Issue 5 : Increasing the Usage of Tamil by Students Outside Classroom
Issue 5 : Increasing the Usage of Tamil by Students Outside Classroom
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Post-Panel Discussion
Recommendation 1 : Re-Strategizing Tamil Language Campaigns for young adults
• Tamil Language Festival campaign done via TV and Media does not interest the Tamil youths much as they do not watch TV often . The campaign videos and collaterals can be made more attractive and youth centric . They can be made available on online platforms , such as YouTube or Netflix , which are readily accessible to Youths .
• Tamil language Council could organise a multi-faceted campaign that targets young couples and parents to increase Tamil language usage and to teach them strategies to effectively be bilingual in their families .
• This will be organised by parenting organisations in conjunction with Tamil language organisations . The parents will be engaged in discussions , workshops and seminars to teach them strategies . There can also be media tie-ups to complement the hands-on teaching .
• Media focused self-learning tools would be effective when targeting youths . For example an application that helps you learn the correct spelling of Tamil words etc .
• Some of these parenting workshops or seminars can have a nominal payment fee . They can be partly sponsored by the government or Tamil Indian organisations . Subsidies can be made available for young parents .
• Volunteering opportunities that target lower income families can be created for Tamil speaking youths and volunteers to encourage interactions in Tamil .
• The campaigns can encourage parents to borrow Tamil language books and read them as bed-time stories ; play audio-video cassettes and Tamil language related videos on YouTube .
• The Tamil Language Festival can have more app developing competitions to encourage developers to create apps that aid with Tamil language learning especially for younger children .
• TV or Radio shows can have Tamil word play gameshows to raise interest .
• Celebrities that are role models can endorse these and have direct interactions to inspire more people to speak Tamil . Popular personalities will definitely have a bigger impact on theyounger population .