So my big sis is working in Bangladesh at the moment and is trying to learn Bengali. She is only trying to learn some basics, and not trying to become fluent, but she is having problems finding good learning material. Does anybody have any experience learning Bengali and can anybody recommend any resources?
I have heard Teach Yourself is pretty good. I am sure she would be able to find a copy in pdf version somewhere on the internet (if it would take too long to be mailed there)
@colin
book2 has 50 languages!
j:-)
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@ColinJohnstone
The university of Washington has a great elementary course in Bengali free online. It is materials and video clips etc. rather than a taught class. It’s called Epar Bangla Opar Bangla. You have to sign up for the licence but that is free. I’m also in a Facebook group (intermediate level) This is a closed group but we want more members! And there is a closed group for beginners too. You click to join then you are sent a questionnaire to complete.
Best wishes
Araminta
Here are the links:
For the University of Washington materials:
http://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/bengali/index.php
For Facebook, the intermediate is at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/letslearnbengali/
There is also a blog about learning Bengali - www.mybangladiary.wordpress.com
You can tell your sister to email me if she wants to know any more - I’m at mintabarlow@hotmail.com and I’ve been learning for 3 years.
Best wishes
Araminta
Teach Yourself Bengali is OK. There is also Colloquial Bengali on sale from Routledge.
@ mintabarlow
The University of Washington course looks excellent. I just checked out a couple of the pdfs, after getting a licence. I will forward this stuff to my sister.
Anyway, thanks guys for all the help.
Great, hope it helps.
By the way, the Bengali script looks awesome. How long does it take to learn to read it?
I guess, if she’s only going to be there for a short time, she could just play it by ear - kind of like in this video:
(See especially time 1:33)
@ colinjohnstone I learned the script using Teach Yourself Bengali. A friend says it only takes a few weeks but it took me a few months!
Also there are many conjuncts (e.g. k and s added together is a new symbol) So a lot more than our 26 letters!!
But in general it’s not difficult as there are patterns! e.g. ব (bo) বু (bu) বা (ba) So that triangle is a basic ‘b’ but is altered to make bo, bu, ba etc.
As with Hindi, vowel signs are used when a vowel follows the consonant.
Glad you like the Bangla script!
An easy way to learn Bengali is via Google translate in Roman script.
What is your name?আপনার নাম কি?Āpanāra nāma ki?
That makes sense. Some dude proposed to my sister using Google translate on his iPhone. I’m not sure if that was in Thailand or Bangladesh.
That makes sense. Some dude proposed to my sister using Google translate on his iPhone. I’m not sure if that was in Thailand or Bangladesh.
That makes sense. Some dude proposed to my sister using Google translate on his iPhone. I’m not sure if that was in Thailand or Bangladesh.