Bengali uses its own writing system, shared with Assamese and a few other languages, and it can be difficult to master. One big obstacle to learning Bangla is learning the script. Despite this, Bengali language and culture remain relatively obscure in the West. Satyajit Ray directed films like the Apu Trilogy (the namesake of the Simpsons character) and influenced Western directors like Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson. Satyendra Nath Bose developed the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates, and is the namesake of the boson. Rabindranath Tagore wrote the national anthems of India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and is considered one of the great Indian poets of all time – almost every Bengali household has a copy of Gitanjali on their shelf. There was an explosion of arts and academics during the 19th and 20th centuries, known as the Bengali Renaissance. The culture and history of Bengal are rich and beautiful. Bengalis are also the third largest ethnic group in the world, and the largest in India. This East Indian and Bangladeshi language is the second most-spoken in the Indian subcontinent (after Hindi/Urdu and its dialects), and the fifth most-spoken in the whole word, by number of native speakers. I’ve spent the last two semesters learning the Bengali language, known natively as Bangla.
