Colloquial Bengali

Written by experienced teachers, the course provides a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Bengali covering both Bengali of Bangladesh and West Bengali.

Colloquial Bengali provides a step-by-step course in Bengali as it is written and spoken today. Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Bengali in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Key features include:

• progressive coverage of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills

• structured, jargon-free explanations of grammar

• an extensive range of focused and stimulating exercises

• realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of scenarios

• useful vocabulary lists throughout the text

• additional resources available at the back of the book, including a full answer key, a grammar summary and bilingual glossaries

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Bengali will be an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Bengali.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download freely in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

Autorentext

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.

Inhalt

1. What's your name? 2. Are these your cousins? 3. How many houses does he have? 4. In what direction is the temple of Kali? 5. What have you seen? 6. What would you like to eat? 7. What are you cooking? 8. Shall I show it to you? 9. Can I cash this cheque here? 10. Doesn't anyone live here? 11. What happened next? 12. What did you study at school? 13. What do you use for ploughing the land? 14. If the flight leaves at ten, at what time should I check in? 15. What else is done on New Year's Day?