Stay closer to the culture...stay closer to the mother tongue....

It was a rough day...but I like the end of day chats with my husband...we just started to talk about India, Politics, Tamilnadu, neeya nana, Tamizh aruvi Maniyan, Tamil....& just asked each other how many English words we use while we talk in Tamil...we just counted them to be lot....

While chatting, one of the friends said "this is how this works 'da' "...another friend of mine started arguing "This is how we bring Tamil/Telugu & all languages into English"....but I think he is not worried about what's happening to our languages...neither me nor you!!!

When we list out some words, we find very common words are being replaced in English while we talk. Here are some English words which are mixed into our language unconsciously - Time, movie, rice, newspaper, book, adjust, all the numbers, towel, blanket, use, rice, lunch, comb etc...

These are just samples...just do an exercise on how many words we are mixing up in every sentence we talk...You will know how much we have lost the nature of our language..

I agree it is not practical to use all the words in Tamil- like I would like to address telephone/ television/ refrigerator/computer/laptop/cellphone & some technical words as it is than 

In Tamil. But it's good to learn the equivalent Tamil words...

I still remember my grandma/grandpa using very pure and beautiful tamil words like அடுக்களை (kitchen), கை கடிகாரம்(wrist watch) , சவுக்காரம்(soap) , சோறு(rice), பள்ளிக்கூடம்(school) ,  மளிகை கடை(grocery stores) ,  சில்லரை (coins) and many more....

But at some point we lost that touch...even our parents are little away from what our grand parents spoke & we are even more far...reasons being two...

1) attitude towards language 
2) staying away from culture

Yeah I would like to call it as attitude towards language - because people who prefer to read in English is more..people who read Dan Brown would have never read Sujatha. People who read Sidney Sheldon would have never read Thi.Ja....

Parents who are very proud to say their kids couldn't score in Tamil & they have good marks in English & science have become common...In school, if some subject has pending lessons the class borrowed is either Tamil class or PT class..neither the mother tongue nor the health is given importance!!! 

So how staying closer to culture makes us closer to language..here is how...the things closer to our culture that makes the difference. I will never say I turned the light on in the pooja room...I would only say விளக்கு ஏற்றினேன் .
 The term we use to address the diet that is given to new moms is பத்தியம்  and we never call it as diet...

Same thing for any of the things closer to our cultural life style...அஞ்சறைப்பெட்டி(traditional Indian spices box) , சொம்பு (jug) , கோவில்(temple) , விளக்கு(lamp) , அர்ச்சனை(pooja) , சாமி(god) , பாட்டு(song) , சாமான்(vessel) , மண்பானை (pot made of sand), நார்காழி(chair)  ...

அம்மி  , ஆட்டுக்கல் :-)...I really dont know how to translate them in English...Look at the beauty of cultural and lanuaguage tie-up...

If we think little detailed, in two things we cannot mix English/other languages at all... when singing lullaby(தாலாட்டு ) to the babies and when we cry for the death(ஒப்பாரி )....

Mother tongue plays a closer role in the real events of our life..Stay closer to the culture...stay closer to the mother tongue....