Critical Language Scholarship Experience: Bengali/Bangla
I received the Critical Language Scholarship for the study of Bangla. This is my experience.
I have to start this with a disclaimer, of course: this does not represent the US State Department in any way. This is all my opinion and thought processes, so it does not reflect them in any way. I also must say that I attended the Virtual Institute in 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced our program to be virtual this year. Only the Korean program went abroad.
Why Bangla/Bengali?
I had applied for the CLS program three years in a row, and each time I didn’t even make it past the semifinalist round until this year. I had applied for Korean the past two years, as I had done NSLI-Y Korean and thus it seemed like a natural linear progression, but as I continued to take classes at FIT, I found myself more and more disconnected with studying Korean.
I found myself becoming more interested in South Asia, especially because I had attended the International Writing Program’s Summer Institute, which was dedicated to intercultural dialogue and exchange between Pakistani, Indian, and American youth writers. I was really ignorant about South Asia, and that program really showed me I was actually an idiot when it came to the world outside of Iran, the West, and East Asia. And so I wanted to do something about it.
I think what got me through this time was I felt like I had more of a purpose to learn Bengali, because I have been in fashion school for three years and we do not talk about what is going in Bangladesh.
It made me so angry and upset that we were building this fashion empire on a colonial legacy and a legacy of pain and suffering, so I wrote my CLS essays with that in mind. I worked with a professional writing tutor for five weeks, then sent off my application. And so the waiting game began!
January I was named a semifinalist, then the first week of March I was named a Bengali finalist. I had woken up from my nap, instinctively checked my email, and started laughing when I saw the finalist emails. I accepted immediately, and I wasn’t really disappointed at the fact that it was virtual. It’s a privilege to even have the opportunity, and I’m grateful to have it.
Pre-Program Preparations
Since we were an online program due to the ongoing pandemic, the preparations looked a little different than they usually would. The head of Indic languages at CLS had little phone call sessions with us before the program to go over expectations, warning us in advance that the Bangla program liked drilling and a lot of homework, and to go over any basic questions and concerns that we had about the program.
We received a document outlining what the Bengali online program would look like in the middle of April. We were to have class from 8-12 PM every day in EST, we would get one hour with a teacher alone to go over anything we wanted, and we were to be given a language partner.
Of course, we had to take an OPI regardless of language level, which was a terrible time. I didn’t speak any Bangla and the lady thought I was kind of an idiot and tried to coax it in English, but I still couldn’t even say like “mother.” I wonder what I got, hmmm. The placement test was to be taken over the course of three days in June, and we were told orientation would be a couple of days before the program began.
We were asked to have a basic understanding of the Bangla alphabet so we could be capable of reading before we got into the program. Naturally, this had me sweating, so as soon as my college was over, I was cramming the alphabet every. Single. Day. I was on Memrise, I begged our cohort’s WhatsApp group for resources, and I was watching all the Bangla cartoons I could find on YouTube. I wasn’t playing. I learned all the vowels in three days and evolved into consonants, which was an entirely new adventure. All in all, I did it somehow!
CLS! We’re Studying Bangla!
On June 15th and 16th, we had orientation.We conducted the program via Microsoft Teams—that’s how we did all of the coursework and whatnot. On the first day, we described the basic overview of the program as a cohort and expectations going forward. The second day was with the home institute, the American Institute of Indian Studies, and it was conducted entirely in Bangla.
Our primary contact sent us the PowerPoint in English the day before, so I made sure to study it quite a bit before going into it. I spoke no Bangla besides extreme basics, so that was a fun time. We also met our language partners during this time! Mine was really nice, I liked her when we first met.
Just to note before I continue, I was placed in the beginner class, and so I had a language partner familiar with beginners and spoke English with me when I didn’t understand.
Our meetings often focused on cultural lessons, such as Bengali fashion, poetry, and art, since those were topic areas I was interested in. We were also given one hour a week privately with an AIIS tutor, who essentially tutored us.
We could set our own themes and topics for this class and were expected to prepare something or notify the teacher to find materials on the subject we wanted to pursue.
Then on June 21 classes began and we hit the ground running. I imagine the in-person experience would be quite different when it comes to pacing, but when I actually was studying from my home, I couldn’t find a work-life balance.
I’d do up to four hours of the Bangla program and then spend another three hours studying. Besides that, the first week we worked largely on script and being able to read, with a painful focus on conjuncts, and so we blazed through the alphabet and conjuncts and were tested on it Friday. We also met a local entrepreneur for our cultural class, who told us about his business in which he sold Bengali artisan handicrafts all across India and the world.
The second week, by that Tuesday, my Quizlet was already filled with 132 new words, not including grammar/phrases. That was insane progress, way faster than I had done on the NSLI-Y program. We were focusing on basic grammar that week along with building vocabulary. The test was about the grammar points we had learned, which were pronouns, articles, etc. while our cultural class was about cooking! For cultural classes, we were expected to have questions prepared in advance, so we were given the class description along with essential vocabulary for getting these questions together.
By Tuesday of Week 3, the Quizlet was filled with 350 words. We then progressed into tenses, starting with simple future. Grammar-wise, after we learned how to read, we went one lesson a day on particular topics. First were pronouns and the rules that came with them, then articles to add onto objects and people the next lesson, and this week we landed on all of the tenses. Our vocabulary list was four pages long this week, we were given about twenty pages of grammar notes explaining how to conjugate verbs.
Week four we continued onwards with tenses. Each class when it comes to speaking we have to give a presentation to our teacher, who will go sentence by sentence and correct us.
One day might be daily routine, while another is about our city and universities. I study really hard for these, because I know speaking and grammar aren’t my strengths. It was this week we were given the guidelines for our final project. I decided to do a poster on Bengali poets and give a presentation/essay about their legacies.
After week four, it seemed to be a blur to be honest. We cranked up the intensity and started to continue building on tenses and postpositions. We went from learning how to read basic letters to the final week reading full-on stories about a village feud where people are stealing money and clothes.
My personal struggle throughout the program, however, was listening. I also struggled with grammar. On an online program like this, I will admit it’s pretty hard to up certain skillsets because you’re not immersed in the language.
Once you press leave Zoom call, that’s it for the day. A lot of my cohort also worked full-time, because the program doesn’t give you a stipend to live off of (they only gave us 1,000 USD). Many of us had to pay our living expenses, so that eats away at studying time. CLS told the program to give less homework, and so it was made optional the last two weeks, but I don’t think that’s the answer.
We had cultural activities once a week. My personal favorite was the scroll painting, because as he was presenting to us, there was an event going on outside. So the guy took his phone and managed to capture the entire song and scroll painting event for us live and in action. That was the best one for me because of that, to have a taste of what we missed in person.
What’s unique about CLS Bangla is that we have to do several big projects: we did an entire research project, clocking in at 300 words for beginners, we had to give a 3-5 minute presentation on that project orally without looking at notes, and we had the option of participating in a cultural activity presentation.
We had a puppet cultural class for two weeks, where we made our own traditional puppets and performed a play about COVID vaccine awareness, and so my class and the Advanced Beginner class performed that together.
Post-Program
I took my final OPI the Tuesday after the program ended. I went to New York City that weekend for a work trip at the theatre I work at, then I came home. I didn’t really prepare for the OPI, which is absolutely terrible. And, of course, because I’m absolutely terrible at listening, I struggled with understanding my OPI tester. He was nice enough to translate some words so I could figure it out, and once I understood the question I could answer pretty easily and in-depth. Currently waiting on my OPI scores as I write this.
CLS also emailed us a week after program to tell us that they were offering CLS Refresh, a new program where they’re allowing weekly tutoring for free via the host institution.
I signed up immediately, and am waiting to hear back. Fingers crossed! Otherwise I’m going to continue Bangla learning via YouTube, since there aren’t that many textbooks or other opportunities available for Bangla learners.
I don’t know if I would do the online program again, especially considering the CLS award limit, but I found this to be an awesome preparation for Bangla as someone with no experience in it. I know I would feel comfortable going to Kolkata or Bangladesh and being able to communicate in a basic manner, as well as continue to build upon the foundations of Bangla I’ve already built.
I also came out with a deeper understanding of Bengali culture, and thus I appreciate it so much more and will continue to study it. I think I came out intermediate low, but if I had gone in person, would’ve definitely been intermediate mid.
Comparing CLS to NSLI-Y
While I can’t compare the languages, I can compare and track my progress from NSLI-Y Korean and CLS Bengali. I’m glad I had this opportunity to learn a language again in college because I was disappointed in my progress when I did my NSLI-Y program.
The one thing that made me sad about my NSLI-Y Program was that as a high schooler, I was not yet disciplined enough. That NSLI-Y experience in Korea was enough to wake me up and realize I needed to take this more seriously, as I didn’t make as much progress as I wanted to on the NSLI-Y program.
The CLS program, unlike my NSLI-Y program, was virtual due to the pandemic, and while I wasn’t roaming the streets of Kolkata like I would if this were a normal year, this allowed me to really focus on the language learning aspect. I also think the teachers were much stricter on the Bengali program than the Korean program I had done on NSLI-Y; we were give a lot of homework and there higher expectations on how much we studied. On NSLI-Y I thought it was a bit more relaxed, and if it wasn’t I probably would have had higher gains.
On NSLI-Y, I had a basic idea of Korean and had a background in Mandarin Chinese that helped me out. I had zero experience in Bangla or South Asian languages, and my only helpful concepts were my basic knowledge of Farsi, Arabic, and the fact I am questionably certified in Turkish.
The program expected us to be capable of reading before the start, and so I studied that alphabet like I was going to die otherwise. The Bengali alphabet was a time to learn, but it was also really fun and I enjoyed the process.
On NSLI-Y Korean, something I noticed immediately compared to the Bangla program was that we didn’t learn future tense until we crossed over into the intermediate level territory and finished up our coursework in the beginner class.
Here, on CLS Bangla, in the third week we jumped straight into learning of all the tenses. CLS is much more intense and fast-paced than NSLI-Y, and so when the virtual aspect is added onto it and we’re just cramming, you get much quicker language gains.
On the third week, I felt like I had already learned so much more on the Bangla program than in the six weeks I spent in-country for NSLI-Y.
In the end, as I’m typing this, I definitely learned so much more of the language in this program. It was a struggle, but if I had the immersion aspect of an in-person program, I think I would have been able to make even more language gains than what I already had. I think I’ll definitely be reapplying for Bangla, since they’ve captured my heart. I’m absolutely in love with this beautiful language and will definitely come back to Kolkata on my own, whether it be through CLS or not. The staff at AIIS and my language partner were all so good; I miss them already.
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