Book review:

Know your Tamil

Title: Damila Bhashavata Piyageta Pelak (Steps to Learn Tamil)
Author: Dilini Kavmini

Dilini Kavmini is well familiar with the difficulties students face in learning Tamil. She had faced them too, as a student as well as a teacher. Her book, ‘Damila Bhashavata Piyageta Pelak’, written in three languages: Sinhala, Tamil and English, bears ample testimony for her ability.

A second year student at the University of Visual Arts and Performance, Kavmini read the basics of Tamil while she was still schooling. Following the O-Ls, Kavmini obtained a diploma in Tamil.

The primary point of human communication is specifically language. Without language, there cannot be proper communication among humans. If the language used is proper, then the communication will also be proper, the linguists opine.

Sri Lanka is now geared towards a trilingual society. However some quarters seem to be protesting against the move.

What we now need is ethnic reconciliation, for which learning Tamil is quite essential.

‘Damila Bhashavata Piyageta Pelak’ enables the reader to learn three languages in one go. While the reader, who is unfamiliar with Tamil letters, learns the words through phonetics, they would also get to know English words.

Tamil being India’s most ancient language is spoken by people of Tamil Nadu and by quite large communities in countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the West. Tamil is spoken by nearly seventy million people across the globe and is the official language of Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

However, the language is spoken majorly in the state of Tamil Nadu as Tamil is the mother tongue of the people living in the state.

Tourists from all parts of the world visit Tamil Nadu to experience this timeless destination renowned for magnificent temples and complex carvings. Pilgrims visit ancient sites like Chidambaram, Trichy, Thanjavur and Kanchipuram, which has its own religious and cultural significance. People touring to Tamil speaking places need to learn Tamil in order to communicate with the local people of these places.

- Francis Keenawinna