Language Lessons from Survivors

First, let me preface this with the fact that I've never taken a Bengali class, I cannot read or write in Bengali, and the grammar/vocabulary I know of the language comes from women and children in red light districts. So I most certainly do not claim to know proper Bengali. Most of the time I end up saying things like "I to the market went tomorrow vegetables buying." But whatever, I make myself understood.

So this Monday at the office we were in a big rush to get things done because Tuesday was a national strike and our office would be closed. I was waiting on one thing in particular that needed to be finished that night. The woman making it wanted to go to the store for a while and I attempted to say, "That's fine but be quick. This is very important work." The word for "important" I was trying out - I had heard the women talking and using this word to describe something that was very important to finish. So I made the mistake of assuming that it meant important. Instead, it means awful, so I had told this woman "That's fine but be quick. This is very awful work." She made a face of disappointment, because I'm sure in her mind she thought it was looking nice, and it was! When I saw her sad face I asked what's wrong? And she said "Well it's a very difficult thing to make." I responded, just adding fuel to the fire, "Yes I know it's hard. But you can do it! Just hurry up at the store because it's really awful you finish it today."

At this point, one of the young women realized I must be using the wrong word. She interjected and said "Becky di - that word means bad." "I thought it meant important," I responded. "No no - it means bad." Oops! After apologizing for having used this word in the wrong context for the past few days, I decided to bring up another one of my new words and make sure I was using it correctly.

"Ok, so how do you say middle, or medium?"  I had been saying "maja moti." Apparently "maja maji" means the middle, as in a measurement. And "mota moti" means middle, as in so-so. So I'd mixed them and made my own word - "maja moti" which has no real meaning. I usually claim my Bengali language mistakes on the fact that I'm studying Hindi language. So after the word for "middle" was cleared up I said, "well Hindi and Bengali are married." They all started laughing, and one woman asked "If they got married, who's the baby?" I grinned and responded, "Becky language."