42 potatoes.. reflections on teaching (and learning) language.

42 potatoes.. reflections on teaching (and learning) language.
So we are half way through our stay in Bangladesh. Steve has written his report and my two ladies are in Australia.
Lots more things impact on teaching and learning language in a different place than I had really thought about. Culture, climate, accents, emphasises and the way you use your lips and tongue all matter! Much is "Not wrong; just different!"


There is a sound made by rolling you tongue back on the roof of your mouth that we find difficult. Bangla has several aspirated sounds which require far more breath that we don't put into speech, and they roll their "r's" in a way good Aussies definitely DON'T! 'ch and 'p', on the other hand, they find very difficult. I taught 'ch' as a sneeze, complete with head movement. 'p' was confused with 'f'. Leaving the lips together as a part of making a sound they found quite difficult.

One of the ladies was showing me some photos of her project work. The photo quality was not very good so I was unsure what was being distributed. She was definitely saying kg (their word for kilogram). I thought it was 42 kg but I could not work out 42 kg of what. Eventually we worked out that she was trying to say potatoes. Her p sounded like a'f'; I heard the toes as two so with knowing it was kg turned it to 42 in my head! Hence 42 potatoes. We both laughed and laughed.

Another one that had me really puzzled was zender. It turned out to be gender. 'gs' and 'zs' seem to be almost swapped. Zia sounds like Gia to us. In that case it is a name so we say Gia ... with gender it was important the ladies learnt how the say it... for the gender awareness programmes our organisation runs! 'vs' and 'bs' are a bit the same.
We were have trouble with someone's name "It is easy for you. Novel, like the prize" they told us. "Which prize?" we asked. "You know, the Novel peace prize." "We do now!" we said. ...and to quote Winnie the Pooh "I hope you do too because that's all the explanation your going to get!" "Not wrong; just different!"
Accent... it was very scarey at times to hear myself back in the way the ladies spoke! One of the ladies in particular, had a very keen ear and the ability to mimic. (I wish I did. I may have leanrt more Bangla!) Anyway I would hear my own voice is the way she said some words that she had found difficult eg now. As I said above 'p' was a sound they found hard.
When I heard 'plant' with a South Australian accent I thought "OH NO!" The ladies are not going to South Australia so I did my best to teach plant in 'eastern state' Sorry to the Western Australians... not sure how you say it! "Not wrong; just different!"
Culture.. well that impacts on everything. "Not wrong; just different!" It was departure day and the ladies were staying in our home. I was transferring some money online. Most transactions are done in cash here so I thought I would show them what I was doing. They use computers to email reports etc but they didn't really seem to understand what I was showing them. After I finished I went in the kitchen were they were getting their breakfast. They were going to cook their bread in a fry pan. They had never seen a toaster! When I put the bread in they stood and watched it! "Not wrong; just different!"
When we were learning Bangla, our teacher showed us a model of a bangla knife. I love to watch a cook using them (if they will let me) It is used on the floor and held still with the foot. It has a crescent shaped blade on the upper side which is VERY sharp. (see the photos) the skill with it is amazing!
"Not wrong, just different!"
Jeanette