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Why isn’t Bengali/Bangla more popular? | ||
Tags: Bengali | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4466 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes  Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 33 of 35 15 February 2013 at 5:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Bengali is not that marginalized.
Bengali learning/teaching material is more readily available than Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya and Assamese language sources. Edited by Medulin on 15 February 2013 at 5:14am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Deji Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5238 days ago 116 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Hindi, Bengali | Message 34 of 35 22 April 2013 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting, Medulin.
I don't know if this is true, but I would be inclined to believe it. If one is truly desperate, try searching for really old British language books published in 1800's. Some of these may be digitized by libraries. Some are sold by old-book dealers. And keep searching, because the language fields are changing. In Bengali one site with a lot of new approaches is http://supriyosen.net. I finally do have an example of why (New Yorkers, at least) should consider learning Bengali. A truly powerful reason. In New York, I think 45% of restaurants have Bangladeshi waiters (female rare, outside of Jackson Heights). Anyway, LOTS. So wherever i go, I chat with who I can. I went with a friend to a hugely popular Westside Italian restaurant. chatted away with many waiters. Word passes from one to another, other waiters drop by to see what I can and can't say. Six months later, my friend wants to book a table for 10 for her Russian friend for her birthday. Calls. Not possible. "But, you know me', she says "I come there. My friend speaks Bengali" Table booked! Edited by Deji on 22 April 2013 at 7:05pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5007 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 35 of 35 22 April 2013 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
That was a great story, Deji. While in London (Eng.) a few years ago, one of the staff at an Indian restaurant airily assured us that "all" Indian restaurants in Britain have staff (esp cooks) from Bangladesh. Even allowing for some exaggeration, it's apparently quite common (or at least not uncommon) for kitchen workers to travel on temporary work visas (the rationale being that the employers have been unable to find Britons with comparable skills/experience in the cuisine), work intensely, live frugally and save during the months of their overseas employment, and then return home with their hard-earned currency; to be replaced by a fresh rotation of Bengali-speakers. So the "speaking Bengali to get better service in restaurants" strategy may work in London or other cities too. Here in Canada (and especially in B.C.) there's a significant Sikh population, so - who knows?- Punjabi may perhaps be more likely to do the trick. - But I don't speak either, so can't test the theory... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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