bangla-sydney
bangla-sydney.com
News and views of Bangladeshi community in Australia














Dear Imran,

Tomar sundor lekhar jonno onek dhonnobad!

I feel encouraged by your notes on the bangla-sydney.com. Your notes are timely because they come at a crucial juncture when the percentage of uptake of institutional learning of Bangla by kids in Sydney (or Australia for that matter) is lower than before at the same time the number of formal institutions for teaching Bangla in Sydney has been the highest. You may wonder why I had to make the above remark! Well, in case you are not aware, alongside quite a few community schools that run on Sundays and partly supported by the NSW Government, the Government itself runs Saturday schools for Bangla. Such classes have been running for the last 10 years but with very minimum number of students. Will you believe, Imran, that just because of a shortage of two students, one of the two centres (the Dulwich Hill centre) will most likely be closed soon. Further, between both the centres, we need only 20 regular students of yr 7-10 to learn Bangla for 2.5 hours only on Saturdays.

My sincere hope is your writing should inspire kids to learn Bangla in both formal and informal ways. Perhaps, it’s the parents to be inspired more than their kids. I seriously wish that the community schools, such as those on Sundays, run well and are well attended, and also we see recruits from these schools to the Saturday School centres. Then, we, I imply Bangla Prosar Committee Inc, the community group that has been liaising with the NSW Government regarding Saturday School, can request the Government to introduce Bangla as an elective subject at HSC. When added, the grace marks could acutely help one’s ATAR for better admissions at higher degree studies.

See Imran, out of more than 40,000 Bangladeshis now living in Australia and additional 20,000 Bangla-speaking people from West Bengal, we have been struggling to manage just 20 students! I hope this picture changes due to your notes and also hope that when you reach that stage, you will continue your learning Bangla and go to Saturday School.

You may wonder why parents are not inspiring their kids to learn Bangla! Well, some of them do learn at home. But most don’t. Their parents think that their kids must only learn English and need not communicating in Bangla, as it might be an extra pressure on their kids. Such parents try to communicate primarily in English (I mean the English of their standard; often sub-standard) and in effect, end up confusing such kids. Rather, at home they should only communicate in Bangla from the very childhood and that would help them learning the language as well as building a desire to continue formal learning at schools. In addition to just learning the language at formal institutions, a formal learning gives them the certificates that they may need one day for employment and other purposes.

Perhaps one of the main reasons of such an inertia has been a lack of awareness of the likely benefits of learning Bangla in Australia. Apart from the cognitive, cultural and other benefits, there are real potential for the Australian graduates to enter in to Australian/Bangladeshi businesses. I can share my wife’s frustrations with you in that since she does not understand Hindi at all she dearly misses watching Bollywood films! Her agony is heart-breaking!

Guess who will Australian businesses, such as Woolworths, First State Super, Australian banks, Australian companies that import garments from Bangladesh, Australian Ambassador to Dhaka, an Australian university opening a campus in Bangladesh, and so on, will prefer to employ as the head of their business in Bangladesh? Definitely look for him/her who is an Australian graduate and trained in Australia but can communicate in Bangla.

Imran, if you are not aware, the first Bangladeshi-British who was appointed as the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh was Mr Anwar Choudhury during 2004-2008. The irony is, when he was bomb attacked in Sylhet, he was able to save his life only because he could speak Bangla, and most probably Sylheti dialect as well.

As recently as last month the newest Australian Ambassador to India is an Indian-Australian – Ms Harinder Sidhu. Mr Peter Varghese was her predecessor and also of the same origin. And, both of them communicate well in their respective mother languages. Another Australian-Indian Ambassador is currently posted in Israel. These are merely a handful of examples.

Then, how about Bangladeshi-owned and rapidly growing businesses in Australia? Who would be their preference if there are two candidates for a top job and both are equally capable except that one can communicate in Bangla? Likewise, recently in many Medical Centres in Sydney, there has been a serious hunt for Doctors (GPs) from their ethnic backgrounds and those who can communicate in their mother languages.
Then comes literature. Bangladesh although such a small nation, the second largest volume of literatures in the world are in Bangla. Many Bangla-speaking writers have been prolifically writing world-class literature, purely because of their ability to communicate in Bangla.

Trust me, when you become a graduate, your employment prospect will be much higher than your Bangladeshi peers who do not speak Bangla. As simple as that. Further, because you can communicate in at least Bangla and English, if you wanted to learn another language you will pick it much quicker than others!

If I may join with your urge to the Bangla-speaking Australian parents, who have school-going kids, please consider formal learning of Bangla by your kid. You will not regret; rather the contrary is a strong possibility.

Thanks once again Imran, for your courage in freely sharing your inspiring views.

Bhalo theko!

Dr Swapan Paul (swapanil@yahoo.com)
Ex-President of Bangla Prosar Committee Inc.





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