Tamil Christians in Britain
Many Sri Lankan Tamils came to Britain during and after the civil war, settling in north-west, south and east London and in other cities. Christians among them are Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and Pentecostal, and Tamil-language congregations and Tamil Masses are part of church life in several London boroughs. They are joined by Tamils from Tamil Nadu: doctors, IT professionals, students and their families.
Many Tamil Christians also belong to English-speaking churches, especially families who live far from a Tamil congregation or whose children prefer an English youth group. The parents follow English at work, but faith, prayer and the Bible they grew up with are in Tamil.
Parents, grandparents and the next generation
In many Tamil households, grandparents live with the family or visit for months at a time. They often speak little English, and a Sunday in an English-speaking church can mean an hour and a half of not understanding. With Tamil on a phone and an earbud in, they follow the readings, the sermon and the notices. The grandchildren, meanwhile, may understand spoken Tamil but find a Tamil sermon hard going. A Tamil congregation can set Tamil as the speaker language and offer English to its young people, so the family stays in one service.
Tamils in Europe
Tamil communities are also well established in Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway and Denmark. Tamil churches there increasingly have children who are more at home in German, French or Norwegian than in Tamil, and English-speaking international churches meet Tamil families too. ChurchTranslate works in both directions, and a church can switch on up to 40 languages, so a Tamil congregation in Zurich could offer German and English side by side. The guide to a multilingual church helps with services in two languages.
Related languages
Households from South Asia often know more than one language. Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi are available too, and Sinhala is available with a Beta label, so test it first. If your church has Malayali nurses from Kerala as well as Tamil families, you can switch on both, and each language only uses credits while someone is listening.
How listeners use it
- 01Scan
From the screen, the notice sheet or the church's WhatsApp group. The page opens in the browser.
- 02Choose தமிழ்
No account and nothing to install. There is also an iOS app.
- 03Listen or read
The Tamil voice follows the preacher a few seconds behind, with captions in Tamil script. The large-text mode helps older eyes.
What to expect
The translation is into standard Tamil. Written Tamil differs quite a lot from everyday speech, and Sri Lankan and Indian Tamil differ in accent and some vocabulary, so the voice may sound formal. Bible names and church terms are the hardest part; ChurchTranslate keeps a terminology list per language to correct known terms in the captions. See Bible names and terms.
Cost
A two-hour service into Tamil uses 120 credits, however many people listen. Four of those a month is 480 credits, the size of the Lite plan (€65 per month). See the pricing.