I’m from Chennai, India, and I grew up speaking Tamil. So while I think in Tamizh/ Tamil, I learnt science in English. Doing science in English gave me the ease of communication with others who don’t speak the same language and opened doors to several opportunities, although, I think learning and doing science in just English often excludes the larger community from science. Just as doctors take it upon themselves to learn the regional language to be better care providers, as scientists I believe that we need to learn to communicate our science in several languages to make science accessible to communities that do not rely on English.

To bridge this gap, my department organised an event where we got to present something about our research or our subfield in our native language. I made a short video introducing stem cells and the ways they are used in research in Tamil. It is far from perfect, but I had fun making it! You can view it here:

Stem cells in Tamil

If you are interested in learning Tamil here are some resources: LearnTamil Imaginetamil