Colloquial Bengali [Hardcover]

Mithun Nasrin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0415476763 | ISBN-13: 978-0415476768 | Edition: 1 Har/Com

Colloquial Bengali is easy to use and completely up-to-date!

Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or classroom use, this course offers you a step-by-step approach to spoken and written Bengali as used in West Bengal and Bangladesh.

What makes Colloquial Bengali your best choice in personal language learning?

• Interactive – lots of exercises for regular practice.
• Thorough – all the elements of the language are presented and explained, with notes on grammar, vocabulary and usage.
• Practical – useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide.
• Complete – including answer key and transcription of Bengali-script materials.

By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Bengali in a broad range of everyday situations.

Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately on CD/MP3 format, or comes included in the great value Colloquials Pack.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mithun B. Nasrin is a Bengali teacher, journalist and writer. She recently published Shornopurir Rajkumari, a fairytale about Bandladeshi politics. W.A.M van der Wurff, a teacher of linguistics at Newcastle University, previously co-authored with her an introduction to Bengali language in Dutch. His other work has included detailed studies of Bengali grammar. Their joint aim in life is to celebrate the beauty of Bengali language, culture and cooking. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 Har/Com edition (February 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415476763
• ISBN-13: 978-0415476768
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,103,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Bengali

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the best resource available for learning to actually speak the language, September 10, 2009

By 

perekladach (Carbondale, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colloquial Bengali (Colloquial Series) (Audio CD)

It is interesting to note that both of the other readers who have reviewed this book so far have specifically compared it with 'Teach Yourself Bengali.' The universe of Bengali-language resources is regrettably very small. (the only other work I have is the venerable introductory book By Dimock)I have also used both books and agree with some points that each of the other reviewers has made. This book keeps material simple in the beginning and is quite user-friendly from the point of view of developing skill at speaking. The conversations in each chapter aren't particularly deep or profound, but they certainly get more interesting as the book goes along. A particularly valuable feature is the extensive section on pronunciation which comes at the beginning and which the accompanying CD tracks very precisely. It is very much geared toward learning to speak the language (whereas TYB is more literary). This is definitely the best bet for a quick start into the world of everyday Bengali conversation. Coverage of grammar is quite easy to follow and the differences between Eastern and Western Bengali usage are noted as they occur (would that most other language books would do this).

My only complaint is that I would have liked a longer (and thicker book), with a lot more vocabulary. Maybe if this sells well the authors will think about a Volume 2. It would be very welcome.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Much too thin to be useful, September 4, 2009

By 

Gwilym - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colloquial Bengali (Colloquial Series) (Audio CD)

Unfortunately, the courses in the Colloquial series have a reputation for being very bad when it comes to Asian languages. Colloquial Bengali is no exception. Compared to most Colloquial courses on European languages, there's almost nothing in this book and you'll end up knowing about 25% of the vocabulary you would learn in Colloquial Italian,Colloquial Czech, Colloquial Icelandic.

There are only two Bengali books on the market, this one and Teach Yourself Bengali. Neither is very good, but for different reasons. Teach Yourself Bengali is many times more extensive than this course, but it's format is boring and the layout is a mess. The conversations and the well-structured layout in this book give it its two stars, but the content in terms of what you learn is far too limited. When will Routledge start to treat non-European languages as seriously as they treat the European languages?

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Make sure you get the CD and the book!, October 28, 2009

By 

Didrik Sveinn Bogason "Pine Leaf" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Colloquial Bengali (Colloquial Series) (Audio CD)

I went on the website and wanted to buy something that was written: CD, (Sheets) and thought that it would be a CD with sheets that could be put in a folder. But I only got the CD, which is not of much use without the book. So I feel that I completely lost my money, the CD has not much value without the book. And if I order the book now its really not worth the money.

Anyway the CD is a bit like Pinsleur's Chinese, that is an English guide that introduces the contents of each lesson and leads you through the alphabet sounds, and more and more complicated dialogues. It's good but when you are learning a language you also need to see something on print. The Bengali is with local speakers so that's really good to learn proper pronunciation.