Bangla vs English terms

 In the Bangla language, we have some additional words that don't exist in English. For example, in English, we call him uncle. In Bangla, we have chacha (father's brother), fufa (father's sister's husband), mama (mother's brother), khalu (mother's sister's husband), taloi (sister's father-in-law), etc. If we translate these into English, all of them would be called uncle.

In my childhood, I was very confused about all these relationships. So, sometimes I used to follow what my mother says. For example, I used to call Dula bhai (brother-in-law) to my Boro Khalu (uncle). Later, I figured out that my mother called him Dula bhai. One day, my older sister corrected me. I tried to remember that, but sometimes, by mistake, I used to call him Dula bhai.

At home, speak in your native language only.

 I have seen a trend among Bangladeshi parents in Canada. They speak English at home to their children. The logic I heard from one parent was that this helps the child feel comfortable speaking outside, because in school they have to speak English.

This way, the new generation is not learning to speak Bangla. Even if they knew some Bangla from Bangladesh, they are now forgetting everything. If you notice, you will see that when Bangladeshi kids get together, they never speak in Bangla among themselves, only in English.

Your kid will learn English anyway. Even if you don't want to teach them. And if they learn from outside, they will speak with correct pronunciation, not with your native accent. It's actually the better way to teach them English.

My suggestion is that everyone should speak in their native language at home. No other language, ever. This way, kids will learn the language and will not forget their roots. Bangladeshi people died to keep this language alive. At least we should have some respect for that.

Some people write in Bangla on Facebook and think it's a very good way to show respect for their native language. I believe this will only give you comfort when communicating with people who speak the same language. That's it. Nothing wrong with it. But if you have friends and family from another country, they won't understand anything, neither will your kid or anyone else learn the language from your Facebook activity. People who speak other languages will feel left out of your posts.

Biography 27: Accent problem

 In Alkaseem, Saudi Arabia, we were surrounded by Arabic-speaking people. I mean there were people from other countries too. Like from Sudan, Egypt etc who all speak in Arabic. I don't know how my parents learned to speak Arabic very well. Mom said, first she uses to copy whatever she heard.... then gradually she became an expert in it. I never learnt (Accept my mother language) any language like that.

We, the kids didn't meet with other people much. So we didn't need to speak a different language. When needed my mom was there to translate. So, I never felt to learn Arabic. After living for 2 years in Saudi Arabia I learnt a couple of words only.

One day, mom asked both sisters to go to a grocery shop, which was very near to our house. She said asked the shopkeeper to give tomatoes. He will understand your language. Well, we doubt. But my mom was an iron lady, we had to go and ask. As expected, he didn't have a clue what we were asking about. He showed rice and other things to point to it. We tried a couple of times then returned home. My mom was so disappointed with the two girls. She went to the shop and asked in Arabic. The man laughed out loud and said, "Oh, Tomath?" Then he gave us tomatoes. I was thinking why he couldn't guess tomato and tomath could be the same thing...

After reaching Canada, I have faced the same thing a couple of times. Just for a little difference in accent, people couldn't understand a thing. One day a Chinese guy asked me something. I could understand that he is asking something in Bangla, after listening 4/5 times. He was very fast and his accent was Chinese. Now I understand, why others couldn't understand my language because of my accent.

ভিন্ন দেশ, ভিন্ন ভাষা (Different country, different language)

[English version has given below]

আপনি যদি কখনও শিলিগুড়িতে যান, তাহলে দিব্যি বাংলায় কথা বলতে পারবেন।

দার্জিলিংয়ের মানুষ হিন্দি বুঝতে পারে।

নেপালে গেলে ইংলিশে কথা বলতে পারবেন, সেখানে দেখা গেছে হিন্দি কম বোঝে। নেপালের শিক্ষিতের হার বোধ হয় বেশি। আমাদের এক সহযাত্রী এক টোকাই কে জি্গ্যেস করলেন কি নাম, ইংলিশে সে উত্তর দিতে পারল। তারপর কথায় কথায় জানা গেল, সে কলেজে পড়ে! 

নেপালি ভাষার অনেক শব্দ অবিকল বাংলার মতোন। এক জায়গায় চা খাবার পর বড় নোট দিলাম, সে আকার ইংগিতে জানালো ভাংতি নেই। তারপর সে তার ছেলেকে বলল "খুচরা" করে আনতে। আমিও বললাম হা খুচরা লাগবে। সেও অবাক হলো আমার মুখে এই শব্দ শুনে।

[২২ শে নভেম্বর, ২০০৭]

If you go to Siliguri (India), you can speak in Bangla like Bangladesh. People from Darjeeling can understand Hindi. If you go to Nepal, you can speak in English. I have seen very few people understand Hindi over there.

May be Nepal has good number of literate people than other neighbor country. In our travel one of our tour mate asked name to a street boy and that boy surprised us by answering us with English. Later we got to know that boy studying in a college.

There are many words in Nepali language are same as Bangla. Like one day I took a cup of tea in a restaurant in Nepal. Then I gave a big note to the shop keeper to get the changes. He said he doesn't have that many changes, so he asked his kid to bring some small notes (In bangla "Khuchra"). I said, yes I need those "Khuchra" note (Changes). The shop keeper really surprised to see that in Bangla and Nepali we are using same word.

[November 22, 2007]

Optional language class

The world is becoming a place of mixed race people. From different country, different culture’s people are changing the permanent residence for a better life. When their kid born, I mean the new generation, lives in different culture and grow with it. They see some cultural activity maintained by their parents, not the society. Like language. Their parents use to say one language at home and other at work place. Kids first learn from mom, and then in school, they met with other kids, who may talk other languages. Parents try hard to give lesson to the kid about their origin culture and language. Some people succeed to teach some not. My suggestion is schools may have optional class on different language, where they can learn about the culture and language of their origin country. It will help to rich any cultural activity at any country. And parents will love to send their kid to that school.