angalAippu Genre- Short films about Tamil

[vasanthakokilam]

There have been a couple of short films about the state of Tamil and what and how people speak it. I call it the Angalaippu genre. We have seen before the one about a Tamilian dad visiting hsi son and family in the U.S. It is a social commentary on the state of U.S. raised kids and Tamil. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufvA_VNj--M)

There is another one that is floating around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebmajdLYtT8 ( this has English subtitles so those who do not understand spoken Tamil can watch it too). it is a social commentary and value judgement about Tamil speaking people mixing a lot of English words even while speaking to other Tamilians.

There is a lot to discuss/debate about the contents of this short film. It can make many of us defensive, so watch out

(BTW, as a sidebar, one thing that distracts me is the blatant pronunciation of 'zha' as 'L' in these films. It is strange to see that in a film about speaking Tamil properly. I wonder if that has become an accepted way of saying those words with 'zha' in them.)

[Ponbhairavi]

Situation in tamil nadu
in my opinion mixing english words in tamil conversation is of course bad and should be avoided as much as possible but should not obstinately enforce kottai vadi neer instead of kapi.( in theneer for tea the part தே is french. experts should find a simple andacceptable word for madam which we use in daily social conversation hundred times for fellow employees in bank bus concert halls etc and refers to people within a broad age group and AMMA is not so welcome. I appreciate the title அங்கலாய்ப்பு. But it is not such a big danger as to bring about the disappearance of tamil language.the public speakers, the writers the tamil teachers should be careful. Among the media tv channels thanthi and pudhiya thalaimurai are fairly good. think of the infiltration of sanscrit words and the emergence of anew style called manipravala nadai.e.g arunagirinaathar's tirupugazh is more alive than nakkirar,s thirumurugatrupadai
situation in NRI families.
It has been well established that a growing child can easily master 2 or 3 languages.some simple suggestions.
1- the parents in the house should make it a point to talk only in tamil WHEN THE CHILD Is PRESENT
2-in the [post dinner time , switch on a tamil tv for 5 minutes and then talk ABOUT it( Temple, story ,news item, festival music) for 5 minutes every day
3- On a week end tell them an amr chithra katha story IN TAMIL and then give the concerned book to read.