Looking for a Malayalam textbook? Learn Basic Malayalam In Six Weeks: With Daily Worksheets & Answer Key is the best out of a bad bunch.
The authors, Lissy J Kunnathu and John D Kunnathu, have also written Speak Malayalam In 10 Weeks for after you’ve finished Learn Basic Malayalam In Six Weeks and Malayalam Alphabet: Practice Workbook. You can do the workbook alongside the first textbook.
Learn Basic Malayalam In Six Weeks contains 42 lessons, which in theory is one per day. The authors recommend studying each one for 30 minutes. Realistically speaking, you’re likely to spend more than six weeks on this, due to days off and time spent reviewing prior material.
The book is structured into four parts: sounds, words, phrases, and sentences. Depending on your learning style, you may find this slightly demotivating. Despite the strong focus on grammar, it’s not until lesson 33 that you finally learn “The Basic Sentence Structure.”
That said, this book is popular among learners and for good reason: it’s hard to find decent Malayalam learning resources, and this textbook is a clear, structured, and easy-to-understand text for beginners. We would pair it with Mango Languages or Ling for a more engaging and interactive introduction to studying the language.
