Namaskaaram! Welcome to Learn Malayalam with EliKutty- a project now 4 years in the making. For those of you who have been around since that first post in 2018, I appreciate your support.
As EliKutty turns four, I would like to share the highlights of my journey of not only falling in love with Malayalam, but finding my voice online and being a part of some important conversations about learning Malayalam, preserving culture, and advocating for mother tongue education.
Elikutty’s humble beginnings were mostly paper and pen based posts to create a Studygram. After meeting my husband and deciding to learn his mother tongue, I struggled to find useful resources and UAE’s Skype ban made online tutoring virtually impossible. My early notes were full of kunju handwriting errors but broke things down from an English speaker’s perspective. I used my background in English Language teaching to help draw the similarities and explain Malayalam grammar.
After about a year, Elikutty got picked up by the media, went viral, and soon I started a YouTube account . I made video content including Travel Vlogs in Malayalam, One Minute Malayalam Tutorials, and interviews from interesting voices in the Malayalee sphere.
From then, my love for learning languages and using social media as a way to study Malayalam gave way to some fun opportunities. I had a solo journey across Kerala from Kasaragod to Trivandrum. I collaborated with singers, chefs, and historians. I was invited to speak at TEDx Hanoi, Women in Language, and the Polyglot Conference. I continued to be featured in articles in Indian media, and am now working toward becoming a published author.
When I am not working with Malayalam, I have been growing and developing my career as and educational leader and professional. I first started teaching in 2009, working in South Korea, USA, the UAE, and Vietnam. I’ve grown from classroom teaching to assessments to examiner to center manager and now director. I enjoy training teachers to equip them with the tools to effectively inspire the love of learning in their students.
Looking to the future, I hope that Malayalam and other regional languages flourish under the influence of social media and the rekindling of the pride of identity and language.
Now, let’s learn Malayalam!
Appol ellaam paranjathu pole.