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!