Tamizhi: Indian American prodigy’s app helps kids learn Tamil

California:  ‘Tamizhi’ an application developed by a ten-year-old Indian-American Smaran Ramnath is helping children from over 30 Indian families in the Orange County area, who are trying to learn Tamil.

Smaran Ramnath, a fifth-grader in Yorba Linda, California, explored his interest in coding and building objects using Legos during the Covid-19 pandemic and created an app that helped him overcome obstacles in learning the South Indian language. 

Tamil language has 247 different characters and sounds and uses symbols instead of letters. Smaran’s app won the prestigious Silicon Valley Challenge, a global competition for young coders hosted by BYJU’S FutureSchool, a press release said. 

Smaran learned lessons from his own difficulty and challenges in learning Tamil as the language has so many different symbols and sounds and came out with an innovative solution through his app. 

He designed the app as a game aimed at mastering 12 vowels (“Uyir Ezhuthukal”), 18 consonants (“Mei Ezhuthukal”), one special letter (“Ayutha Ezhuthu,” listed at the end of the vowel set), 216 combinant letters (“Uyir Mei Ezhuthukal”), basic colors, and the numbers 1-10. In the end, there is a reinforcement game that mixes vowels (“Uyir”) and consonants (“Mei”).  

The six pots arranged in the shape of an inverted pyramid represent the levels of the game. The app allows the student to potentially score 50 points, at which point the student attains mastery of the language. 

Image courtesy of (Photo: NRI Vision)

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