Did you know that Tamil is the oldest living language in the world? It was born before 500 BC and is the only ancient language that has survived up to the modern world. It is also the official language in India, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.
Whether you are drawn to its intricate script, rich literary heritage, and ancient origins or you have a personal or professional motivation for learning Tamil, it is important that you identify your learning goals and preferences early on. This way, you’ll be able to find the best resource that suits your needs and preferences and make your learning more efficient and effective.
Here at ALR, we’ve tried and tested Tamil apps, courses, classes, lessons, and others to come up with a list of the best Tamil learning apps and what to avoid to make your learning journey easier. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Resources for Learning Tamil Online
Even though Tamil might not be as popular a language to learn as Spanish or Mandarin, there are still lots of resources. From classes and courses to podcasts, movies, and YouTube channels, let’s look at some of the options out there.
Tamil Alphabet (Script) and Pronunciation
You won’t get far without knowing how to read, write, and pronounce Tamil words. At some point, you’ll need to understand bus timetables or write a Facebook message.
This 18-module Tamil script course hosted by the University of Texas breaks down the alphabet clearly and comprehensively. Each module also has a downloadable set of exercises, while the hard-to-find handwriting worksheets will help you with your writing. Despite that, this course is best used with a teacher or to support another script-learning method. There are no audio recordings to support the pronunciation guides.
In fact, you might find it pairs well with Noolagam. This website, designed for kids, is light on explanation but contains audio clips of the Tamil characters along with additional worksheets and some flashcards. It will also teach you numbers and basic vocabulary.
TamilCube is another option for learning the Tamil script and numbers. Each character is accompanied by one or two English words that contain the same sound, making the pronunciation more accessible.
You could find yourself wishing for a greater explanation than TamilCube gives you, however. For example, யீ is compared to yield and employee – but not only are these different phonemes, but they also sound different depending on your accent. Similarly, the graphics designed to help you write characters aren’t always the best depiction of the strokes.
Looking for something you can use on your phone? Try the freemium app Tamil101, in which you use your fingers to trace the letters on your screen and then receive a score out of 100.
Online Tamil Classes and Language Exchanges
Tamil Language Classes
A teacher can break down tricky concepts in a more accessible way, as well as give you personalized feedback, check your homework, and make sure your studies are structured.
If you’ve got a local Tamil temple, it’s worth checking there first. Some of them offer free language classes. However, if you don’t live near a temple or your local one doesn’t offer any classes, you’ve still got a few options.
Hindustani Tongue is an answer to our collective Tamil students’ prayers. It is a 1-on-1 tutoring course with native Tamil-speaking teachers, and compared to other tutoring platforms, its teachers go through robust training sessions and there is a framework of basic language learning progressions. This takes much of the guesswork out of picking teachers that plague other tutoring platforms. Another great thing about Hindustani Tongue is that your previous lessons are all available in Google Classroom for you to review for as long as you are a student! And you can ask questions to your teacher via chat any time.
italki was one of the first websites connecting language students with online tutors, and it remains one of the biggest today. You’ll find several Tamil teachers there, all with their own teaching methods and prices. We also like italki’s community features, although you can only access them on the app. These include a forum, posts, and exercises – a way to upload your writing or a voice recording and get free feedback.
Preply, one of italki’s competitors, also has a good selection of Tamil teachers. It matches italki in many of the free stuff, and you can communicate with your tutor via chat, which is a super nice feature.
iLearnTamil has a structured Tamil syllabus and, just like with the other platforms, you can book classes to suit your schedule. While italki and Preply require students to be at least 18, iLearnTamil offers classes for all ages.
Verbal Planet has a handful of Tamil teachers. It takes a fairly structured approach, with each teacher giving you detailed feedback on your speaking, listening, reading, and writing after the class.
Verbling also has a small section of Tamil teachers. We like the classroom platform and the payment processing options.
Unlike the other sites, Learner Circle doesn’t offer private classes. However, it does have group Tamil classes for children.
Community Feedback
Sometimes, you think you’ve understood something, but you want to double-check. Or perhaps there’s something that your dictionary just can’t explain. That’s where the community-feedback apps come into play.
HiNative lets you post and answer questions. Although we found that some questions weren’t entirely relevant, we think it’s a useful language-learning resource.
LangCorrect lets you upload your writing, receive community corrections, and correct other people’s work. We love the concept, but it’s still quite new so sometimes you might struggle to get corrections. Hopefully, the number of Tamil users will keep growing.
Language Exchanges
Want to improve your spoken or written fluency, make friends, or simply put your Tamil into practice? Try a language exchange.
Some of the most popular language exchange apps include HelloTalk, Speaky, and Tandem. We’ve reviewed them all (HelloTalk, Speaky, Tandem) and also compared HelloTalk and Tandem to help you choose between them.
Depending on where you live, you might also find an in-person language exchange. MeetUp boasts over a dozen Tamil groups around the world, not to mention general language exchange groups where you might meet Tamil speakers. You can also set up your own groups. Or, if you can’t find anything on MeetUp, you might have better luck with Facebook groups.
Just remember to be sensibly cautious with in-person meetups: meet in public spaces, don’t feel pressured to give out your contact details, and remember that no matter how friendly the group members are, they’re still strangers.
Online Tamil Learning Apps and Courses
Although you won’t find Tamil on Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, Babbel, or Busuu, you’ve still got a good selection of courses to choose from.
Tamil Language in Context is a free 12-unit course that’s suitable even for absolute beginners. It’s designed to provide two years of study, during which you’ll practice your listening, reading, writing, and grammar. To make this possible, each unit is broken down into lessons, exercises, and readings. The lessons contain a Tamil-language video conversation, the script and its translation, grammar notes, further exercises, and cultural notes (although some of the later units are missing material).
Once you’ve learned the Tamil script, you might like the Mango Languages courses. They’re designed to get you building your own Tamil sentences straight away and have a heavy focus on speaking and listening. This is particularly helpful if you understand Tamil fairly well but struggle to speak in conversation. We think they’re best for beginner and lower-intermediate speakers, but you’ll probably want to use it alongside something that will also help you work on your reading and writing (such as Tamil Language in Context).
If you’d like to drill your grammar, Tamil Virtual Academy has a free 81-lesson video course. With many of the videos lasting for 20–30 minutes, there’s plenty to get stuck into. Your teacher, Prof. T.B. Siddalingaiah, takes you through everything from the Tamil alphabet to transitive and intransitive verbs, the imperative, and verb participles. It seems particularly good for beginner and lower intermediate students.
Web Assisted Learning and Teaching of Tamil (WALTT), from the University of Pennsylvania, is actually the predecessor to Tamil Language in Context. What’s nice about it is that you can download a lot of the materials in PDF form – perfect for if you’re more of a pen-and-paper learner. They also have some handy guides to topics such as email Tamil and Tamil grammar.
If you’re looking for a Duolingo-style app, Ling could be worth trying out. This gamified app is low on grammatical explanations, but we found it a fun and effective way to learn beginner-level material. It also has some limited speaking exercises, which make it stand out from most phone apps.
Memrise doesn’t have an official Tamil course but there are several community-made ones on everything from conjunctions to flower names. You’ll also find ones designed to accompany other courses, such as this one for Tamil Language in Context. You can find out more about how Memrise works in our detailed review here, but bear in mind that community-made courses can vary dramatically in terms of content and quality.
Bluebird Languages reminded us of Pimsleur, although it doesn’t seem as organized. You’ll learn Tamil by repeating key phrases and words, which seem to have been recorded by a native speaker.
You’ll also find a lot of Tamil courses on Udemy. Each course is created by a different teacher, so the style and quality will vary. Pay attention to the reviews before purchasing any courses. Since Udemy is notorious for its frequent sales, it may also be worth waiting a few weeks to see if a course will be discounted before you purchase it at the full price.
Language Courses to Avoid
Not all courses are worth your time or money. Here are some that we recommend avoiding.
Instant Immersion sells itself as a Rosetta Stone competitor, but it seems unstructured and we feel that it would be ineffective.
When we tried out 17 Minute Languages, we came across numerous mistranslations. What’s more, sometimes the introduced vocabulary lacked context to the point of being misleading.
In our experience, not only is Transparent Language a dull and monotonous course, but it fails to teach you how to build or understand sentences – something essential for everyday conversation.
As for Cudoo, it ties in to the infamous position of being the lowest-ranked resource on our site. We only gave it 0.6/5, because frankly, it felt like someone took a short word list, turned it into a PowerPoint presentation, and put a $24.99 price tag on it. Not only is the course disappointingly sparse but it’s almost impossible to understand some of the phrases due to the lack of context with which they were introduced. We don’t believe you’ll be able to speak or understand any conversational Tamil after completing the course.
We also came across a few recommendations for Tamil Digest’s courses. However, we struggled to sign up to them, with the activation email telling us that our user profile didn’t exist and the subscribe button not working. Plus, despite the course seeming to be a paid-for one, the site isn’t HTTPS secure. While we can’t comment on the quality of the course material, we would stay clear.
Tamil Vocabulary Builders and Word Games
Expanding your vocabulary will help you express yourself more precisely, talk about a wider range of topics, and avoid that frustrating moment when you can’t answer a question because you didn’t understand நரி (“fox,” by the way).
If you’re just going for a quick trip, you might like uTalk. This phrasebook app will help you memorize key words and phrases on topics from shopping and ordering in a restaurant to disaster relief volunteering and maintaining military peace. While the phrases aren’t always exactly how a native speaker would say them, in our experience, you’ll be able to make yourself understood.
Learn Tamil Quickly (only available on Android) is similar to uTalk, although it has a more limited selection of phrases and the practice drills are less varied. In its favor, however, is the ability to learn Tamil phrases from a range of common languages across India, Europe, and East Asia, including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, and Telugu.
Simply Learn Tamil is from the same company that launched Ling, the app-based course we recommended in the last section. If you have to choose between the two, we would go for Ling. Both apps are paid-for, but Ling will also get you to practice your speaking.
Movie geeks might like Sublearning. It presents you with several lines from iconic movies and then gets you to translate them. We’re not convinced that it’s the most effective way to drill phrases, but it can be fun.
If you’re looking for something suitable for a young child, you might be tempted by Learn Tamil Easily. It has bright, simplistic images, often of children. We’d use a bit of parental guidance, however. Once you get past the alphabet and basic words, the app teaches you quotes from the Tamil Sangams, such as “Don’t jump into a watery grave”, “Don’t dabble in sleaze”, and “Hate any desire for lust.” As for adult learners, we think there are better apps available.
Learn & Speak Indian Languages is a basic phrasebook app. Unfortunately, it uses Roman characters for all the phrases and is fairly superficial.
You’ll also find online word lists from MyLanguages, 50 Languages, and learn101.org, although none of them leave us overly impressed. In particular, we would be very cautious about using MyLanguages.
Of course, sometimes the best option is just to create your own flashcards with the words from your classes and courses, as well as any you come across in books or everyday conversation. Thankfully, there are also apps for that. Anki allows you to create decks or download some of the shared community-made ones. We like the way it adapts to how difficult you find certain words.
Alternatively, try Brainscape. It’s similar to Anki but has a more modern, colorful interface.
Learn Tamil on YouTube
More of a visual-audio learner? YouTube could be a great study method for you. And you’ve got a few options to choose from.
This short video featuring Jonathan Ripley, Preceptor in Tamil at Harvard University, and YouTuber Soniya gives a quick beginner-level Tamil class. It’s one of the most interactive Tamil videos we’ve found on YouTube and has a heavy focus on pronunciation.
Learn and Speak Tamil – Like a Native has over 100 uploads and, at the time of publishing this article, adds a new video roughly every week.
The Tamil Channel has videos on grammar, vocabulary, writing, and more. It also has several videos on LGBT+ vocabulary and themes – something that can be hard to find even when studying languages with many resources.
If you want something structured like a course, you could try the Learn Tamil through English series from desidame4eva. Despite many of the videos having been uploaded in 2009, the audio quality is mostly good.
Alternatively, bvenkysubbu also has a new series named Learn Tamil Through English. At the point of publishing this article, the series hasn’t moved past the letters and numbers and isn’t updated overly frequently.
You can pick up some basic vocabulary by watching TamilToddlers’ videos.
Ready to test yourself by watching something designed for fluent speakers? Check out Pebbles Tamil, which has Tamil-language videos designed for both children and adults.
Podcasts in Tamil
Whether you want to improve your listening or are simply looking for something to keep you entertained during long bus journeys, podcasts can be a great way to practice your Tamil.
MaranaVilas is a 10-man podcast with episodes on themes as diverse as parenting children with special needs, Black Lives Matter, and popular TV shows. It often gets political.
Entrepreneurs might like Tamilpreneur, while science geeks should try out Rusty Science. Tamil Valaralu narrates Indian history in a dramatic and entertaining style. The Rathinam College Community Radio podcast touches on a wide range of topics.
Australians, or anyone with an interest in Australia, should try SBS Tamil. The frequently updated podcast covers news and stories relevant to Tamils in Australia.
Looking to improve your Tamil cooking, or simply brush up on food-related language ahead of a family dinner? The short and (sometimes) sweet Tamil Recipes might be a good choice. Be warned, though, that the speaker’s voice has been modified. Alternatively, try the new Get Cheesy with GG – Tamil Food Talk.
Finally, while these podcasts are in English, they still cater to the Tamil community: Dash The Curry covers queer and feminist topics. Banana Boys is a comedy podcast produced by three Canadian Tamils. TamilCulture hosts several different podcasts.
Looking for audiobooks or Tamil lessons? Scroll back up to the other sections of this article – specifically, the Tamil Fiction Books and Poetry section and the Online and App-Based Tamil Language Courses one.
