Tamil language being taught at South Windsor all-volunteer school

The language of Tamil is being taught to more than 300 students at the Bharathi Tamil School, based in South Windsor.

A unique community of people come together on Friday evenings, and the school utilizes several locations – including South Windsor High School and Timothy Edwards Middle School.

Besides the 330-plus students, more than 60 teachers and 15 staffers run the school, which holds two sessions – one for grades pre-K to third grade, and a second for students in grades four through eight – each Friday. Students come from surrounding towns, including Manchester, Vernon, and Ellington – as well as from as far away as Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

Tamil, according to the school’s treasurer and committee member (and former teacher), Madhu Reddy, is currently the primary language of approximately 78 million people worldwide, and is the official language of the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. It is also one of the official languages of Sri Lanka and Singapore. It also has large numbers of speakers in Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, and South Africa.

Reddy said the best analogy of the relationship between Tamil and ancient Sanskrit is the one between Latin and modern Italian.

“[Indian languages] have common roots. Most of them come from Sanskrit,” he said. “Some of the words are similar.”

The school’s curriculum is based on that of the International Tamil Academy, which is based in California. The dozens of classes that take place simultaneously are run by volunteer teachers, and class size is usually limited to six or seven students.

“You just have to make it fun for them,” said Priya Muthu, a second grade teacher from Ellington, who said she has been teaching Tamil for three years. “We want them to come here to learn about the language and the culture, so we make it fun and interactive. We want them to speak it, learn the letters, figure out the literature, and learn to write it.”

Muthu said, at the session on March 3, that her students were learning about Tamil’s letters, and how each one can be broken into parts.

“They’re learning about letters and how to split the letters into the various and how to split them into grammar parts,” she said. “Tamil has about 280 letters. They’re splitting those letters and learning to make words out of them.”

Much like other schools, lessons are also given about sharing, caring for one another, and being inclusive.

The school also has a library of children’s books in Tamil to augment student learning. There are also enrichments, including some sort of artistic performance by students at the end of each session.

While Tamil is not commonly used in the United States, it is a way for the students to bond with their culture. Many also said they use it to speak to relatives in India, whether they visit in person, on the phone, or virtually.

“Although they live in the United States, they stay connected to the culture,” Muthu said, “They stay rooted to the culture back in India. When they go back home, they want to talk to their grandparents. If they speak in English, there’s a disconnect. Now, when they learn the language here, it’s easier to connect with their family.”

Sanchaya, 11, a student from Ellington’s Crystal Lake School, said her class was taking a test.

“We’re reviewing everything that we’ve learned for the past few months. We also have a monthly test,” she said. “This is like a checkpoint, basically, that lets the teachers and staff members know what we know, and where we should improve.”

“I like coming here, because it’s very fun,” she said. “The teachers here are very friendly. They keep us engaged, and they do special programs. A few months ago, we had a Pongal program. It’s a festival that Indians celebrate. We even had a dance program for that.”

Vidhur, a 5-year-old kindergarten student, said he enjoys “reading books with his friends” and writing, and that he speaks Tamil with his mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa. There is also one other thing he likes to do at the school.

“Eat,” he said.

Drisheka, another student in the same class as Vidhur, said she likes writing the letters and reading books from the library.

“My favorite book is the princess book,” she said, adding that she also uses Tamil at home. “I talk Tamil to my mom.”

The Bharathi School is believed to be the largest Tamil school in the state.

For more information, visit www.bharathitamilschoolct.com.