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Intermediate Resources: Indian Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4951 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes  Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 5 29 June 2011 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||
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INTRODUCTION:
There seems to be a dearth of suitable resources for intermediate learners of Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Tamil etc. While it is difficult indeed to find satisfactory resources for beginners starting out in these languages, it is even more difficult to find good resources for intermediate and advanced learners. Many of us are well aware of the fact that most major Indian languages have a strong literary tradition. As a result, the spoken language is very different from the written one. Such a phenomena, known technically as diglossia makes it confusing for those foreign language learners whose native languages do not display such peculiarity. Although, the written version of the language is more formal and more complex, it is not impossible to master it. It will take time and serious, diligent effort. However, what's important is that it's certainly doable. So, let me share with you an easily overlooked resource: Model Composition & Essay Books, Guide Books, etc. These books fall into the elusive category of Native language material. These are what native children use to improve their writing and comprehension skills. Moreover, these books will provide you with authentic text in bite-sized chunks. Tackling such material may give you the practice and confidence to graduate to novels and other complicated literary work. PROS: -*It is totally authentic native language material. -The books are quite cheap. -*These books contain model essays on a variety of topics including current world affairs so you gain a native's perspective on a lot of issues. -*Reading such material will enable you to write beautiful native-like prose independently. -You will pick up a lot of good vocabulary and idioms that will enrich your writing. In other words, your writing will not resemble that of an eight-year old. :-) CONS: -This is only for intermediate students. -The books may contain some typos. -It will not help you with pronunciation as there is no accompanying audio. -*Everything is in your target language; i.e. you won't find any instructions in your L1. -*These books are only available locally. So for those of us who have embarked on the long and often arduous journey of mastering an Indian language, I salute your tenacity and courage. May you be successful in your pursuit of fluency. BTW, please let me know your views. Your valuable comments and criticism are most welcome :-) Edited by napoleon on 29 June 2011 at 12:11pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4844 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 2 of 5 29 June 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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That is a great idea, Napoleon! Can you point us to any suppliers of these books?
There is another, readily available and free, resource for Indian languages: BBC news. They have Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Tamil, Urdu and Sinhala. Again, there's no accompanying audio, but you can listen to the Hindi news separately on the same website (I'm not sure if they have audio broadcasts in the other South Asian languages). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4951 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 5 12 July 2011 at 5:42am | IP Logged | ||
I'm really very sorry for such a delayed reply.
As I have already mentioned, these books are only available locally. They are used by native children to cheat at their homework. ;) As these books have no demand abroad, it would be difficult to find suppliers for them. That said, "S Chand" and "Chaya Prakashani" publish these for hindi and bengali respectively. However, I'd advise you to download the syllabus booklet of the ICSE (Indian Council Secondary Education) from its respective website and lookup the prescribed textbooks in your TL. Then try to purchase the corressponding guidebook for the same. Edited by napoleon on 12 July 2011 at 5:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4951 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 5 12 July 2011 at 5:54am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, I think you're right. The BBC webiste is much more readily accesible. Even though you'll probably miss out on the chance to experience the literary gems if you restrict yourself to the BBC website, it offers an acceptable compromise for those students who are not in immersion programmes. Well you can't have everything; can you? :) Edited by napoleon on 12 July 2011 at 6:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Deji Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5375 days ago 116 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Hindi, Bengali | Message 5 of 5 21 July 2011 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can download Bengali short story podcasts at various sites. I like the site of Gaurav Das with a number of
classic Bengali short stories (and one novel). http://gauravdas.podbean.com/ Just beware--some Indian pdf. downloads come with viruses. Many of these short stories are printed in collected editions, and can be ordered from Parabaas, in New Jersey, USA. Parabaas even has quite a few in both Bengali and English translation. The owner, Samir, is very helpful if contacted, and is happy to answer questions like "is there a translation of Chander Pahaar, and can you get it?" I am sure he can ship internationally. They also publish a literary webzine in both Bengali and English. Nowadays, you can get wedding invitations printed in India. You can get mithai sent from Calcutta in the mail. How hard can books be? But one caveat: my guess is that book suppliers for Indian children are not routinely dealing with international sales. So what you want are the stores and sites that deal with famous Bengali or Hindi literary works. Not infrequently they will have both the books in TL and translation, like Parabaas. Printouts of classic stories, as well as translations, can be found on-line as well. "Kabulliwala", by Tagore, is one such. I made a bilingual edition of this but actually prefer to read it with the English on a separate page as the English pulls my eye over to it if they are together. Kabulliwala is also on podcast at Gaurav Das' site. I also found Bill Clinton's "My Life" in Bengali a general DVD/CD/bookstore in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. No problem to get the US version. But I haven't read it past the first page because the type is too small. If anyone does find a source to buy Model Composition and Essay Books outside of India please post this. And if anyone would like a dual-language copy of Kabulliwala or Sukumar Ray's "Dhrighangchu" (also on podcast) send me a PM. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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