Customer Reviews

Learn Bengali Through English: In Thirty Days (National Integration Language Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had high hopes for this book, hoping to learn Bengali at home. However, I found the writing style confusing. The pronunciation guide was difficult to follow, leaving me unsure as to how to say the words I was learning. The book forces you to learn the Bengali script, because the second half of the book drops the phonetic English pronunciation and translates Bengali directly to English. I tried to learn the alphabet, but was stymied when I found letters in the script not included in the translated alphabet at the beginning of the book. This would be a good vocabulary book for those who are familiar with Bengali pronunciation and know the alphabet.

Even though I am still learning Bengali I could easily spot numerous mistakes. They included incorrect spellings and sometimes the wrong word matching the wrong Bengali script.

Instead I recommend "Bengali : A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Series)(BOOK & 2 Cassettes) by William Radice" and "Lonely Planet Bengali Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Survival Guide)by Bimal Maity."

I agree with previous reviewers that this book does have some mistakes, however I still found it very useful for vocabulary building. The book gives you Bengali script, transliteration and the English meaning in tabular form. I wouldn't use this as a complete Beginner. Learn the script first, 5 or 6 chapters of grammar and some basic vocabulary and then start using this book.

Don't use it as your primary learning text. Get Bengali: A Complete Course for Beginners or Introduction to Bengali by Edward Dimock. Its cheap so its worth buying since there aren't many other resources out there.

This book isn't very helpful in learning Bengali. There is no audio aid that helps the person learn proper pronounciation, and audio is very important to learning this language.

I am floored! Absolutely positively changed for life! This helped me so much, to learn, and to grow as a person and as a member of my community. Thank you Davidovic Mladen, for making me such a great and fun person to be around. You've rocked my world. I speak Bengali 100% fluent now all because of you. You are beautiful with words. Thank you.