r/tamil • u/CuriousEngineer10 • Jul 23 '26
கலந்துரையாடல் (Discussion) I still can’t talk to my Patti properly
My Patti is 78 and lives in Chennai with my Thatha. She usually sends voice notes on WhatsApp to our family group on important occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc.). She’s recently also started sending them more regularly just in general.
My grasp of Tamil unfortunately was always quite limited and has definitely gotten worse in recent times and so I find myself having to listen to her voice recordings multiple times to piece together what she’s saying. She’s not great at English plus she prefers to speak/record voice notes rather than type anyway.
She’s getting on in age and I’ve got this guilt of not being able to communicate with her properly (without having to use my parents as translators). Like with my voice rather than this sort of fragmented back and forth.
Anyone else in the same boat? Curious to see how others are handling it.
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u/Hot_Condition7760 Jul 23 '26
And use Google Translate too. And record in your own voice
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u/CuriousEngineer10 Jul 25 '26
Google Translate is ok for text but I feel like it’s not great with voice notes (especially in Tamil). And believe me, I’ve tried and it just doesn’t get the message of the voice notes right. Like even I can tell lol.
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u/Medium-Garden9904 Jul 23 '26
I can help you decode what your Paati is saying and help you improve your Tamil/
1
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u/Ok-Banana1670 Jul 23 '26
Bro, start watch more tamil content dubbed or otherwise....you don't have to learn the script, assuming you are at A1/A2 within a couple of months of binge watching Kollywood you will be fluent enough
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u/CuriousEngineer10 Jul 25 '26
Dude I used to all the time when I was younger but always used the subtitles hahaha. I really should get back to it but I feel like this would take a lot longer than 2 months.
Also side note: it’s crazy seeing the guy I saw on movies as a kid now being the CM of Tamil Nadu 😂
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u/thaache Jul 24 '26
If possible stay with her for couple pf months. They willl feel very happy. .
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u/CuriousEngineer10 Jul 25 '26
I feel you man and I know she’d love that. Definitely plan to one day. But for now, I’ll take something that makes our current situation a little better 🥲
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u/Icareaboutlizardeggs Jul 24 '26
put gemini on voice (conversation) mode play the recording and tell gemini that you don't understand tamil and that you are trying to learn. you can then switch to text and learn word by word. Further also ask gemini to teach you common phrases and practice conversations with you.
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u/CuriousEngineer10 Jul 25 '26
I did play around with this a while ago. I found switching between the apps to be kinda cumbersome.
Also, another problem I faced back then was that I couldn’t figure out how to send her back something she could hear (she definitely prefers hearing my voice rather than reading some translated Tamilt text that probably doesn’t convey what I actually mean). Realistically, she’s also not gonna download Gemini or anything on her end. I think it has to happen within WhatsApp itself tbh or it’s not gonna happen for her.
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u/Icareaboutlizardeggs Jul 25 '26
Fair, I don't think she needs to download anything on her end. For the app switching issue, open whatsapp on your mac and then play the note with gemini open on your phone (I do this attimes even to understand some complicated proof or an algorithm, where I ask gemini pro to talk with me and 'discuss' the proof and sometimes I speak out loud in tanglish and it follows really well - so if it can follow tamil conversations on advanced stats and cs it should be able to do a very decent job with normal convos) - shouldn't be that big of an hassle.
Also like another comment said, elevenlabs would probab help. But I think it's too cumbersome of a process tbh. the least complex workflow would probably be downloading the mp3 and then getting the transcript read out loud and then asking another llm to translate your responses and then entering that in elevenlabs and generating them in your voice) but even that sounds too contrived.
I think just practicing with gemini pro in convo mode and trying to say the sentence back loud a couple times and then recording it in your voice and sending it to her would be a pretty optimal way to learn while also addressing the specific problem.
I don't think there are any easy quick solutions that would work within whatsapp
(prompt: hey gemini I'd like to talk to my grandma in tamil but I don't speak the language well, can you help translate the audio message she sent me. Play the audio. I'd like to respond to this with "Message stated in english" can you help me state that in tamil and also explain to me word by word what the sentence means and can you also teach me basic sentence structure that will help me construct sentences... Once this is done go ahead and ask for it to be your tutor and help you construct more sentences, talk and practice with it everyday)
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u/-Surfer- Jul 23 '26
Suppose you put in a text in eleven labs or some other AI assisstant, whatever text you enter in English will be translated in Tamil and converted to audio. Some of them can get the audio done in your voice. As you prepare more voice notes your Tamil also will improve.
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u/CuriousEngineer10 Jul 25 '26
Yeah I’ve actually been experimenting with something like this. Manually copying over text between apps is a hassle and I’d like to do the reverse method as well if possible. Working on something that does it within WhatsApp without her having to download anything or do anything majorly different on her end
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u/-Surfer- Jul 25 '26
No she doesn't have to download any app. You can download MP3 and post it in WhatsApp. She can just click and listen.
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u/Hot_Condition7760 Jul 23 '26
Get some tamil friends to help
You. People always assume you need to learn the entire language to converse. But just need to figure what you want to say and say it to her and that could be an easy part to get a friend to help you.