Bangla is tough, especially when you’re still learning English! (MATT)

I’ve realized that I never systematically learned how to speak proper English. I know when to use eat vs. ate vs. eaten, but I sure can’t name the dozen or so verb tenses we use in English, nor can I fully “diagram sentences.” While these deficiencies generally do not affect my ability to speak English, they (ironically) sure are making it tough for me to learn Bangla!

I’m on my second month of intensive language training, attending classes for two hours each morning before work. With classmates hailing from Pakistan, Rwanda, and South Korea, the teacher sees me as “Mr. All-American” and turns to me anytime a question comes up about the English language.

The PROBLEM is that I learned English naturally over the years, rarely thinking twice about the structure of the language.

Teacher: “It’s just like the PAP in English, right Matt?”
Matt: “Sorry, the what?”
Teacher: “The P.A.P. You know, the Past Active Participle.”
Matt: “Excuse me. THE WHAT?!”

On another day I was asked to describe the difference between “genitive and accusative” nouns, and then later “serial, alternate, and possessive” relationships. (The underlying concepts are simple enough, but I sure am not fluent in such terminology!)

Accordingly, as we’re learning Bangla by mapping the structure, rules, exceptions, etc. to those used in English, I find that I’m trying to learn two languages instead of just one!!


UPDATE: I just looked up the “PAP” in English and it doesn’t really exist. HA! While gullible, perhaps I’m not as ignorant as I thought…


In case you’re interested, above is the Sanskrit-based alphabet used in Bangla. My training has focused thus far on phonetics (using the English alphabet), but we’ll start using these characters next month.

Bangla and Bengali are the same language, only Bengali is spoken throughout the Bengal region of the sub-continent (i.e. parts of India), whereas Bangladeshis like to refer to “their” language as Bangla.

Did-you-know fact of the day: Bangla/Bengali is the 5th most spoken language in the world. However, since it’s not spoken in places tourists travel – and most Bengali speakers don’t travel outside of the region – you sure won’t find a Rosetta Stone course!