Bengali is the primary language in Bangladesh and is widely spoken in other parts of the world. Learning this language can strengthen your skills as a hobby or career.
Bengali is a fascinating language that can help you communicate with many South Asians living across the globe. So, if you’re looking to learn this tongue, ensure you make learning Bengali part of your routine!
Is Bengali Hard To Learn?
Learning the Bengali language is difficult because of its many sounds and spelling rules. Additionally, the script is vastly different from English and other Latin Languages. Moreover, the sounds in the language may differ considerably due to the dialects spoken from place to place.
So, let’s learn about this unique language. Let’s begin!
1. About the Bengali Language
Bengali is Bangladesh’s official, national, and most widely spoken language.
It is the sixth most spoken language in the world, with about 300 million native speakers and another 37 million who speak it as a second language.
Like English, Bengali is also written in a left-right direction. However, many conjuncts, upstrokes, downstrokes, and other elements that hang from a horizontal line define the script!
Bengali, also known as Bangla, is a South Asian language that originated in the Bengal region and is classified as an Indo-Aryan language.
Additionally, Bengali is the sixth-most-spoken language and has a rich history, just like Hindi, Urdu, and other local languages.
Currently, Bengali speakers are everywhere, including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, the U.K, the U.S., and the Middle East. Together with a few Asian nations like Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan!
As you can see, there is great value in learning this language due to its large number of speakers and rich history.
2. Bengali is Class III Language
The U.S. School of Language Studies states that Bengali is a Class III language. For native English speakers, it could take around 44 weeks or 1100 hours to learn.
Terms and verbs in Bengali are frequently used with nouns to convey concepts like possession or location.
Since this concept is not common in English, many English learners won’t be familiar with it.
Additionally, the Bangla language has no gender specification. As a result, “they” is used in place of the gender-specific subject pronouns “he” or “she.”
3. Learning Difficulty
Learning Bengali will be difficult for an English speaker who only speaks one language. However, it’s easier to comprehend when compared to other Class III difficulty languages.
It will take a lot of practice for a learner to become proficient in the language because its grammatical structures, alphabet, vocabulary, pronunciation, and writing strokes are divergent from English.
4. Bengali Alphabet and Script
The Bengali language has twenty-nine consonants and seven vowels. To start learning, download a copy of the script.
Additionally, several free videos teach you how to write and speak the Bengali alphabet on YouTube or podcasts such as Player FM and TuneIn!
5. Allocating Sufficient Time to Learn Bengali
According to research, the ideal amount of time to learn this language is 15-17 minutes per day as the perfect balance between learning and time efficiency.
After just three hours of learning, you can hold basic conversations in a virtual classroom.
Additionally, you may spend some of your free time watching television or movies in Bengali to help your growth go much more quickly.
Another tip we recommend is listening to audio podcasts while doing your daily chores.
6. The Bengali Sound
This language has a lot of sounds with T’s, D’s, and R’s, and many students need a lot of practice to tell them apart.
As a result, the English consonants missing from Bengali make it difficult for learners to pronounce words correctly and negatively impact their perspective!
To communicate with people who speak Bengali, you must have a good command of the language. You may use gestures along with voice while speaking Bengali with others.
Some common gestures include hand movements or nodding while speaking to someone.
Another common mistake is not understanding colloquial Bengali, which can be very different from standard Bengali.
The colloquial Bengali language is far more challenging for new learners to pick up on because of the nuances in everyday conversations and social interactions!
7. Free Bengali Learning Resources
By watching Bengali foreign films, you’ll learn about their culture, art, news, and literature and acquire repeated exposure to native speakers.
You can increase your grasp of the language by repeating words or making notes while you watch or listen.
You can check out the excellent Bengali introduction course on the Peace Corps Bengali app with 17 pages of free lessons.
Language specialists claim that viewing television in a foreign language can help someone learn and comprehend that dialect!
Finally, you can also Learn Bengali on Youtube!
8. Paid Tools to Learn Bengali
You can learn Bengali Online in Cudoo with a monthly subscription. You will get access to various interactive courses.
For additional help with the script, you can look into using Learn Bengali Quickly or Learn the Bengali Language with the Ling App on a monthly subscription.
You might try reading Bengali newspapers online once you’ve mastered the letters.
9. Ebooks, Textbooks, and Livestreams to Learn Bengali
Reading Bengali textbooks could be good practice after learning the alphabet and starting to increase your vocabulary.
Bengali Word-to-Word Bilingual Dictionary ($21.50) could be the right textbook for you if your focus is primarily on learning vocabulary.
Additionally, you can check the Teach Yourself Series ($145) and Learn Bengali – Quick / Easy / Efficient ($9.99). Moreover, the Bengali Phrasebook by Lonely Planet ($9.88) might help you with the literature and fundamentals of the language!
10. Career Opportunity for the Bengali Bilingual
Once you’ve decided to improve your Bengali language proficiency, you can find work in this industry as a bilingual professional.
There will be a need for at least one Bengali translator regardless of whether the business works with Bengali or foreign clients.
As a translator, this skill is constantly in demand in institutions like hospitals, courts, universities, and immigration facilities, so numerous employment opportunities exist.
While first-world nations are experiencing economic growth, foreign companies must hire Bengali translators to connect with the million Bengali speakers globally!
11. Alternative Languages to Bengali
If Bengali is not for you, you can consider learning Spanish, Mandarin, or Russian. These are among the top 10 most spoken languages in the world.
However, if you want to learn a language from the subcontinent, you may consider learning Hindi, Urdu, or Punjabi! There are many similarities between the South Asian (Indo-Aryan) languages, so it might be easier to communicate with people from the region.
To learn more, you can also see our posts on Hindi, Urdu, and Thai.
Conclusion
Bengali might be a tempting option for people seeking a widely spoken language with a rich history and culture. However, as you have seen, learning Bengali can be complicated and lengthy.
Learning Bengali is not impossible! You can do it with ample time, practice, effort, and devotion,