I have many friends who grew up in India who never learned how to read their mother tongue. They can’t read media, books, articles, current events as you say bu

I have many friends who grew up in India who never learned how to read their mother tongue. They can’t read media, books, articles, current events as you say but they can communicate with all other Tamil speakers. They might not be able to write words in the Tamil script, but they get by writing the words in English. “ivan laam adikaraan”, a friend complained yesterday about a sports event. This is pretty common among my friend groups. What I’m saying is, our understanding and knowledge of language is complex. It’s possible to speak a language without reading it. It’s possible to read a language without speaking it. It’s not as simple as you make it out to be.