Name boards in Tamil - தமிழ் வளர்ப்பு?

Recently Tamil Nadu Government passed an order that all shopping establishments must have their name boards in Tamil and with the result most of the shops have come up with translation of their business names in Tamil.

Here are a few samples of the name boards in Tamil.

Imagine a car mechanic telling the car owner that "kalabani" has to be changed!

                                

We Tamilians seem to learn some new words in our mother tongue But are we ever going to use most of these words? Can you imagine asking for "kulambi" in a hotel or even your own house? All of us are going to continue saying coffee or kaapi. On top of it, I wonder if kulambi (குளம்பி) is right or is it kuzhambi (குழம்பி)? The latter sounds better suited.

Even for people who can’t read the English board, Tamil words like vedhupagam (cakes), adumanai (bakery/snacks) are strange!

The best is this  - Panikuzhai for Icecream!


                                   

Some establishments have transliterated their names from English to Tamil. In some cases, it is okay, but banks can do translation to vangi as it is a familiar term to the public!

Is the new rule not applicable to petrol bunks? I don’t seem to have noticed any petrol bunk with nameboards in tamil - translated or transliterated!

Linguist?!!

“Morninglenthu pesi pesi en vaai valikarathu” (my jaws are aching due to so much of talking from morning) my boss looked at me strangely as I usually don’t speak such long sentences to him in Tamizh.

My first working day in the New Year started like this:

I had received from our printer the proof of the new packaging material we are making for our buyer in France. It is full of French, German and Dutch – right from product description to the recipe with a list of ingredients to be used along with the material we are supposed to put in the packaging.

By checking, I mean that I just compare the artwork sent by our buyer with the proof sent by the printer to ensure that the strange markings - ˆ ´ ` are put in the right places and the nutrition facts are printed correctly. This is apart from checking the colour, picture, production/best before date etc.

1. To our Malayali printer: Good Morning Mr. Sadiq, Happy New year, the proof is okay, I am sending you a confirmation, please go ahead with printing.

2. To our Malayali Muslim supervisor: Mr.Shanavas, kaise hain, aap kab Bhimavaram jaa sakthe hain? Packaging Friday thak ready hoyega, lekin thoda packer se baat karke production jaldi complete karneko boliye. (Mr.Shanavas, how are you, When can you go to Bhimavaram? Packaging will get ready by Friday; but please speak to the packer and ask them to speed up production)

3. To our Telugu packer’s office: Bhooshan garu unnara, ledha, yeppudu ostharu? (Is Mr. Bhooshan there, not there? When is he expected?)

4. Talk with Tamil QC in packer’s office: Mr. Nagaraju, Mr, Bhooshan eppa varuvar? Evalo cartons readynu kekkanum. Vandha phone panna solrengala? (Mr. Nagaraju, when is Mr. Bhooshan expected? Would like to know how many cartons are ready. Can you please ask him to call me?)

5. Follow up with our Cochin office regarding Printer: Kuttan, Sadiqenda officela poi, innala courier cheydhalla, aa carton kaanichu, thirichu officela kondu varanum (Kuttan, please go to Sadiq’s office, show him the carton we couriered to you yesterday and bring it back)

Not only my jaws ached trying different languages from morning but I also got confused and made the above statement to my boss!

Hope I have more opportunities to improve my vocabulary in all these languages and learn more this year!

Happy New Year!