Hartal!
Bangla Lesson #5
Hartal - Strike
Shoja Jabo - Go straight
Bam - Left
Din - Right
Rakho - Stop
Disclaimer: (A little late, but oh well.. I discovered that I'm educating a whole class of Singaporeans in Bengali, so i think i better come clean...)
"Ami Dukhito".. That means i'm sorry... (Sounds uncannily like Prophetic class eh?)... The spelling of the words in Bengali are not always the correct ones... Sometimes, I put in my own spelling, the way I heard people pronounce it... In certain cases, the way I spell it could help prospective Begalis from back home communicate better with the real Bengalis over here... (Cos seriously, the way it is spelt here, just doesn't sound the same as how they say it... I would know... When Rajib says something and I ask him to spell it, I'd pronounce it the way it is spelt, and he corrects me... uh.. hmm ok... so sometimes I give up on his spelling.)
The reason my conscience caught up to me today, was the fact that I was talking to Azmat yesterday. He's Lionel's fren. A true blue Bangladeshi. And He was telling me some things in Bengali. I tell you, his spelling is a whole lot classier than mine... Eg. He drinks "dudh cha chini beshi" (beshi is more)... looks better than my "dud cha cheeni kom" right?. He says "thigase" (ok), while i would have spelt it "tik asey". Same thing, different spelling. His definitely looks better right? But I still insist that I will keep spelling it my way cos it's easier to pronounce. At least, now all my "students" are aware that they are not getting the right spelling all the time... But they can be sure that they are getting the right pronounciation. =P
Now back to my main topic... I'm quite long-winded, aren't I? Must be the teacher instinct...
Today is hartal. Yup... Don't panic. I didn't see a single act of violence or any striker anywhere... It just means that all the large vehicles are not around on the road and that rickshaws could go anywhere they want. (or rather anywhere we want).
Jess & I were supposed to go to Drik on our own cos Jess got up late and Shalini was late for work.. was quite funny.. Like we were going for an exam or something... We were asking Peter how to tell the rickshaw driver that we wanted to go to Drik. And over breakfast we were reciting important words and phrases and writing notes into our textbooks... (really Macam morning before exams sia...)
Normally, rickshaws don't come in front of pathshala because it's near a VIP road where rickshaws are not allowed to travel on, but today.. they were streaming down our street... We were amazed and we got on a rickshaw... We had no idea what was going on... Until we saw a string of policemen closing off the road we usually go on... like... Woah! After that, Jess was worried that we were lost... The rickshaw driver just took the next road and I directed him to Drik... Using the most useful words in the Bengali language... "Bam", "Din", & "Rakho". We got to Drik safely.
There's the other perk of having a Hartal... Siraj, whose comp i'm using now, is stuck at his home village cos the large vehicles are not allowed on the road... So i get to use his comp all day!!! yay!!
I don't think I'd be quite so excited about the hartal if i saw the fighting and the bloodshed or something... For now, i'm just stuck in my cosy, safe little haven called Drik... Guess I'll just learn to appreciate the little moments of security I feel now... Until it gets shattered later on or something...
Hartal - Strike
Shoja Jabo - Go straight
Bam - Left
Din - Right
Rakho - Stop
Disclaimer: (A little late, but oh well.. I discovered that I'm educating a whole class of Singaporeans in Bengali, so i think i better come clean...)
"Ami Dukhito".. That means i'm sorry... (Sounds uncannily like Prophetic class eh?)... The spelling of the words in Bengali are not always the correct ones... Sometimes, I put in my own spelling, the way I heard people pronounce it... In certain cases, the way I spell it could help prospective Begalis from back home communicate better with the real Bengalis over here... (Cos seriously, the way it is spelt here, just doesn't sound the same as how they say it... I would know... When Rajib says something and I ask him to spell it, I'd pronounce it the way it is spelt, and he corrects me... uh.. hmm ok... so sometimes I give up on his spelling.)
The reason my conscience caught up to me today, was the fact that I was talking to Azmat yesterday. He's Lionel's fren. A true blue Bangladeshi. And He was telling me some things in Bengali. I tell you, his spelling is a whole lot classier than mine... Eg. He drinks "dudh cha chini beshi" (beshi is more)... looks better than my "dud cha cheeni kom" right?. He says "thigase" (ok), while i would have spelt it "tik asey". Same thing, different spelling. His definitely looks better right? But I still insist that I will keep spelling it my way cos it's easier to pronounce. At least, now all my "students" are aware that they are not getting the right spelling all the time... But they can be sure that they are getting the right pronounciation. =P
Now back to my main topic... I'm quite long-winded, aren't I? Must be the teacher instinct...
Today is hartal. Yup... Don't panic. I didn't see a single act of violence or any striker anywhere... It just means that all the large vehicles are not around on the road and that rickshaws could go anywhere they want. (or rather anywhere we want).
Jess & I were supposed to go to Drik on our own cos Jess got up late and Shalini was late for work.. was quite funny.. Like we were going for an exam or something... We were asking Peter how to tell the rickshaw driver that we wanted to go to Drik. And over breakfast we were reciting important words and phrases and writing notes into our textbooks... (really Macam morning before exams sia...)
Normally, rickshaws don't come in front of pathshala because it's near a VIP road where rickshaws are not allowed to travel on, but today.. they were streaming down our street... We were amazed and we got on a rickshaw... We had no idea what was going on... Until we saw a string of policemen closing off the road we usually go on... like... Woah! After that, Jess was worried that we were lost... The rickshaw driver just took the next road and I directed him to Drik... Using the most useful words in the Bengali language... "Bam", "Din", & "Rakho". We got to Drik safely.
There's the other perk of having a Hartal... Siraj, whose comp i'm using now, is stuck at his home village cos the large vehicles are not allowed on the road... So i get to use his comp all day!!! yay!!
I don't think I'd be quite so excited about the hartal if i saw the fighting and the bloodshed or something... For now, i'm just stuck in my cosy, safe little haven called Drik... Guess I'll just learn to appreciate the little moments of security I feel now... Until it gets shattered later on or something...
posted by thebemusedphotog @ 11:34 AM
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