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.
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