning other languages that interest me like Romanian, Attic and Demotic Greek aside from Hebrew and more recently, some Arabic and Russian, simply out of plain curiosity in Duolingo.

         While I agree that I am in no way sharing all of this with you are to boast of my accomplishments. I choose to give God all the glory and honour for His work in my life and for what He is about to do in the future. Thanks for taking the time to read through my language learning journey over the past few years and through the years of my adolescence. All that I am and have, the glory belongs to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whose I am and whom I seek to serve the best I can.