THE beauty of living in Malaysia is the multilingual society created from years of different cultures living harmoniously with one another.
Another living proof of Malaysia’s cultural melting pot is an elderly Malay man who recently went viral for being able to speak fluent Tamil.
The TikTok video by @bob_jeeva showed the elderly Malay man whose name is Mann from the Ladang Gula estate in Kuala Kurau, Perak, explaining the meaning of an old Tamil proverb.
In the video, Mann sounded no different from a native Tamil speaker, indicating his mastery in the language.
The proverb “urar pillayai uddi valarthal taan pillai taana valarum” according to Mann is when one takes care of someone else’s child, this helps their own children grow up as well - - surprisingly.
Mann also further explained when the husband looks after his wife, the child also benefits from it.
On top of that, two Malaysian Indian youngsters seated nearby Mann said that they were not familiar with the classic proverb and only learned it after Mann’s explanation.
Netizens were wowed by Mann’s prowess in explaining the old Tamil proverb and being able to elaborate on the meaning of it while others remarked on how they also knew older people who grew up in the estates and were fluent in Tamil.
Besides that, other netizens also mentioned how other races have picked up speaking different languages just by interacting with their “friends”.
It is not surprising to come across a Malaysian who can speak in different languages besides Bahasa Melayu and English; however, it is not a very common sight either.
Learning to communicate in different languages is an advantage but it is another thing to understand the cultural significance of said language.
