உலகத் தாய்மொழி தினம்

Deccan Chronilce, 21.2.17

Charu Nivedita, a post-modern Tamil writer, believes the only way to get people back to speaking their mother tongues properly, is a shake-up of the education system. He says, “In the west, it is necessary for a student in France or Germany to study and clear certain levels of French and German respectively, whereas in our country, we always have the option of choosing not to study our mother tongues, but taking up foreign languages. Our education system is killing our mother languages, and we need to change the way we look at our language policy.”

Charu adds – “In our state, during the recent jallikattu protests, which were about fighting for Tamil identity, one could notice how more than half of the protesters didn’t know any Tamil. If we don’t take steps to change our educational system, there is a chance Tamil could turn into Aramaic language, the language that was spoken by Jesus Christ, and now has only 3000 people who can speak the language.”