My Problem With Tamil School

My Problem With Tamil School

Tamil might be the oldest language, but it’s one which is quickly dying out. Even though every year more than 1000 students across the nation enrolls in Tamil school, most people don’t know how to get past in writing their own name. No one can be blamed though. The Tamil language might be one of the oldest and richest languages, it might also be one of the hardest to learn, especially if you come from an English background.  This is something I felt my Tamil school teachers didn’t understand.

My main problem I found with the Tamil schools I went to was they taught us everything as if it were a math equation. Yes, stereotypes do state that people from Asia are good at math and science. After 20 years being in this country, I can state that this statement is FALSE, and it is NOT the best way to teach someone a language. I remember one of my first lessons was:

அ + க் = க 

See this is a great way to teach someone whose minds work with addition and equality signs. But for the majority of students in my kindergarten class, we barely even knew 1+1 =2, let alone this structure.

We would have a book thrown at us in the beginning of the semester (costed about $100 if I recall correctly), and then we would be forced to do a couple of exercises. It was then assumed since we knew how to complete 5 exercises, we then knew how to write articles. Again, this is not math. Just because we write the alphabet 50 times, doesn’t mean we’ll have every sound memorized.

My suggestion to anyone deciding to teach Tamil, is to always remember that you are teaching a LANGUAGE, not an equation. The best teaching method, for teaching any subject, is to use applications. Get students writing sentences and paragraphs. And make sure this happens in class, not at home where their parents can help them.

If teaching a beginning class, always assume that they’re at kindergarten level (if they aren’t, they shouldn’t be in your class!). Teach with visuals, not with translations. But most of all,  teach out of passion, not out of obligation.