FSI Bengali Course

After Hindi, Bengali is the second most widely spoken language of India, and it is also spoken as a first language by around 98% of the population of Bangladesh. With 228 million people regarding it as their mothing tongue, it is the language with the fifth-largest number of native speakers in the world. It is also spoken as a second language by a further 37 million people, making it the world’s seventh most spoken language.

Despite these figures, it does not rate high on the list of languages commonly studied by speakers of English, and although some resources do exist for learning it, this free online Bengali course could potentially offer plenty of additional linguistic input for anyone intent on mastering it.

Course Details

What is the FSI Bengali Short Course?

This FSI Bengali short course was published in 1985 and provides a basic introduction to the language, including simple conversations like greetings or exchanging telephone numbers.

It consists of 30 units in total, with each one presenting new language and vocabulary in the form of a dialog.

How was the FSI Bengali Short Course originally used?

This course was originally designed to give US diplomatic staff a grounding in Bengali before being sent to postings in areas where the language is spoken.

They would have spent time studying the dialogs alone outside of class, and they would have also spent time in a classroom going through the material and practicing with a teacher.

This way, after completing the course, they would have gained the basic language skills that would have allowed them to get by in Bengali-speaking areas, managing simple situations with the words and expressions they had learned.

How can you use the FSI Bengali Short Course Basic?

Unfortunately, this course is not well suited for autonomous study, especially if you don’t have any other materials for studying the language. If you try to learn Bengali using this course alone, you are likely to find it all but impossible to make any progress.

However, if you have another Bengali coursebook, especially one that also teaches you how to read and write the script, this course could work well as a source of supplementary input that can help you practice your speaking and listening as well as enlarging your vocabulary in Bengali.

Taking it further

However good your study materials, you will never master Bengali if you don’t practice. For this reason, if you want to make progress in the language, I urge you to take your Bengali skills out into the real world to try them out.

Look for native speakers who can help you practice, perhaps giving you tips on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar or usage to complement your study. Above all, try to make using Bengali a part of your daily life, and when you do, you will see that you begin to make real progress in the language.

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Course Contents

Unit	Topic	Key Grammar
Section 1 — Sound System & Introductions	Student Text (PDF)	664 pages · 19 audio files
Unit 1	The Bengali Sound System	Vowels, consonants, aspirated vs. unaspirated, inherent vowel
Unit 2	Greetings and Basic Phrases	Formal/informal pronouns, copula, SOV word order
Unit 3	Introducing Yourself	Personal/possessive pronouns, noun phrases, postpositions
Unit 4	Meeting New People	Yes/no questions, negation, occupations, adjectives
Section 2 — Courtesies & Social Customs
Unit 5	Polite Expressions and Formalities	Honorific register, apni-form verbs, greetings by time of day
Unit 6	Making Requests and Offers	Imperative forms (three levels), conditionals with jodi
Unit 7	Apologies and Farewells	Leave-taking expressions, well-wishing, combined sequences
Section 3 — Numbers, Counting & Time
Unit 8	Numbers and Counting	Bengali numerals 1–100, classifiers: -ta, -jon, -khana
Unit 9	Telling Time and Schedules	Time expressions, hours/minutes, locative postposition -e
Unit 10	Days, Months and Dates	Days of the week, months, seasons, duration expressions
Section 4 — Family & Personal Information
Unit 11	Family Members and Relationships	Kinship terms, gendered forms, possessive -r/-er
Unit 12	Getting to Know a Family	Extended family, age/birth order, conversation patterns
Unit 13	Talking About Occupations	”Do” and “work” verbs, workplace vocabulary
Unit 14	Personal Descriptions	Adjectives, colors, physical and personality descriptions
Section 5 — Asking for Information
Unit 15	Asking for Directions	Question words, direction words, locative postpositions
Unit 16	Using the Telephone	Phone vocabulary, dictating numbers, conversation fillers
Unit 17	At the Post Office	Postal vocabulary, sending/receiving, service requests
Unit 18	Finding Out About Services	Inquiry patterns, opening hours, expressing needs
Unit 19	Making Appointments	Time agreement, future plans, confirming/cancelling
Section 6 — Daily Life & Verb Tenses
Unit 20	Daily Routine and Present Tense	Present habitual tense, daily activity verbs, time adverbs
Unit 21	Present Continuous and Progressive	Progressive -chhi/-chho/-chhen, contrast with habitual
Unit 22	Talking About the Past	Simple past tense, past continuous, narrating sequences
Unit 23	Future Plans and Intentions	Future tense, conditionals, purpose clauses
Section 7 — Travel & Transportation
Unit 24	Taking a Rickshaw	Transport vocabulary, negotiating fares, giving directions
Unit 25	Buying a Train Ticket	Railway vocabulary, tickets, class and schedule
Unit 26	At the Airport and Travel Plans	Airport vocabulary, immigration, compound verbs
Section 8 — Shopping, Food & Review
Unit 27	At the Market	Shopping vocabulary, bargaining, classifiers, currency
Unit 28	Shopping for Clothes and Goods	Clothing terms, size/fit, comparisons
Unit 29	Food and Dining	Food vocabulary, ordering, preferences, Bengali cuisine
Unit 30	Review and Cultural Notes	Full course consolidation, script intro, regional differences