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Bengali goal | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5655 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes  Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 1 of 3 11 September 2009 at 8:45pm | IP Logged |
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I'm thinking of working on Bengali in the not-so-distant future. Perhaps some of you can advise me. My goals are centered on learning to read Tagore. I'd like to expand from the Middle Eastern languages that I know or that I'm learning into South Asia. I was interested in Tamil, but was disappointed by a lack of resources and a goal that was problematically distant (ancient classical poetry). It appeared that I'd have to learn the modern language before tackling the ancient texts.
Then I awakened to Tagore and Bengali. From what I've read in translation, Tagore seems to be well worth reading in the original. Among the Sanskrit-derived languages, Bengali seems to have a significant and compelling literature, much of it modern enough to avoid some of the problems which come with ancient texts. Very importantly, there appear to be sufficient resources for learning. I've ordered Teach Yourself Bengali (with CDs), and it looks like the Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary is the one to get. I have access to myriad other books at a university library here and I see that a new, and apparently comprehensive and scholarly grammar by Thompson is coming out from Routledge in 2010. Any comments or further tips? Many thanks in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Deji Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5444 days ago 116 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Hindi, Bengali | Message 2 of 3 08 August 2011 at 3:46am | IP Logged |
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Well, it took a while, but I got the Hanne-Ruth Thompson Grammar book.
I've had it for 3 weeks. I think it's the most fantastic language book I've ever read. I've been raving about it to one and all. It's incredibly well-organized, astoundingly comprehensive, and full of idiosyncratic Bengali quirks and turns of phrase. The chapters on idioms and onomadepoeia (sp ?) and compound verbs are worth the price of the book alone. More than this the myriad examples are just charming. They are so-so--Bengali ! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5655 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 3 of 3 08 August 2011 at 4:07am | IP Logged |
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Deji--Congratulations for your tenacity! I haven't looked at this site for many months (but was notified of your post
on this topic), and I have let my Bengali slide, but not before also getting the Thompson Bengali Grammar. I've continued with my Persian and Arabic and have started Japanese. After two years, my study friend and I are very happy to be getting quite a good handle on reading Arabic (1011 Nights). Persian reading right now: Shahnameh (Ferdowsi), Conference of the Birds (Attar). The Japanese is just for fun so far; we dug right into Snow Country (Yukiguni, by Kawabata). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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