State of Tamil
- Parents above 45 speak
English and Tamil to children.
- Parents between 25-35
and professionals converse mainly in English.
- Tamil lacks status of
other official languages (as reflected in tv programming, signs etc.)
- Enables Singaporean
Indians of sub-group be represented in Parliament as one ethnic group. This
allows the practice if their various cultures.
- Tamil video
tapes/movies. Mixture of Tamil and English spoken with ungrammatical dialogue
and obscure words.
- Tamil Murasu is
the only locally published Tamil newspaper and the only locally published Indian
language newspaper.
- It began as a
mouthpiece for the Tamil Reforms Association and has since evolved into a paper
that strives to promote Tamil culture and language.
- The Tamil Murasu also
provides vocabulary and articles on prominent Tamil literary figures and is
known examination tips on O-Level and A-Level Tamil. This is an effort to
promote Tamil even among non-Tamils through formal instruction and is in line
with the language being seen as the representative of the entire Indian populace
of Singapore.
- In the Tamil radio
unit, time is allocated for programmes in other Indian languages like Telegu,
Punjabi and Malayalam but their time is rather minimal compared to the
broadcasting time in Tamil. Furthermore, programmes in other Indian languages do
not provide information or instruction but are usually centered around music and
entertainment only.
- Efforts are also made
to allocate time to songs and poems composed by locals as a means of promoting
the Tamil language.
- The Tamil
Television Unit aims to provide programmes that combine information and
entertainment. More efforts are also being made to air a variety of local events
and dramas but the staple of Tamil programmes are still those from Tamil Nadu,
India.
- The media in Singapore
as a whole has played a vital role in the propagation of the Tamil Language and
it has helped give Tamil Language in Singapore a more secure foothold over the
years.
- Tamil has
unfortunately become merely a means of communication and fails to provide the
necessary cultural bridge.
- Most English-educated
Indian parents look down upon the Tamil language.
- Tamil has been
considered the link language of Singaporean Indians. But this is in conflict
when members of other Indian sub-groups voiced their opposition to this idea and
clearly stated that they didn’t see Tamil as being a link language.
- The wide acceptance of
English as the medium of intra-ethnic communication has also prevented Tamil
from being established as the link language of Indians.
- The field of Tamil
research is a neglected one due to the lack of response and sufficient interest.
- It is a popular belief
that only students who know Tamil should read Tamil as a subject at university
level.
- Tamil teachers used to
occupy the lowest economic status about twenty-five to thirty years ago. This
was due to the teachers usually being G.C.E. (O level) holders.
- Now most teachers are
graduates or G.C.E. (A level) holders trained as Diploma holders. This has paved
the way for the standardization of pay for equally qualified persons.
- Tamil Language is
available in almost all primary, secondary and tertiary academic levels. If
unavailable, alternatives like the “Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre” have
been set up to aid students in schools that don’t have the resources to
provide Tamil language teachers.
- A Tamil Studies
Department was only recently established at the University of Singapore after
long years of petitions and requests. It provides modules on Elementary and
Intermediate Tamil. It has yet to make an impact in the form of research papers
in Tamil about Tamil.
- It is notable that
only the National University of Singapore and the National Institute of
Education among the higher institutions have a Tamil Studies Department.
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