So it clearly stems from an obsession with the West that runs deep in any culture that’s not from Canada or The United States, but this need to aspire to be “All American” may be hurting the world’s multiculturalism. We all remember when Dhanush sang “Why This Kolaveri Di” and we were all excited here in Canada because we could seemingly understand a Tamil song without English subtitles, but there is an apparent deficit to this so-called “Tanglish” or “Tamglish” which is pretty much a broken form of English/Tamil.
Check out this tidbit from Wikipedia (And yes, I consider it to be a somewhat reliable source ;)):
“In The Hindu in 2010, a student in Chennai told of the widespread use of Tanglish by teenagers in her city. She said Tanglish was “something almost every teenager in Chennai uses”, but noted that her mother said Tanglish was “murdering the [Tamil] language”.[3]
The Tanglish lyrics of the film song “Why This Kolaveri Di“, which went viral on Internet social networking sites in November 2011, have been identified as a factor in the song’s popularity.[4][5]
Use of Tanglish, or code-switching between Tamil and English, has been reported among Tamil-speaking immigrant populations in Malaysia and Canada, particularly by young people.[6][7]“… (Wikipedia Tanglish)
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I mean in a selfish fashion, we would love if Kollywood (Tamil Cinema) just filmed entire movies in this Tamglish, but it may do more harm than good. We in the west tend to be a tad self-centered in these dealings, because in a sense, the same exotic nature that we love about other cultures would be stifled to death if we molded them to cater to us. It is a nice thing, movies like “Bend it Like Beckham” and Bride and Prejudiced, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I know I am not getting the full picture that I do when I am completely submerged in the Eastern culture, Language and all.
I know it is probably a cool thing for youth to use Tamglish in the schoolyard; perhaps as a sign you are going places. I mean growing up in Canada with The States literally next door, all I wanted to be was America. In fact, the first thing I ever brought with my first paycheck when I was 14, was a pair of Levi’s Blue Jeans, so you can just imagine.
Is there a solution to this Tanglish epidemic in Chennai? Or is this just the way the world is heading? Language does evolve does it not? It would be a tragedy to lose Tamil to a murdered form of English, but hey, we’ve already lost English to a decapitated form of writing; the text message.
Tamil Glam is a blog/e-zine that wants to see more written about Tamil culture and entertainment in English. You can hit us up on Twitter @TamilGlam or send us an email tamilglam@gmail.com. For the latest Tamil Movie and Entertainment Reviews in English subscribe to Galatta, we know we do!
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