Google starts to offer Bengali / Bangla dictation

Random Ink by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay @Flickr

Google recently made some improvements to its search app that should allow Bengali dictation, raising interesting possibilities for those of us learning the language.

Whilst I can’t currently get the changes to work on my iPhone, seeing as the update is Android-only for now, if you can do so then the change could provide a useful way to work on your pronunciation.

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Bengali / Bangla vocabulary: war, attacks

I’ve broadened my approach to learning Bengali since the time when I was over- enamoured by repeated listens of podcasts I struggled to understand.

I still struggle with NHK’s daily Bangla news podcast when I dip into it, but am trying to expand my knowledge of ‘newsy’, hence the recent post on political vocab and this one.

Even before the tragic recent events in Manchester and London this kind of military/warfare vocabulary features in the news from around the world all too often.

Exploring the architecture of old Calcutta

Chancing upon the Calcutta Houses account on Instagram (pictured above and below) could all too easily be the start of a descent down a long rabbit hole.

Calcutta Houses‘ posts of old houses of Kolkata perfectly capture some of the faded glamour and rundown charm of the city.

And it’s an quick hop, skip and a click to #calcuttahouses for more, going from there to the dormant old Calcutta (Kolkata) blog and then thoughts of a Kolkata walking tour.

Bengali / Bangla flashcards

Picture by drcw @ Flickr

So far this year I’ve managed to be surprisingly disciplined with my Bengali study – something that usually only happens in the immediate run-up to one of our every-five-years trips to Kolkata.

One of the things I’ve found particularly helpful for is an iPhone app I’ve dabbled with before.

It’s not, sadly, a really great mobile app for learning Bengali, though I suppose Duolingo for Bengali may one day be available and that could fit the bill.

দেখতে যাচ্ছি – বাংলা দিনলিপি

গত শোনিবারে ওযারংতনে জন্য আমার প্রিয় বন্দুয়ের জন্মদিন গিয়েছিলাম – এই জন্মদিন তার চত্বারিংশত্তম ছিল । সেখানে ট্রেন করে গিয়ে আমার বই পরা সময় ছিলাম । 

দশটার বছরে পরজন্ত সেটা আমার প্রথম উত্তর দিকে দেখতে গিয়েছি । আমি ওযারংতনে আগে না গিয়ে লিভারপুল খুব ভালো জানি (সেখানে বিসবিদালযে গিয়েছি) ।

আমার দেখতে যাওয়া খুবই মোজা ছিল – বন্দুদের দেখে কথা বলেছিলাম । তারা কারায়কায় করেছিল কিন্তু আমি গান করেনি (সমস্ত সময় না হয়ে মন খারাপ হয়নি । তাপর আমরা নাছ করেছিলাম, হয়ত দুই-এক মদ খেয়েছিলাম ।

Google improves translation for nine Indian languages, including Bengali

Oh me of little faith; It turns out that Google hasn’t been dragging its feet when it comes to bringing its latest translation advances to Bengali.

The language is one of nine Indian tongues, alongside Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam and Kannada, to benefit from the search giant’s ‘neural machine translation’ approach.

Bengali vocabulary – politics words

It’s a subject that features on most news broadcasts, but it’s particularly timely given the snap general election that was called earlier this week here in the UK.

I’ve come across many of these words before on the daily news (in Bengali) podcast from Japan’s NHK state media. (And perhaps we should pause for a minute to consider how cool it is that NHK puts out the news in Bengali.)