BERKELEY , CALIFORNIA, April 8, 2025 (Mercury News): Learning a new language can sometimes be a hobby or requirement, but for Brian Linebaugh, it became a lifelong pursuit that led him across the world and ultimately inspired a documentary that was recently featured at an international film festival. The film, “Beyond Words — Stories from Tamil Landscapes,” celebrates the rich traditions, arts and culture of the Tamil people. It had its global premiere at the Jaipur International Film Festival in January and will be featured at the South Asian Film Festival of Montréal in the coming weeks. Linebaugh, a Berkeley native, had no exposure to Tamil, an Indian language primarily spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. His first introduction to Tamil was during his senior year in high school when he overheard a group of students speaking the language but had no clue what it was.

In order to learn the language, Linebaugh started out with books, audiotapes and watching Tamil movies, but quickly realized that learning the language was challenging. “In 1993, I decided to go to Madurai and try to immerse myself in the city and learn the language,” Linebaugh said. “I went every summer during my undergraduate years at California State University in Chico.” Linebaugh, through some friends, found a retired Tamil professor, K.V. Ramakoti, to teach him the basics of the language. He then spent a few summers alternating between Madurai and Malaysia, a nation with a large Tamil-speaking community outside of India. Linebaugh enrolled at UC Berkeley and earned his master’s degree in 1997. He specialized in Tamil language and literature. In 2021, Linebaugh, a data architect, and his wife Janaki Seetharaman moved to Florida. The pandemic eventually gave the couple an excuse to pursue Linebaugh’s fascination with Tamil dialects. “We went to Tamil Nadu to film a documentary about the various Tamil dialects and after three months, we came home and reviewed the footage and tried to put something together, editing it,” Linebaugh said.

More at source.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/04/06/berkeley-native-pursues-love-of-the-tamil-language/

View the documentary trailer here:
https://youtu.be/5SG_6IKJQLU?si=qopTFOPFzKNl7rJa

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