Teach Yourself Bengali

As I say with every TY book, they always have great content but poor organization. It is not that hard to order the concepts in a logical way so that it helps to faciliate the learning. PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE ORDER OF THESE BOOKS TY!!!!

used it in class. very useful for reading practice. not so much for the practice exercises.

The cd for this book has some great conversations to practice. However, the time allowed to repeat is minimal. It would be SO much better if more time were allowed. The book is written, it seems, by a professor using college type language. I had studied Bangla many years ago and was using this as a refresher. If I had been brand new to the language...I would have been lost in the wordage. It has, however, been very helpful to me and I would recommend it to someone who plans to be in the country for awhile.

This book is meticulously crafted and will satisfy the needs of a broad range of learning styles. In addition to lucid explanations of grammar and idiomatic usage, much cultural information, especially as it bears upon speaking habits (including regional and religious variation), is given. Included also is an up-to-date bibliography with references to works on Bengali linguistics, literature, and culture as well as to grammars and dictionaries. This is very useful, as a serious learner will wish to consult a number of sources. The only potential shortcoming -- though some may find this a strength -- is that the first thirteen chapters are devoted to entirely to pronunciation and orthography. Later, most of the text is given entirely in the Bengali orthography in which it is not always possible to predict the presence or absence of the "inherent vowel." Consequently, one is forced to master Bengali orthography before learning most of the grammatical structure. This may slow down the learner who wishes to learn grammar patterns first and acquire the orthography later.

This book is great for someone who wants to learn Bengali. I have tried many other books, and this is the only one that could help...