Thirukkural No.66 describes the beauty of words uttered by infants as below. “The pipe is sweet, the lute is sweet, say those who have not heard the prattle of their own children.”
I hope every one of you might have smiled and enjoyed the way infants pick up small simple words and awesomely repeat them suitably. Such lovely speaking skill, not only in their mother tongue but in any language picked up at a tender age is so fast and enjoyable by all of us. Toddlers show unbelievable speed in picking up verbal communication skills in their mother tongue and also multiple languages depending upon their upbringing surroundings. I have come across kids of around three years speaking more than four languages! I used to wonder why we grownups struggle to learn a new language!
In my sales career I was lucky to interact with customers of various nativities, culture and languages and I enjoyed every such interaction. Throughout my career I used English for conversation with most of the customers, either due to my inability to converse in their mother tongue or vice versa.
Way back in 2003 when I joined Penang head quartered corporate as Sales Manager, I was awestruck to see my superior Mr Kassim Hussain speaking fluent Tamil. I know most of Malaysian Indians speak Tamil, but Kassim being a Malaysian by birth I never expected it from him. We had an excellent rapport throughout our association and our performance was consistent in spite of changing market dynamics. His knowledge of Tamil was central to our understanding which helped us perform better amidst all odds.
My next surprise was from Theni – a small town in Tamil Nadu. Even before my first meeting with this particular customer I know he is a Gujarati and wondered which language I may use to interact. As per my experience with Gujaratis, they are comfortable and fluent with Gujarati and Hindi and always prefer to use either of these two for their business meetings. Though they may have knowledge of other languages too, generally they avoid other languages including English. With these thought processes I arrived at the customer place at Theni for my maiden meeting and was pleasantly surprised to witness the customer’s interaction in Tamil – that too not business Tamil but pure native Tamil in local slang. I would say his Tamil was either equal or better than Tamil spoken by native Tamils. Later I understood they migrated to Tamil Nadu few decades ago and their upbringing and education from primary class was in Tamil Nadu and hence such fluency. There are businessmen doing business across India without uttering a single word in local vernacular dialect! Even after spending years in those States they used to struggle to speak in local language! This customer is an exception which has rewarded him in his business. Mr. Thulasilal Patel of Theni is unforgettable; he stands apart by beautiful Tamil he speaks and also for his business acumen. Language matters in business. It is no wonder USA is on top of world economy with 1132 million global speakers of English, followed by China with 1117 million worldwide Mandarin speakers. Let us learn as many languages as possible and be happy and successful.
