Southern Asia
Video Chat with People from Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka packs a lot into one island: the busy streets of Colombo, the cool hill country around Kandy and Ella with its tea estates, the old fort town of Galle on the south coast and Jaffna in the far north. Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages, and English is widely used in business, universities and cities, so opening in English rarely feels awkward.
Sri Lanka Standard Time is UTC+5:30, the same as India, with no daylight saving. When it's 9 PM in Colombo, it's late morning in New York and late afternoon in London. Cricket gets plenty of people talking, and food is never far behind: rice and curry with a spread of side dishes, crispy hoppers, kottu roti chopped on a sizzling griddle. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, surf spots like Arugam Bay and train rides through the hills are good topics too.
Sri Lanka at a glance
| Flag | 🇱🇰 |
|---|---|
| Official name | Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka |
| Capital | Colombo |
| Region | Asia · Southern Asia |
| Official languages | Sinhala and Tamil |
| Currency | Sri Lankan rupee (Rs රු, LKR) |
| Calling code | +94 |
| Time zone | India Standard Time (Asia/Colombo) |
How to say hello
A few words of Sinhala make a great first impression, even if you switch to English right after.
| Language | Phrase | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sinhala | ආයුබෝවන් | AH-yu-boh-wan | Hello (literally "may you live long") |
| Sinhala | කොහොමද? | KOH-ho-mah-dah | How are you? |
| Tamil | வணக்கம் | VUH-nahk-kum | Hello |
| Tamil | எப்படி இருக்கிறீர்கள்? | EP-pah-dee ee-ruk-kee-REER-gahl | How are you? (polite) |
Tips for chatting with people from Sri Lanka
- Tea makes an easy opener: ask how they take theirs, or whether they've visited the estates around Nuwara Eliya.
- Mind the half-hour offset: Colombo is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of London in winter and 4 hours 30 minutes ahead in summer.
- Ask about their part of the island. The hill country, the coasts and the north each have their own food, festivals and accents.
- If you're learning Tamil, say so; our Tamil phrases cover the basics, and Sri Lankan Tamil has its own accent and words worth asking about.
Only meet people from Sri Lanka
Omlet matches you Worldwide by default. To meet only people from Sri Lanka, use the country filter, the only filter Omlet has:
- Open Omlet and press Country on the control panel.
- Search for Sri Lanka and select it.
- Press Start. Press Next to meet someone else from Sri Lanka, or switch back to Worldwide any time.
Your first day is free: you add a card through Stripe to start it, and nothing is charged that day. When the 24 hours end, the country filter costs $3 one time, charged to that card, unless you cancel before then in Settings (if you cancel, you can still pick a country until the day ends). It's not a subscription, and it stays unlocked on that device and browser. It doesn't carry over to other devices or browsers, and clearing your browser data removes it. There's one free day per device, home network and card. Payment goes through Stripe, so Omlet never sees your card number.
The filter works both ways, and matching can be slower when fewer people from Sri Lanka are online. Chatting itself is free, and Worldwide matching never costs anything.
Your own country is detected automatically and shown to the people you meet as a flag.
Neighboring countries
Sri Lanka borders 1 country. Curious about the people next door? Meet them too: