I speak Tonguelish

Of course, you have not heard of Tonguelish, but it is very real and has many dialects. The usual dialect that I use is a mixture of English and Tamil. If I’m speaking with an Indian who is not a Tamilian, I mix in Hindi instead of Tamil. At home, we speak the Tamil variety.

I might say:

“Time-uh ippadi waste pannuradhu is wrong, yenna? Please go and do something useful.”

or

“Wasting time like this is wrong, what (do you understand)? Please go and do something useful.”

And the accused might reply,

“Mama, break-ey edukka vidduradhilla, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,’ dhaaney?”

which means

“Mama, you do not ever let us take a break, Doesn’t all work and no play make Jack a dull boy?”

Ziegenbalg learnt Tamil when he came to India 300 years ago and began to translate the Bible. William Carey came to India and translated the Bible into several Indian languages. My friend Brent Rogers who works in Japan could read Greek and Hebrew as a young man and was learning Kannada when I first met him; now he has learned Japanese. I believe learning languages is a gift. I have to believe this or hang my head in shame. English is the only language I can read, write, speak, and think in.