Ezra's First Christmas

The Big Day

In Bangladesh, they call Christmas “Boro Din” (Big Day) and New Year’s “Choto Din” (Small Day). Although there are few Christians here, most people are familiar with this holiday and the Government offices are closed for it. Also, they recognize our Gregorian calendar new year’s day, but the Bengali calendar new year starts on our April 14 (by the way, the current Bengali year is 1415).

For our Christmas in Bangladesh, we found a small Christmas tree and our cook bought us some “Christmas” decorations (note in picture above, they resemble something you would see at Mardi Gras) for the tree and the house. We played some Christmas music, streaming from online radio stations when the internet was working well. We all bought some small gifts for each other (somehow Ezra got the most!) and I completely bought out the wrapping paper supply at the local “Hallmark” store (sold in 1.5’ x 3’ single sheets) to wrap the gifts. 

Christmas morning we had a fun webcam session with my family (and had ones with Jeremy’s family earlier and later in the week). Then we opened gifts, with Ezra going first. He actually did a little bit of the paper ripping, but overall he was not quite as interested as we thought he might be. We had a lovely Christmas lunch with special “pullao” rice and fried eggplant. Emily and I provided some entertainment singing Christmas songs and Ezra actually sounded like he was trying to sing along sometimes. One of the biggest highlights of the day was finally making the brownies that we had been saving from a package my mom sent us. And after Ezra was tucked away in his crib, we watched a Christmas movie and ate the warm brownies with some vanilla ice cream.

Ezra and the tree

Christmas Lunch

The Christmas afternoon nap (outside on the roof deck)

So, that adds up to...

Like the letters, the numbers here can also be confusing, even though they are much, much more similar to what we already know.  I learned my numbers first (the symbols anyways), so that part has not been as confusing for me as learning the alphabet, but I do find them interesting since I was a math teacher and have had a very math intensive education and work experience.

Our (Western) numbers are actually derived from Arabic numerals.  However, if you look at Arabic numerals compared to ours, only a few of them are actually the same.  Likewise, the Bangla numbers are also based on Arabic numerals, and show just as many differences.  Then, when you put them all side by side, only a few symbols match up between them.  Even if you reconcile that, some of the symbols have changed values for some reason.  

I don't know what accidents of history make symbols change value from 8 to 4 for example, or from a 9 to a 7.  Or, why a symbol would match in the Eastern and the Western variations on Arabic and not in the original,  central, Middle Eastern one, but it does make me wonder.

*   *   *

But, now for the real kicker...  In English, the names of our numbers are irregular from 1 to 20 (although you can argue on the -teens), and then they are regular (or patterned) after that with new names only for the 10s place:  thirty, forty, fifty, etc., and then for the values of hundreds and thousands.  So, to count from 1 to 999,999 you only need to know 29 unique words that you can combine in various combinations to communicate the value you want.  So, 125 = one + hundred + twenty + five.  

In Bangla, most of the first 100 numbers are irregular!  There are some patterns, but they are contantly changing (like the way English uses three different patterns between eleven, twelve... ; thirteen, fourteen...; to twenty-one, twenty-two... ).  There is no simple pattern you can rely on for any big block of numbers in Bangla.  Just look at a couple of these examples:

1 (one) = aek (pron. EK)

20 (twenty)  = bish   (pron. BEE-sh)

21 (twenty-one) = ekush (pron. EK-oosh)  

[rather than the simpler aek-bish or bish-aek]

3 (three) = tin (pron. TEEN)

60 (sixty) = shat (pron. SHAh-T)

63 (sixty-three) = teshotti (pron. TESH-oat-tee) 

After those, thankfully, there is a word for hundred and thousand, and the names for the first hundred numbers are reused and some regularity (pattern) sets in.  But, a new word appears at 100,000 (one hundred thousand), which South Asians in general call a lakh, and by which they count until the value of 100 lakhs, or 10,000,000, which they call a crore.  They use those in place of our millions, so at least it is just a change and not an addition.

In the end, the bottom line is that to count from 1 to 999,999 in Bangla, you have to use a combination of 102 unique words, an increase in complexity of over 251%.

Get counting !

Take a ride on a rickshaw

On being illiterate

Having learned to read at the age of 6 or 7 most of us have no memory or experience what it is like to not have that ability.  Even when learning another language like French or Spanish or German, we quickly learn how to read those languages (and pronounce the written words), even if we don't always understand the meaning of the words we are looking at; we can quickly recognize the words we do know and get some kind of gist of what is being communicated.

But, imagine not being able to do that at all...

Even though none of us is any expert in Bangla at this point, we all know some number of words as well as names of places and so on.  But, as we haven't learned all of the alphabet yet (we are earnestly studying--check back soon!), we are almost helpless when looking at any kind of text.  It is an odd feeling to have all sorts of education, and yet, have to ask bystanders the meaning of any written information, even a simple sign or advertisement.  What makes it even more frustrating is that many of the signs are actually written in English with Bangla letters.  We could understand much of it just fine were it spoken to us, if only we didn't have to stand there for 5 minutes playing a personal game of multi-lingual Jeopardy in our heads (...I know 3 letters in that word and 2 in that one... can I figure it out?, but what language is it written in?).

And, don't think you can get by without asking dumb questions, either--for a dumb question picture someone in the US asking where the bakery is, right underneath a giant bakery sign.  That sign on the door you walk up to inside the restaurant could say "danger, high voltage" or "women's restroom" or "office, knock before entering".  An elementary school child here in some ways navigates around the world easier than we could by ourselves just thanks to a little literacy.  Luckily, we don't have to do much alone, and often those around us know some English and usually don't expect us to understand what we are looking at in Bangla anyways.  So, next time you run into that foreigner with a heavy accent in the US asking for help but who is having trouble understanding you, be extra nice, because we are receiving the balance of that kindness out here.