Bengali : A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Series)(BOOK & 2 Cassettes) [Paperback]

Teach Yourself Publishing (Author), William Radice (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company; Book and Cassette edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844238511
• ISBN-13: 978-0844238517
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,329,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and practical, January 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bengali : A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Series)(BOOK & 2 Cassettes) (Paperback)

I've been to B'desh and one MUST be able to read Begali script to get around. I especially like the way it pushs you early on into reading the Begali sript instead of transliteration. I have found it more useful than the HEAD language modules that I have. His grammar sections are well presented and drilled. GET the tapes. Yes, the language is phonetic, but practicing comparison with a native speaker can't be beat. Also check out other languages in this series. I have Norwegian as well and found it equally useful.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written grammar for a broad range of learning styles., May 17, 1998

By 

M. Greenberg "kitarist" (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bengali : A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Series)(BOOK & 2 Cassettes) (Paperback)

This book is meticulously crafted and will satisfy the needs of a broad range of learning styles. In addition to lucid explanations of grammar and idiomatic usage, much cultural information, especially as it bears upon speaking habits (including regional and religious variation), is given. Included also is an up-to-date bibliography with references to works on Bengali linguistics, literature, and culture as well as to grammars and dictionaries. This is very useful, as a serious learner will wish to consult a number of sources. The only potential shortcoming -- though some may find this a strength -- is that the first thirteen chapters are devoted to entirely to pronunciation and orthography. Later, most of the text is given entirely in the Bengali orthography in which it is not always possible to predict the presence or absence of the "inherent vowel." Consequently, one is forced to master Bengali orthography before learning most of the grammatical structure. This may slow down the learner who wishes to learn grammar patterns first and acquire the orthography later.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little complicated but you will learn Bengali, September 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Bengali : A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Series)(BOOK & 2 Cassettes) (Paperback)

If you want to learn Bengali there are very few resources available, which makes this book a must have to learn grammar.

The book is divided up into four major sections:
* Teaches all the major Bengali letters
* Grammar - each section includes a conversational portion (which has an English translation), an explanation of the grammar used in the conversation, and then some exercises (which I found very helpful for reinforcing the concepts).
* Bengali literature and poetry (with English translations)
* An extensive glossary of Bengali words using both script and transliteration, which is great if you don't have a dictionary.

The two tapes included are very useful for learning the proper pronunciations.

The one issue I had with the book is that the author uses a lot of grammatical terms such as "diminutive form of the article", "locative case" etc. without explaining what they mean. This made it a little difficult to understand what he was explaining at times.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Bengali. You will learn to speak, read and write the language by the end.