Is English Taking Over Bangla?
Last summer, I traveled to Bangladesh for about two months. I lived with relatives in both the capital city, Dhaka, and in Jessore, which is a well known district of the country. The most interesting aspect I noticed while living there in regards to the language was the usage of English over Bangla.
When I went shopping and looked at fabrics, dresses, or other items, the shopkeepers would inquire about my color preferences using English color terms instead of Bangla. If the shopkeepers knew about my American identity, I would have thought they were using English terms in order to accommodate or impress me, however because I am Bengali and dressed and behaved as one, it was not possible for them to know. What was more, the sellers would get temporarily confused when I'd ask for colors using Bangla terms. I saw a lot of this happen throughout my stay when speaking with people and they used English words in place of Bangla ones.
I thought about the different possibilities of this happening. My first thought was that it was a generational thing, that younger students who spoke English preferred to use English over Bangla words, among other reasons, but this occurred among older generations as well. For example, I can never think about whether or not I ever learned a Bangla word for "chair" or "table" because my parents always used the English terms for them. English dominance of Bangla is increasing, surprisingly, even though English imperialism isn't present (physically) in the country. Due to this dominance, many Bangla words are becoming obsolete, just as many words have already become obsolete and archaic.
This article is great for learning more about English in Bangladesh now (in terms of it not being under British control anymore). http://www.academia.edu/2269914/The_Status_of_Bangla_and_the_English_Language_in_Post-Colonial_Bangladesh_-_Resistance_versus_Utility
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