Growing up as your family's translator? I'm building something for that — need help from Tamil-speaking Singaporeans
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If you've ever stood at a polyclinic counter translating a diagnosis for your grandmother, or explained a CPF form to your grandfather in a language you're not even that confident in — this is for you.
I'm working on a project called **"Say It For Me"**: a free phrasebook for the kid who ends up being the family interpreter. Not a dictionary — dictionaries already exist. The gap is different: the words our grandparents actually use aren't the textbook words, and doctors/bank staff/government counters have no idea what they mean.
Example from the Chinese side: a doctor asks about chest pain, and someone's grandmother says her heart is *"bo lat"* (Hokkien: no strength) or *"kiat"* (blocked/tight) — not "cardiac" anything. Nothing tells a nurse what that means. That same gap exists across every language here, and it's exactly what I can't find documented anywhere for Tamil.
**What I actually need from you:**
If you have a Tamil-speaking parent or grandparent, is there a word or phrase they use — for pain, feeling unwell, needing help, money troubles, or anything at a bank/CPF/HDB counter — that you've had to translate for them, or that isn't quite standard textbook Tamil?
Drop it in the comments with:
- the phrase (Tamil script and/or how it sounds)
- what it actually means
- where it usually comes up (clinic, hospital, bank, government counter)
This is going toward a free four-language guide (English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil) that'll be distributed to polyclinics, Active Ageing Centres, and libraries — not sold, not commercial, just trying to make sure the kid standing in the middle has a glossary nobody gave them.
Thank you in advance — this only works if the community pitches in.