Reshmi R Nair, Malayalam Linguist

In short: I’m Reshmi R Nair — a native Malayalam speaker and Malayalam linguist. I teach casual, everyday spoken Malayalam (never stiff textbook Malayalam) to complete beginners, NRIs, partners of Malayalis, expats and travellers, in clear English, through one-to-one online lessons and free learning tools.

My approach

Spoken Malayalam is a listening-and-speaking skill, not a memory test. I teach the warm, colloquial Malayalam Keralites actually use — explained entirely in clear English, using a simple romanised system so you can speak from your very first lesson, with the script introduced later only if you want it.

My learners are mostly heritage and NRI families reconnecting with relatives, partners who married into a Malayali family, expats and frequent visitors to Kerala, and language lovers drawn to Dravidian languages.

Experience

• Applied linguist, actively pursuing linguistics
• 15+ years teaching native English speakers and the Malayali diaspora worldwide
• 3,000+ students across 10+ countries
• IELTS · PTE · OET trainer
• Has written in Malayala Manorama & Mathrubhumi
• Founder of SpeakMalayalam.com
• COO of Veda Topper International, Irinjalakuda
• Author of Malayalam, Hindi, English, cookery, maths and career-guidance books on Google Play Books

See my Writing & Speaking page.

I’ve written for Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi, and hold a 4.9★ rating from 420+ verified learner reviews.

Qualifications

• CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), British Council India
• 120-hour TEFL certificate
• BSc Mathematics, University of Calicut

Published books

All of my books are on Google Play Books — readable on any phone, tablet or computer, anywhere in the world.

• Speak Malayalam: The Complete Colloquial Course — from the script to real conversation, for English speakers and heritage learners
• Malayalam for Hindi Speakers · Malayalam Alphabet for Kids · Kathamala, four volumes of Malayalam stories
• American English for Malayalam Speakers · Spoken Hindi Fluency
• The Kerala Plate cookbook · Pookalam: 50 Kerala Mandala Designs to Colour
• Veda Topper Maths, Books 1–10 · The Kerala Career Compass, Books 1–3 (with Satish Kumar V.) — see VedaTopper.com

Browse the library →  ·  Author page on Google Play →

Recognition

SpeakMalayalam is listed on Omniglot, the long-running independent reference on the world’s writing systems, and has been reviewed by All Language Resources, an independent review site for language-learning materials.

A first taste of spoken Malayalam

These are the kind of everyday sentences learners practise from the very first lesson: short, useful and spoken the way Malayalis actually speak.