Bengali Resources

When I started this blog there didn’t appear to be all that many resources available for learning Bengali.

That remains true of off-line resources, but there are a number of useful online resources if you have the time to search for them.

Here are the best ones I’ve found so far:

Online Bengali course:

• Supriyosen.net (More info)

BENGALI GCSE:

AQA’s web pages for their Bengali GCSE (UK school qualification) have a number of very useful materials, though they’re not always that obvious to find. The Student Guide is particularly recommended. (More info)

ONLINE NEWS IN BENGALI:

BBC Bangla and Deutsche Welle (both require Bengali fonts and include audio players), Century Sangbad (displays in Bengali script but as a collection of images so you don’t need Bengali fonts to view). (More info)

BENGALI FONTS:

There are a number of Bengali fonts available online. You can find them here and here. (More info)

BENGALI PODCASTS:

News – NHK World Radio Japan (download sample episode – 20 September, 2009, rss feed)

Discussion and music – Santiniketan Podcast (download sample episode – #149 Notun o Puraton, 28 June, 2009, recent episodes)

(More info on these and other Bengali podcasts)

Bengali Readings – English language podcast about Bengali literature. (More info)

Bangla Readings – Podcast about Bengali literature in Bengali.

GOOGLE LANGUAGE TOOLS

Bengali transliteration, transliteration bookmarklet and Bengali Dictionary. (More info)

Google’s Bengali translation (More info)

YOUTUBE

Bengali basics, alphabet and numbers 1-10. (More info)

Numbers 1-50 (More info)

UNICEF’s Meena cartoon in Bengali (More info)

Bengali Podcasts – video/YouTube-based podcasts with short lessons on learning Bengali

MOBILE:

iPhone Bengali script problems (More info)

Lingopal Bengali Lite, a free phrase book type iPhone app with audio recordings (More info)

Bengali transliteration iPhone apps (More info)

I’m teaching myself Bengali and the following are my posts on things I’m learning or revising. A word of warning about these, I reckon I’m somewhere between beginner and intermediate (certainly not a teacher, except to my sons, or in anyway fluent) so my understanding of the language reflects that.

BENGALI VOCABULARY

5 BENGALI phrases

A series of posts with useful Bengali phrases

5 BEngali words

A series of posts with bite-sized chunks of vocabulary

BENGALI GRAMMAR

OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES

There are links to many more online resources for learning Bengali, as well as other Asian languages like Hindi and Urdu, at So You Want To Learn A Language. (More info)

BENGALI BOOKS (ONLINE AND OFFLINE RESOURCES):

Bengali Phrasebook (More info)

Bengali-English-Bengali Dictionary, Ghulam Murshid (More info)

Students’ Word Book (More info)

William Radice’s excellent Teach Yourself Bengali

Bengali (Bangla) Dictionary and Phrasebook (More info)

Last updated 29 January, 2017

12 thoughts on “Bengali Resources”

    1. It was certainly my initial impression that there were few online Bengali resources. I’ve since decided that there are some useful things out there, it just takes time to find them.

      I like your blog and think the blog format is very well suited to organising learning in the way that makes most sense to the individual. Moreover the act of formulating posts is an excellent way of reinforcing learning and sharing as you go along (or so I’ve found it to be).

      Good luck with the blog!

      Reply

  4. Thanks for the tip, I wasn’t aware of Voice of America and it seems more accessible than the NHK World News Bengali podcast I listen to now and then.

    (And it seems clever WordPress hyperlinks it for you – so that’s another thing I’ve learnt today.)

    Reply

  6. See:
    http://www.travlang.com/wordofday/

    I’ve registered for a word a day to my email address – and you can get the pronunciation too. Not sure if I will get a deluge of unwanted advertising to my inbox as well.
    You can just look at the website.

    Today’s word is আগামীকাল but they’ve put it in Roman Script agamikal.

    Reply

  7. Great blog! Amio Bangla shikchi.

    Some favorite resources: Gaurav Das’ audiostories site. Excellent readings. Introduced me to many wonderful writers. Now I buy the books in Bengali and English at Parabaas and listen to the recording. I’ve been listening to Sukumar Rays’ “Dhrighangchu ” and “Chander Pahaar” about 95 times and always enjoy them, even if I don’t know every single word.

    The only on-line dictionary I have any use for was published in 1875. Hey, they knew how to print legibly in those days. You can download it or just read it here:
    http://www.archive.org/stream/companiontojohns00mendrich#page/n3/mode/2up

    I love books written by Ghulam Jaffar Iqbal and Humayan Ahmed, both famous writers, who write for young readers–eg I can read them. Available in large quantities in Jackson Heights.

    Reply

  8. Hi Daisy

    Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn’t seen that online dictionary before and will put the authors on my ‘to-read’ list.

    Reply
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