An "Initial Impression" Overview of the Group

I’ve spend the last 24 hours meeting the other people who I’ll be spending the summer with. Here’s the list of names, universities, and “status” of each individual – along with my some extra info I’ve learned about each of them:

Naheed Ahmed - James Madison University (Recent *under*graduate - Anthropology)
Naheed grew up in Fairfax county and her parents are Bangladeshi, though they’ve lived here the majority of their lives. Her primary focus is on her cultural heritage – as well as the fact that her undergraduate degree focused on South Asian Studies.

Samantha Christiansen - Northeastern University (Graduate - History)
Sam lives in Boston, is married, and has a four year old son named Atticus (after Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird”). She is a PhD student who is writing her dissertation about student involvement in the 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation war.

Megan Cohen - Brown University (Recent *under*graduate - Anthropology)
After the summer program, Megan is staying in Bangladesh until January – doing an unpaid internship with BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee).

Alex Dodson - University of Texas at Austin (Graduate - Anthropology)
Alex showed up to orientation with his wife and very literally newborn baby. He also has a 7-year-old son. He was previously in the Peace Corp in Bangladesh, and is writing his thesis on the disenfranchisement of tribal Bangladeshis living in the Chittagong Hill Tract region.

Anne Friedman - Brown University (Recent *under*graduate - Sociology)
Anne plans to get her Master’s in social work, but her primary interest in Bangladesh is feminist outreach and microcredit in developing countries.

Karen Frost - Mount Holyoke College (Undergraduate - Asian Studies)
Karen did the beginner program last year, and is returning this year for the intermediate program.

Diana Hochner - Temple University (Recent *under*graduate - Anthropology)
Wants to study microcredit in the place where it began.

Kira Krown - University of Wisconsin, Madison (Undergraduate - Asian Studies)
Kira did the beginner program last year, and is returning this year for the intermediate program.

Jennifer McFadden - Georgetown University (Graduate - Linguistics)
Jennifer did the beginner program last year, and is returning this year for the intermediate program.

Katherine Meck - American University (Recent *under*graduate - International Affairs/Relations)
Kate wants to study microcredit in the place where it began.

Noelle Miller - University of Southern California (Undergraduate - Anthropology)
Noelle is majoring in anthropology and film, and plans to make a movie about her experience in Bangladesh.

Luke Murphy - Yale University (Undergraduate – Humanities)
No details available.

Thomas Neal - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Undergraduate - Linguistics)
No details available.

Sabrina Rahman - Columbia University (Graduate - International Affairs/Relations)
Sabrina’s parents are both Bangladeshi, and in addition to its relevance to her major, she wants to learn about her parents language and culture.

Ann Marie Spencer - George Washington University (Recent Graduate - Economics)
Annie is another one interested in microcredit.

Christiana Thanos - Columbia University (Graduate - Social work)
Christiana worked in an orphanage in a Bengali speaking area of India last year, and plans to return there throughout her life, which is why she wants to know the language.

Out of 10,400 applicants, I still wonder how I made it into this group… as I don’t have a similar background to any of these people. They’re all very “academic,” which makes me a little uncomfortable. They’re all talking about their next degree or their Fullbright applications… Meanwhile, I’m all, “Yeah, I’ll finish my Master’s when I get around to it…” Fortunately, my self-confidence is pretty unshakable, so I’m sure I’ll survive – even if they all think I’m a slacker :-)

The Bengali Alphabet/Script

Bengali is written in a script called the Bengali script. The letters in the Bengali script are grouped together based on the way they are pronounced. The first 11 letters are all vowels. Then follows the consonants and finally the semi vowels.

The consonants are grouped based on how they are pronounced. First comes the velar consonants, then the palatal, the retroflex, the dental, and the labial consonants. Each group contains five consonants.

All the vowels come in two versions in the script: full vowel and vowel sign. The vowel sign is much simpler than the full vowel. It is used when a vowel follows a consonant. If a vowel follows another vowel, or if a words starts with a vowel, the full vowel is used. The is no pronunciation differences between full vowels and vowel signs.

The vowel signs are written next to the preceding consonant. Some vowel signs are written before, some after, some below, and some above the consonant. And one vowel sign is simply not written at all: the absense of a sign is the sign itself! This vowel is called the inherent vowel.

If two or more consonants are following each other, then the consonants are not written in full. Instead they "melt together" and form a new symbol. Some of these symbols are easy to recognize. However, some are very different from the full versions of the consonants.

Bengali uses the same punctuation marks as English, except for the full stop which is represented by a vertical line.

Source: http://www.it-c.dk/people/pfw/bengali/index.html