I want to learn conversational Bengali but cannot find much online (no Rosetta for Bengali). I don’t have any interest in knowing the alphabet to read or write. I want to be able to understand speech and converse in everyday situations. Other than taking out foreign movies from the library, do any of you have any ideas for immersion? I used to study French and Italian by reading newspapers, but that is not an option for the Bengali language. So far, I’ve been watching Bengali cartoons on youtube!
Here’s a competing langauge-learning product that offers a Bengali course. There are others. Unfortunately, I cannot personally vouch for any of them.
Something that would help you a lot, too, would be to find one or more native speakers and have a little conversation practice. That may or may not be feaible, but it will make a difference if you can have regular live conversation.
Why not? Learning to write is hard, but learning to read is pretty useful, especially if you’re trying to learn a language. The writings system is difficult, compared to English, but easy compared to Chinese, and something that would be well worth your time.
Have you looked at Omniglot’s resources? http://www.omniglot.com/writing/bengali.htm Some of links at the bottom are what you’re asking for.