Indian should think about this - please read and realise
Dear friends,
I am an Indian expatriate (an Engineering Management Professional) living in Malaysia for 16 years , working for one of the Top companies in Malaysia and I also got this mail from many sources.
Being in Malaysia for 16 years and also married to a Malaysian wife , in my day to day life, I have met so many Malaysian Indian Professionals / white collar job personnel, blue collar job personnel and also many business men.
Moreover, since my two daughters are studying in Tamil school, I have had many opportunities to interact with many parents while giving motivational talk, giving tuition to Tamil students etc. In a nut shell, I have come across all levels of Malaysian Indians and also the Chinese and Malays.
So, based on my third eye view and observation, I would like to ask all of you a few questions.
1.0 How many of you can read, write and speak your mother tongue Tamil (I would focus only on the language Tamil as Majority of Indians here are ethnic Tamils)?
2.0 How many of you have enrolled your children in Tamil schools or at least thinking of enrolling your children in Tamil schools?
3.0 How many of you have donated money to Tamil schools, more than what you have been keep donating/spending bulk of your money to Temples and Churches?
4.0 How many of you buy and read Tamil News papers?
5.0 How many of you write the Name Boards of your shop/company ( if you are a business man) in Tamil language also along with other languages?
I am very sure that a majority of you, I may not be surprised if all of you who are in this e-mail list give an answer None, None, None, None and None. If you ask a Chinese or Malay the above questions, the answers will be definitely a positive answer.
Are you all fighting for the rights of poor Malaysian Indian Tamils through these English e-mails? If so, first you should fulfill the above requirements. If you can not read, speak and write your own mother tongue, how can you understand the grouses of poor Indians, the majority of these poor Malaysian Indians are Tamil speaking people. All their grouses are published in Tamil News papers which you can not read and understand then how can you understand their feelings.
When I ask my own Malaysian relatives to converse with their children in Tamil they do not even consider and they themselves do not attempt to speak in Tamil. Once, when I asked my relative to enroll their children in Tamil school they said Tamil school standard is very poor whereas the same relative who studied in high standard national schools can not identify "verbs" in an English poem, but doing a degree course in English, sounds very funny!!! Is it not? But, it is a fact.
I have not come across a single Chinese whether he follows Buddhism or Christianity or Hinduism or Islam, who can not speak Chinese language. I have also not come across a single Malay who can not speak their Malay language.
Whereas the Indian Tamils, if they start following Christianity or Islam they do not speak in Tamil ,they start speaking in English or other language and they do not call themselves as Tamils and they call the Hindus only as Tamils. Have they become English or British after becoming a Christian? Poor understanding or no understanding about religion, culture, race, ethnic group and finally about language.
Language is the only tool to establish a strong bondage among communities and so every one of you must equip yourself with that tool first. Communication through e-mails in English will only satisfy your ego, it won't serve to address the root of the problem.
First and foremost, every human being should feel proud about their mother tongue (that is why it is called mother tongue) and their culture. All of you should stop thinking that Tamil schools are meant for low class people and speaking the Language Tamil is low class and it is a pariah language.
If two Germans meet they speak in German.
If two French meet they speak in French.
If two Japanese meet they speak in Japanese.
If two Chinese meet they speak in Chinese.
If two Malay meet they speak in Malay.
Because they all have the pride about their language. If two Tamils meet, they speak in English!!! Because, they can not speak Tamil and what a shame?
Even in TV advertisements, the Chinese and Malay segments spoken by the respective race person in their mother tongue is very clear / fluent / confident, but the Tamil segment spoken by the Indian Tamil person is always not clear / fluent / confident like Malay or Chinese. Why? Because, the Tamils do not take pride in their language. This must change first and that can be done only by every individual's willingness.
If any one of you do not respect and take care of your mother, your neighbor will not respect you. Am I correct? The same goes to the language, if you do not respect and take care of your mother tongue, other race people will not respect you and they will only laugh at you. This has been experienced by my wife who is an English Teacher in a National school and many of her colleague Malay teachers have praised her for sending our children to Tamil schools. So, all of you please think.
You may ask what have I done for the language ?
1.0 Since I am an Expatriate my company pays for my children to study in International schools, but, I opted to send my children to Tamil schools because they should become part of the community and they should not get alienated by not able to speak their mother tongue and not able to understand the local culture, after all they are Malaysian citizens.
2.0 We practice speaking with our children in all three languages. I strictly speak in Tamil, my wife in English and Malay. With the result, all of my three children, even my 3 year old daughter can speak fluently in all three languages.
3.0 I spread the message of importance of putting the children in Tamil schools and I have managed to convince a Malaysian Indian Engineering professional to switch over his children from Chinese school to Tamil school.
We should not be fanatic about language, we can learn as many languages as we can, but, without ignoring our mother tongue. Only the mother tongue can unite the people and create a bonding.
Quote:
"The most influential person who will talk to you all day is you, so you should be very careful about what you say to you!" -- Zig Ziglar.
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Hmm, but ok la, i know a bit Hindi...
