This episode is for a specific person, and if you are that person you will know within thirty seconds. You have a parent, a grandparent or a parent-in-law who is Malayali and getting older. Perhaps you understood some Malayalam growing up and never spoke it. Perhaps you married into the family and never needed it, because everyone spoke English to you. And now you need it. There is a linguistic reason this happens. A language learned in adulthood is held differently from a first language — less deeply embedded, more effortful. In ageing, the later language is often the one that becomes harder to reach first, while the first language remains. Families can find quite suddenly that the person they always spoke English with is easier to reach in Malayalam. Whatever Malayalam you can manage is enough. Not fluency — perhaps forty sentences, said warmly, in the right voice. ADDRESS, AND THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL Never നീ to an elder. Not ever, not even in affection. Use the relationship word. അമ്മേ (ammé) to your mother, or an older woman അച്ഛാ (achhaa) to your father, or an older man അമ്മൂമ്മേ (ammoommé) to a grandmother അപ്പൂപ്പാ (appooppaa) to a grandfather And speaking about them to others: അദ്ദേഹം (addeham) he, respectfully · അവർ (avar) they, used of one person, respectfully THE DAILY QUESTIONS — the spine of the episode മരുന്ന് കഴിച്ചോ? (marunnu kazhicho) have you taken your medicine? — your most-used sentence ചോറ് കഴിച്ചോ? (choru kazhicho) have you eaten? — the question you met in Class 5, now doing its deepest work Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.