Tamil

All right. Here's the pictures, finally, that I promised. These are my notes on Tamil. I do have one magazine in Malayalam, also. So here are pictures of what the languages look like.

This first picture is the collection of most of my books that I have been given or managed to purchase. There are some stores in town that sell the magazines. I grabbed a dictionary and a book with common words.

I have been working hard at learning. I have made labels and have posted them on my belongings in my room. Whenever I use it, I have to say the word. This card says, "Kadavu," which means door.

Here's a page of the writing in Tamil from one of my magazines I was given.

Here is the Tamil alphabet. I have written this myself. If you look, you can see the mistakes that I have made. It's not perfect, but you can get the point. The top row are vowels. The far left column is consonants. It's like a times table. I can't get the letters to type onto this page; however, their a vowel + their k consonant = ka, etc. etc. for all the other letters.

This is a close-up of the writing in the magazine. I have amazed myself at the fact that I can pick it up and read it. I just don't know what all of the words mean yet... lol. Guess I might have learned the alphabet a little too well... :D

This is a picture of the writing in Malayalam. This language I am not learning much in. I can say a phrase or two. It is, however, a sister language to Tamil. These languages are very similar so perhaps after learning Tamil, I can make do with Malayalam. Only time will tell with that one.

So here's what's occupying my time. I meet tons of people who speak these languages, and I enjoy the challenge. The people challenge me, too. They teach me words and phrases every day. They also quiz me on things like numbers and colors. I get mixed reactions. Most of them are excited that I am learning. However, one or two of them don't like it because they realize I'll understand what they're saying. But most of them are so excited. They took the time to learn my language, and now I am taking the time to learn theirs. So far, it's working. Wish me luck!