Wikipedia: Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world.[19][20] It has been described as "the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past."[21] and having "one of the richest literatures in the world".[22] Tamil literature has existed for over 2000 years.[23]
As a child, learning Tamil as a second language in an English medium school was initially sheer torture.
Although we spoke Tamil at home, I found the alphabet and the grammar excruciatingly difficult to master. My parents, sensing that immediate action was required, enrolled me in a "tuition class" run by a retired school teacher at his home a few doors up the street. These classes were in the morning, before school started! This was worse than torture - it was a nightmare.
The teacher was a strict, gravelly voiced man who always had a six inch wooden ruler in his hand. Although he used that ruler sparingly, the threat of punishment was always present. The other students in those morning classes were of varying ages and the teacher would deal with each of us in turn. I was easily the most backward student in that class and I could feel the teacher's increasing frustration with my inability to grasp even the most basic concepts. I in turn feared and simply loathed these morning "tuitions".
However much I tried convincing my parents to let me study on my own, they did not relent and insisted that I attend these classes. Weeks ever so slowly decayed into months and then suddenly one day it just happened. My half yearly results came and I had dramatically improved marks in Tamil. In fact, I had improved my grades in all the subjects.
My parents consulted with the tuition master and it was decided that there was no further need for me to go for the morning tuition classes. Surprisingly, when they told me that I finally did not have go for those classes any more, I felt a small tug of regret.
As a result of these classes I was now able to read Tamil quite easily and I started reading all the Tamil magazines and newspapers that we had at home. (We were a big "joint family" then and my grandmother and 2 aunts and an uncle lived with their families in the same house with my parents and my brother and me. These aunts were Tamil magazine mavens while my grandmother used to read a Tamil newspaper in the mid mornings.)
