Teach Yourself Bengali is the course for anyone who wants to progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking and writing Bengali with confidence. Bengali stands sixth in the world in its number of speakers, has the richest and most developed modern literature in South Asia and is the national language of Bangladesh and the state language of West Bengal. There are also large Bengali-speaking communities in India, the Middle East, North America and Britain.The book is divided into three main parts:Part one deals with the sounds and the script. You will be introduced to the sounds and characters step -by-step and each unit contains exercises for you to practise what you have learnt. Part two is concerned with communication: conversation and grammar. The units in this section are based on useful everyday dialogues which are also translated into English. The grammar section explains the structures found in the dialogues and then there are exercises for you to practise each point. All the dialogues are recorded on the accompanying cassette which is available separately or in a pack with the book. Part three is an optional section on literature.Here you will be introduced to some of the finer points of Bengali grammar and idiom through a series of short texts from West Bengal and Bangladesh. The pack consists of the book and an 80 minute cassette which can also be purchased separately: book - 0 340 86029 4 and cassette - 0 340 86031 6.
Script diagrams. Section I - sounds and script. Section II -
conversation and grammar: finding out about someone; talking to a
rickshawallah; buying fruit and vegetables; finding out about schools;
arranging a visit; health and diet; meeting an artist; talking to a child;
conversation on a train; telling stories; meeting a writer; learning Bengali.
Section III - literature: the tailor-bird and the cat; Sakuntala; Satyajit
Ray; Tagore in England; the Bangladesh War; Shamsur Rahman; the coming of the
monsoon; Jibanananda Das.
William Radice is Senior Lecturer in Bengali at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has pursued a double career as a poet and as a scholar and translator of Bengali, and has written or edited more than twenty-five books. He has given numerous lectures and poetry readings in Britain and overseas, and has been awarded literary prizes in India and Bangladesh. For the last three years he has written a fortnightly column for the Statesman newspaper in India, and has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2's early morning 'Pause for Thought'.
