Singapore Tamil Youth Conference 2018 Toolkit Toolkit 2018 Final | Page 9

Current Status of the Spoken Language
Fall in Tamil usage amongst the
populace
Despite large-scale efforts such as
the annual Tamil Language Festival
that aim to encourage the use of
Tamil, the Census Population
Reports (1980, 1990, 2000, 2010) and
General Household Survey 2015, do
not show a significant improvement
in the number of people who speak
in Tamil, particularly in the
households.
Population census data from 2010 revealed that
the use of Tamil language in Indian households
has fallen over the decade (Department of
Statistics Singapore, 2010).
Moving forward: Understanding
the need to preserve Tamil
Tamil must be brought across not just
as an emotional language that lends us
identity but also as a core element of
our daily lives.
* The percentage of
Chinese speaking Indian
households was too
insignificant to be included
There is a pressing need to correct the
misconception that Tamil is an inferior language
and to arrest this decline in its usage.
How do we contextualise Tamil
language on a global scale?
• Tamil language is very much
associated with Tamil culture.
E.g. Focusing on the Scientific
outlook of Tamil traditions.
• E.g. In the National Elective
Tamil Language Programme
(NETP) organized by Umar
Pulavar Tamil Language Centre,
discussions were held on why
there is a need to preserve
traditional Tamil food.
• It was emphasised that the low
glycaemic index of these foods
allows them to be healthy and
nutritious for people.
• This proves the scientific value
of Tamil culture and its
continuing relevance in today’s
world.
• Teachers have lamented that st udents view
the usage of Tamil language in social
settings as inferior to English.
• Among the Asian classical languages, only
Tamil and Chinese are being spoken today.
• Tamil language in the 21st century.
• With the formulation of Tamil keyboards
and applications with Tamil interfaces, the
language continues to remain relevant today.
• However, youth continue to associate the
language with the past and ancient traditions.
• In a survey that was done in 2011 by
YJC for their annual pre-university
seminar, it was gathered that only
24.4% of Tamil students went on to
visit Tamil websites on the internet.
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