What do you do when your Tamil class is hard?

The Tamil language is one of the Dravidian languages spoken primarily in Tamil Nadu, India where it also holds the status of being an official language. The Tamil language has been used as an official language in Puducherry, India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. it is spoken extensively by the Tamil immigrant population in Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa. it was recognised in 2004 as a classical language in India, after fulfilling three key parameters of being an ancient language with autonomous traditions and large reserves of preserved ancient literary works. It is interesting to note that over 66MTamil speakers existed at the beginning of the 21st century when the first language data was recorded.

There could be several reasons why you may find your language class more hard. A few could be due to lack of concentration and time due to a busy schedule, lack of resources or guidance after classes, your age, the number of hours you 8invest studying, the quality of teacher and language education, the methodology adopted to teach students, you own personal style of learning, lack of access to supplementary study means or inability to use them due to several reasons, fear of making mistakes and getting embarrassed, and so on and so forth.

So, how do you ensure despite all your challenges you have a smooth sail?

1. Believe in yourself
2. Acknowledge that this journey would be as difficult or easy and any other language
3. Learn to hang around
4. Do not give up hope
5. Find alternate means to get to what you have missed or could not understand
6. Recognise that failures are not meant to retreat but they help you understand how you can reapproach the same challenge differently to overcome it
7. Know that your brain cells won’t grow anymore but your efforts can certainly shrink that mountain into a molehill
8. Supplement your classroom studies with free online apps, authentic grammar resources, reading and writing resources, free online tests to gauge your knowledge of the subject 
9. No, do not look for another trainer to teach you. That’s a nono especially if you do not want to get further confused with two separate training methods!
10. If you happen to be lucky you would have some of your native language measures up to the Tamil language, grab that opportunity. 
11. For those who wouldn’t have that opportunity, start afresh with a mindset that you would learn Tamil just like you learnt your native language in past.
12. Set short milestones for yourself to cover your course with greater focus and attention. 
13. Take one step at a time. 
14. Do not be overambitious instead try to be realistic in your expectations.
15. Realise that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process. Laugh it off.
16. {Practise speaking the language loudly in front of a mirror. 
17. Start with small words and build conversations with small meaningful sentences. 
18. No setback should push you behind. Hold your fort bravely.
19. There are many changes you can incorporate into your learning to get to a less stressful situation in the class. Study well in advance before you come to class as this would greatly help you. 
20. Know that challenges exist in every language so you and your problems aren’t isolate. 

Spoken Tamil, including changes in the phonetic structure of words, has considerably altered throughout time. This has resulted in Tamil being a diglossic language, where disparities exist in the formal and written language settings between colloquial versions of the language. The biggest regional difference lies between the erstwhile Tamil state of Jaffna (Sri Lanka), its surrounding area and the Tamil spoken in India. There exist phonological variations between the north, the west and the south language varieties spoken in Tamil Nadu. And then these regional linguistic variants interact with the socioeconomic class or caste-based varieties.