Controversy About Bengali Language

OK; here we go.As soon as I mentioned Bengali being the fourth most spoken language,
the controversy starts.( see the comment on the previous post).
But I always welcome controversy and fair criticism.And ofcourse if I make a mistake, that should be correceted.I am not afraid to admit my mistake and apologise if I say something wrong.
Also the person making the comment seems to have personal experience of some behaviour pattern of the Bengalis.Fair enough.They also seem to care enough about the Bengali people to mention what they mentioned.
I thank you for your comment and welcome you and expect you to contribute more in future.
But you do not actually mention how the statistics you found on Wikipedia varies to what I mentioned.Please tell us what it is and please tell us what is Bangla's real position in the league table.I am willing to accept the fact and mention it here if that's genuine.
Though Bangla is my mother tongue, I am not a fanatic or emotionally so attached to it that I would get in to a fight over it.
If Bangla's real position is 154th in the league table of world languages, I am willing to publish that fact on these very pages.No problem. I agree that Russian is a great language and in my school days I had the good fortune of reading some Russian literature( translated in to Bengali ofcourse; I can't read or speak Russian). I have great respect for the Russian people and their history and culture.There have been so many great scientists, Music composers,and writers from Russia that is really admirable !
I also accept what you mention about Bengalis speaking English amongst themselves.But if you look at it the other way, you should admire Bengalis for being able to speak other languages.It's a great skill to be multilingual, isn't it?Like the English have realised recently that they are not good with foreign languages where as the Europeans are.Lot of the Europeans (e.g. the Dutch and the Swedish ) speak more than one language. Some of them speak four.Its a great ability to be able to communicate with others in their own language.Like you yourself have the advantage over me in the sense that you can speak my language but I can't speak yours.Have you not got the edge over me there ?
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Interesting Observations about Bengali language

Today instead of talking about Interpreting, I want to talk about Bengali
language.Based on the number of people who speak Bengali, it is the 4th
most spoken language in the world.( After Chinese,Spanish and English and in
that order !) Because apart from Bangladesh and West Bengal they also speak Benagli in the Indian states of Assam and Tripura.More than 200 million people in the world speak this language.Yes, that's right.More people speak Bengali than they do in Arabic, Japanese, Russian or German or French.Fascinating, isn't it ? This might come as a shock to you whether you are a Bengali or non Bengali. But it's true.

Also I think Bengali is the number one foreign language in the UK.( i.e. by the number of people who speak the language).Though more people of Indian or Pakistani origin may live in the UK, there would be different language speakers within those communities.(e.g. Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujrati etc).

Another interesting fact may be in the number of publications in a foreign language in the UK.Again I think Bengali would beat any other foreign language in this.There are nearly a dozen of weekly and monthly magazines and periodicals published in Bengali in the UK.I doubt whether there would be as many publications in either Urdu or Arabic or Chinese or Spanish or French in the UK.I have not done a proper research, but this is an educated guess.If I am wrong, I am willing to admit my mistake.
Same goes for India.i.e. number of publications of Books, newspapers, magazines etc. in Bengali outnumbers the publications in any other language of India.
Also you can see the domination of Bengalis in the Bolywood film industry.Again more people of Bengali origin have been successful as Actors/Actresses, Singers,music directors etc. than any other 'ethnic'group.
I am saying all these to massage my own ego or to boast about Bengalis. Just mentioning these as interesting observations.Because while the above observations might seem interesting or even 'impressive',we Bengalis have lots of failings too.

Another interesting thing happening here in the UK right before our own eyes is an evolutionary process.Let me expalin.Most people of Bangladeshi origin in the UK are from the greater Sylhet area of Bangladesh.So they speak the Sylheti dialect of Bangla. Now the second and third generation of these migrants are growing up without most of them learning the 'Standard' Bangla.i.e the official form of Bengali.So what happens is this: there are about 5 Bengali language TV channels in the UK broadcasting in Bengali but most of these second and third generation Bengalis do not fully understand the programmes ( News, soaps, discussions).Interesting isn't it? What should one do to rectify the situation ? Some have even expressed their opinion to say that as the first generation of migrants die out, the language would die with them.If that happens , that would be really sad wouldn't it ?

There were/ are Bengali schools to teach children the language, but I don't think enough parents or children are interested .I would love to know the reaction of my readers about this.There could be scope for some academic research in this field too.

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