Lonely Planet Bengali Phrasebook

Average customer rating: Excellent it works I used this to get around in a village w/almost no English interesting yet derogatory example of "lonliness"

Lonely Planet Bengali Phrasebook Bimal Maity Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback English (All) | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books Bengali | Foreign Language | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books General | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books Phrasebooks - General | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books Southeast Asian | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books General | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books Linguistics | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books General | Reference | Subjects | Books General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books Look Inside Art Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Similar Items: Teach Yourself Bengali Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) Lonely Planet Bangladesh Introduction to Bengali Pt. 1 A Basic Course in Spoken Bengali Milet Bilingual Visual Dictionary: English-Bengali ASIN: 0864423128

Book Description

Order a meal, catch an auto-rickshaw, chat with the locals, bargain for souvenirs - and do it all in Bengali! This phrasebook gives you easy-to-pronounce phonetic transcriptions as well as Bengali script with every phrase. Other features include thorough pronunciation and grammar guides and a comprehensive vocabulary section to make communication even easier. <ul>

thumb tabs and comprehensive index for fast, easy reference </li></ul>

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2002-09-25

I bought this book as one of the several "tools" I am using to learn Bengali. The book starts with an explanation of the transliteration used and a brief explanation of grammar. It then goes into common words and phrases. The book provides both transliteration and the Bengali script for many phrases. There is an excellent glossary at the back of the book that is listed alphabetically in English. It also includes transliteration and Bengali script. This is excellent for building your Bengali vocabulary. For information on how to incorporate a phrase book into your language learning process I recommend "How to Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own" by Barry J. Farber.

it works.......2001-03-28

I was hoping to learn a little Bengali so I can at least have a simple conversation with a native speaker. I haven't done that yet but now at least I can recognize and identify some meanings when I hear those native speakers. This phrasebook has the Bengali script and Roman letters. There is also a Eng-Bengali vocab list in the back of the book that I have found useful. I would recommend this book if you are trying to learn or use a little Bengali. It is simple, inexpensive, and offers some cultural insight to boot.

I used this to get around in a village w/almost no English.......1999-11-18

I spent 25 days in West Bengal with this book on me at all times. After leaving Calcutta, I found very few people who could speak much English. As it was designed for, it was fast to use to find a phrase, and pretty easy to be understood when reading. I needed few words that were not included in the book. I intend to use phrasebooks every time I want to learn a language - before I leave for the country.

interesting yet derogatory example of "lonliness".......1999-10-30

The author could have expressed more of desire to understand than explain. The phrases are allogorical of the many multilingual facets available in such a small country. Yet she does give some adequate examples of rudimentary uses of phrases. Thus, one can view Bimal Maity's efforts to categorize variations in the languages of Bangladesh fruitless at best. But the truth is, I have not read the book and can only surmise of the book's content by reading the title.

Average customer rating: Not useful for learning the languages

Hindi, Urdu & Bengali: Lonely Planet Phrasebook Richard Delacy , Shahara Ahmed , and Lonely Planet Phrasebooks Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Bengali | Foreign Language | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books Hindi | Foreign Language | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books Urdu | Foreign Language | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books Phrasebooks - General | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books Translating | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books General | Reference | Subjects | Books General | India | Asia | Travel | Subjects | Books Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Foreign Language | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books | Arabic | Chinese | French | German | Greek | Italian | Japanese | Polyglot | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish General | Foreign Languages | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books Phrasebooks - General | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books General | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books Words & Language | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books | Alphabet | Communication | Etymology | General | Grammar | Handwriting | Linguistics | Phonetics & Phonics | Public Speaking | Readers | Reading Skills | Reference | Rhetoric | Spelling | Study & Teaching | Usage | Vocabulary | Vocabulary, Slang, & Word Lists India | Asia | Travel | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books Similar Items: Lonely Planet India Teach Yourself Bengali Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) Lonely Planet Bangladesh Lonely Planet Healthy Travel Asia and India (Lonely Planet Healthy Travel) Bengali Cooking: Seasons and Festivals ASIN: 1740591496

Customer Reviews:

Not useful for learning the languages.......2007-03-15

Although this combined edition is more accurate than the previous separate phrasebooks for Hindi/Urdu and Bengali, do not expect to use it to actually learn the languages or even get beyond a couple of dozen phrases.

Perhaps in conjunction with a formal language guide to Bengali, this phrasebook would be more helpful, but at the time of my recent travels, there was no English language language study guide available for Bengali/Bangla (I think the Teach Yourself series has one, but that series is currently going through a one-by-one reissue as the cover format and typeface have changed).

The main problem is the Bengali to English dictionary, which is listed from the point of view of the written form vs. how things sound or how they transluterate to Latin characters. This requires first learning Bengali script, which is quite difficult due to the bizarre rules in all South Indian derived scripts (including Thai and Khmer/Cambodian as well as Hindi) vs. Cyryllic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. And besides which, literacy is not and should not be a requirement for developing the more important day-to-day fluency of speaking and listening skills in a new language while traveling.

The publisher would also be advised to make clear that there are significant regional variants within Bengali (if not also Hindi/Urdu), and thus one is not always understood even with basic everyday phrases as they are published here. They might also be advised to include the related Punjabi language/dialect in the next edition, to be more complete.

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