A University In Beijing Is Teaching Tamil Just Because The Students Just Love The Language

For Fu Pei lin, it was love at first sight, figuratively at least, when she gazed at the Tamil syllables and tried pronouncing them at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).

¡°Honestly, Tamil is difficult to learn. But I feel so proud and happy when I utter every syllable of it,¡± she said. Lin was among 10 Chinese students, 9 girls and a boy, who got a taste of the dravidian language on Monday when classes began for the third Indian language ¨C after Hindi and Bengali ¨C to be launched at BFSU this year.

The students will be learning Tamil Language and Literature over the next four years to earn their bachelor¡¯s degree in it.

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¡°It reminded me of my first day of learning Tamil 15 years ago. So much needs to be done,¡± head of the Tamil language department, Eesvari alias Zhou Xin, told TOI in a telephonic interview on Tuesday.

In fact, she is excited to learn more about Tamil with her students. The students got to know about the language from the university¡¯s advertisements on the website and in secondary schools.

The students admittedly know very little about Tamil, but Monday¡¯s class has got them excited. They will learn the language and tour Tamil Nadu for six to twelve months to witness the rich culture of the place where their course originated.

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¡°The tour will be part of the third year of their study after getting some basic skills on spoken and written Tamil,¡± Eesvari said. During the course, the students will be imparted basic skills such as reading, writing and interpreting.

They will be introduced to Tamil society and culture, history of the language and its geography with advanced skills such as literature reading, listening and speaking and translation.

Apart from Tamil, they would also have to choose another subject from sociology, economics, communication, law and so on.

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But Tamil will remain the main course wherein the students will have 12 hours of classes a week in the first two years, 10 hours in the third year and six to four hours in the final year.

Classes began with the videos in which Vetriselvan T A, the 2017 Harvard Tamil Chair - Global Coordinator (volunteer) and International coordinator for IATR-Y (International Association of Tamil Research-Youth), greeted the students and briefed them on the richness of Tamil.

A few renowned Tamil scholars also addressed the students through videos. Vetriselvan, who is based in Dallas, USA, told TOI that Eesvari had accepted IATR-Y invitation to spearhead its China national chapter.

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A couple of higher education institutions in China started teaching Tamil but it was dropped as they did not take it as seriously as the BFSU. ¡°The full-fledged course in Tamil is a welcome sign,¡± he said.

On the career prospects of the students, he said, ¡°I think the Indian economy is booming despite the worldwide downturn.

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Knowing any Indian language will help their career,¡± Eeswari said and added that they could also use the language skills in trade, media and teaching the language.

She also hoped that they would be instrumental in taking up academic research as Tamil study was nil in China. ¡°Hope they join me and do some research,¡± she said.