It has been one of Jollin Britto’s regrets that his son, eight-year-old Starwin, knows as much Tamil as an intergalactic wayfarer. There is however hope that before the boy's summer vacation runs its course, Britto will be striking this one off his list of regrets.
“Bangalore Tamil Sangam wanted a minimum of 20 students to begin a Tamil class at a place of our convenience,” says Britto, a resident of J.P. Nagar, who wants Starwin to be able to read, write and speak his mother tongue.
So, Britto began frantically looking for people who shared his goal. To his surprise, he found 35 others in and around the neighbourhood who wanted to get proficient in Tamil.
“I am expecting more people to join once the session begins. Interestingly, the group now has a good mix of children and parents,” says Britto.
Bangalore Tamil Sangam launched its free Tamil classes last summer and ran it through the year. Classes are held every Sunday from 10.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. This time, Tamil classes for the summer begins on April 14.
Linguistic associations are running such classes, fuelled by a demand for them from parents.
Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha conducts Punjabi classes every Sunday, attended, on an average, by 45 people. Punjabi is taught through recital of scriptures and singing of songs.
“I was in the first batch of students when the programme was started 12 to 13 years ago,” says Harman Singh, who now prepares the syllabus and teaches at the Sabha.
The Sabha will run a special Punjabi youth camp for the summer on May 1.
“We are expecting about 70 children for the summer camp,” says Harman. Those children who cannot attend the weekend classes opt for the summer camp.
Malayalam Mission, an initiative of the Kerala government to teach non-resident Malayalees the mother tongue, now has 130 centres in Bengaluru where Malayalam classes are conducted through the year and lead by homemakers. For this vacation, it is organising a three-day introduction class during May last week, open for present as well as new students.
New teaching methods
Most of the associations use innovative teaching methods and visual aids to help students learn the language in the shortest time possible.
Malayalam Mission conducts an exam and issues certificates to those completing the various levels.
There are other linguistic associations that would like to make a start teaching their language. Bengalee Association Bangalore is one of them.
For a long time, this group has been planning to start Bengali classes, but has had to put it on the back burner as summer sees most of the Bengali families leaving for their hometown.
So, the Association does the next best thing -- runs programmes for youngsters to familiarise them with Bengali culture and arts.
Profiling initiatives that work to enrich life in the city
