On a ACTFL phone interview I was asked to give directions in Bengali from Dulles airport to my house. Even though I scored advanced low on the test, I struggled to give the directions. So this semester I practiced giving directions with my Bengali tutor. I realized that one of the reasons giving directions was hard was because it forced me to use a grammar pattern that English doesn’t use very often. Instead of saying in English, “go right then go left.” You would say in Bengali “having gone right, turn left.” Bangladeshis use this sentence construction all the time, but it is much less common in English. Also to indicate that someone will be on the left or the right, you literally say that something will fall on the left or right. Furthermore, impersonal structure is often required when giving direction both in Bengali and English. The combination of these factors make giving directions and useful but difficult exercise.
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