Malaysia consists of approximately 10% Indians. Out of this 10%, about 7% are Tamils; Tamil in the sense of their mother tongue.
Unfortunately these Indians (Tamils) are “shy” to speak Tamil. They feel very guilty to speak out in their own mother tongue and almost everyone knows about this matter. Indians in Malaysia are very proud to speak in English and it is a very common scene where we could see Indians (Tamils) speaking English language throughout their entire conversation. It is a very normal thing for Indians to speak English as a key or start up language when we first meet someone.
In most situation, I have to ask them whether they know Tamil before I start speaking Tamil to them because most of them do not know to speak Tamil. And the worst part is most of them pretend by saying that they do not khow how to speak Tamil.
This
“anti-Tamil speaking” habit exists almost everywhere and every age group. We
can see it even in kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities, offices …
the list goes on.
Basically,
most of the Indians who have the basic English literacy will most probably
hesitate to speak Tamil as he or she prefers to speak English. The worst part
here is, most of the Indians in Malaysia have the ability to speak Tamil very
well but they pretend by saying that they do not know how to speak Tamil at all
in a very proud manner.
Another
group of Indians are the ones who
really do not know how to speak Tamil because English language was used as their
primary language in their homes; therefore their mother tongue was converted
from Tamil to English by their own parents.
Therefore,
basically, there are two types of Tamil illiterates: one is a pretender while
the other is the ignorant.
The
questions here is: why are the Tamils in Malaysia shy to speak in their own
mother tongue within their community? Actually, they should be proud to speak
Tamil, which is also the world’s second oldest language after Sanskrit.
Is
it because they think it is glamour to speak English? If this situation goes on,
the end result will be something like in the Mauritius where Tamils there
no longer speak Tamil and they have adopted some other language as their mother
tongue. Not to mention they regret for that. But it is too late and nothing can
be done now.
The
truth is, some of the Tamils even think themselves as “whites”. I am very
sure that if a genie appear to them and granted a wish, they would ask to become
a “white”. This may sound like a joke but it is the actual situation.
Besides
the shyness to speak their mother tongue, they even like to imitate and behave
like the westerners. Basically, from my personal observation, most Tamils in
Malaysia have mentally converted themselves to “whites” or “orang putih”.
At
this juncture, I would like to say that English is an international and universal
language, which should be mastered well by everyone. Even this article here
is written in English. English plays a very crucial role in our daily life and
it is true that it is hard to live without knowing English. One cannot survive
in this world without it. I even urge everyone to educate themselves well in
English.
But
the point here is: do not make English as the mother tongue … to the extend
where Tamil speaking Indians use English as their major language to communicate
within their community.
Please
do not stop speaking English. Instead, increase the usage of Tamil in your daily
life.
New
Straits Times, 18 July 2002
Kavya, August 2002