Post #10: Watching Bengali TV

For my final week, my goal was to watch about 30 minutes of a Bengali show or movie. I found this short film online. 

I was surprised that I could understand a lot of it without the subtitles, but I still definitely needed the subtitles. After that, I did some of the exercises in my TYB workbook.

My original research question was whether or not someone could go from beginner to intermediate proficiency in a language in 10 weeks, devoting an hour a week to the practice of Bengali. 

Based on my experience with Bengali, the answer to that question is no. 

I think part of it has to do with the different script, making it harder to learn than Spanish, for example — at least, harder for me.

Even though I would not call myself an intermediate Bengali speaker, I'm still proud of the progress I have made.

Post #9: Bengali Poetry

 My task for this week was to read a Bengali poem. 😅

It was hard for me to find a poem at my level, but I found one! It is called "Bhajahu Re Mana" and it is a poem from Medieval Bengal, in the Padavali genre of spiritual poems. It was written by Govinda Das Kabiraj. "Kabiraj" is a title given to respected literary figures that literally translates to "poet king"

Here are the lyrics written out phonetically and translated:

http://kksongs.org/songs/b/bhajahuremana.html

This link has the lyrics side-by-side in Bengali text as well as transliterated: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/bhajahu-re-mana-bhajahoo-re-mana.html

The poem can also be performed as a song. I have embedded a link to my favourite rendition:

As an extra exercise, I copied out the lyrics to the poem in my Bengali notebook. I'm getting more comfortable with writing Bengali for sure! Though I sometimes get some of the similar looking letters mixed up -- I struggled between "m" (ম) and "s" (স) when writing this out; won't make that mistake again! I also wrote the numbers of the stanzas out on the side. The Bengali 2 is similar to ours (২), but the 3 is shaped like a snail shell and the 4 looks like an 8.

I'm so happy to be becoming literate in my ancestral language. 😀

Next week, I'll be watching a 30-minute Bengali TV show. I'll see what I can find on YouTube. Hopefully something with subtitles.... These tasks are definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone!

Post #8: A New Resource

This week I started a wonderful new book called Beginner's Bengali by Hanne-Ruth Thompson.

This is a really good resource for beginners. Although it is similar to the other book I was using, TYB, it is a bit more modern. I like the detailed explanations of each and every Bengali letter. the Bengali alphabet can be overwhelming and complicated, especially for Westerners because the Bengali letters have names as well as sounds, and some letters don't have an English equivalent; instead, they are a combination of English letters (-rd, -nd, th-, etc.). 

The book also had a list of letters that look similar to each other, which was helpful for me because I am always getting them mixed up as a beginner.

At the end of the chapter, there are a series of exercises to help you write some simple words. I was able to finish the first couple of exercises without too much difficulty. I look forward to finishing the rest over the week and using this book in conjunction with TYB. 

Writing in Bengali is slowly feeling less intimidating. I still don't like speaking, but my dad and I exchange a few quick words where we can. I don't think he's entirely comfortable in it either. (My mom is not Bengali and doesn't speak it.) 

Next week, I'll be reading a Bengali poem. I may look for something in the Padavali genre, which is a genre of Medieval Bengali spiritual poetry. I could also look for something more modern, such as from the Bengali Renaissance or Tagore. The TYB book has a poetry section near the end where I can start. I need to make sure I find something suitable to my level, which limits my options, LOL! 

Post 7: Speaking and Writing

I got caught up on my goal: to have a conversation in Bengali with my dad. It was much harder than I thought it would be; both of us were uncomfortable. I love my dad so much for doing this favour for me! My dad is actually more comfortable in English than Bengali, after decades of living here. I think rather than a fifteen-minute forced conversation once in a while, it is better to have short, daily Bengali interactions. 

Here is our first conversation. The end screen is from some shots I took during a nature walk in Mayapur, West Bengal some years ago:

Post #6: Hiatus

 Hi all, 

Taking a break this week to focus on my health. I'll try to meet both this and next week's goals in my next post. 

One thing I have done for this week is to move loads of the Bengali content I've created onto its own Google site, which you can visit at https://sites.google.com/view/learn-bengali. 

Please consider this my contribution for the week.

I've also created some new flash cards. 

However, I have not done my weekly task. 

I've been feeling very inspired (albeit overwhelmed) by all of the things we are learning in this course. 

Post #5: Using a Language Learning App

This week, my task was to use a Bengali language learning app for one hour. I paid about $3 for the premium version of the Learn Bengali Quickly Free app, because I didn't want to watch ads.

As you can see, it has a lot of vocabulary and simple sentences, organized into different subjects. 

You can also see at the top of my phone that I have the timer going!

This app is similar to a flashcard format, but it is better than the flashcards I'm making on Quizlet because it has audio, which is a premium feature on Quizlet. You can click on the word or phrase in English, and see it written on the top of the screen phonetically in English as well as in the Bengali script, with a voice-over.

I timed myself while I was using the app, and broke it up into about three different sessions that totalled one hour. Interestingly, it is much harder to spend an hour on a language learning app than it is on an app like Instagram or Twitter, where I can easily whittle away a one-hour period. 😂

While using the app, I noticed a similarity with Spanish I hadn't noticed before. (Sidenote: I speak Spanish at the intermediate level, and I constantly notice similarities between Spanish, French, and Bengali that drive me nuts because I'm not great at any of these languages. Consequently, I used to mix them all together in my head when I was younger and just learning Spanish. Now that my Spanish is intermediate, this happens less, and hopefully these instances will continue to dwindle as I become more proficient in Bengali as well. However, a couple of summers ago I unthinkingly spoke Spanish to a francophone lady in Montreal who asked me for directions, so who knows!)

Any ways, in spoken Bengali, the suffix -ake (আকে) is often shortened to -a'i (অয়). This reminds me of spoken Spanish, where the suffix -ado is shortened to -a'o.

Basically, objective pronouns in Bengali end with -ake, so ami (আমি) (I) becomes amake (আমাকে) (me). Amake can be shortened further into ama'i. 

Amake phone korben (আমাকে ফোন কোরবেন) (call me) can become ama'i phone korben (আমায় ফোন কোরবেন) in spoken Bengali. 

In Spanish, the -ado suffix is used in the perfect tenses, where verbs become adjectives (done, had, written, spoken, etc.). I've heard phrases like "no me han cambiado" (they have not changed me) informally spoken as "no me han cambia'o."

Knowing these idiosyncrasies about a language gives you an insight into the culture. For instance, what are the words that Bengalis say so often that they feel the need to shorten? 

One example is swami (স্বামী), which translates to "spiritual master," or "guru." (In other contexts, it also means "husband." The husband is traditionally seen as the spiritual leader of the family.)

Swami is shortened to sha'i (সাই), which is why you see some Bengalis with the surname Gosai (গোসাই) (meaning go-swami, or "master of the senses"). Spirituality is very important in Bengali culture. 

All of this has given me an idea for a YouTube channel: Learning Bengali Through Spanish! I don't have time to take on such an endeavour, but it would be a cool idea for a blog or a vlog. Instead, I think I will start a Google site to add more details about Bengali, like idiosyncrasies, instead of putting everything on the project page. .

Overall, I think apps are a fun, convenient, low-stress way to learn a language, but I prefer the TYB book, which is full of writing exercises, so I'll focus on using that resource as much as possible.

Next week my task will be to try to have a conversation with dad in Bengali. I'm super nervous. 

Post #4: Reading TYB and Building Vocab

Hi all,

I practised some exercised from the TYB book, and I'm starting to feel more comfortable with my handwriting. These are simple words and sentences with little to no "compound consonants," but I'm happy with my start. 

I wrote for over an hour, tracking my time using the Forest app to make sure I stayed focus for the full time and did not look at my phone.

As you can see, Bengalis use | instead of a period to end sentences.

I've also created some new flashcards for talking about careers: https://quizlet.com/_9buoo5?x=1qqt&i=3ge997

Next week, I'll be playing around with Bengali language learning apps. I've already downloaded a few: two free apps and one paid app that was a few bucks. Let's see how helpful they are.