English Bangla Dictionary

Updated on: Thursday, September 08, 2011

The city saw the launch of bilingual dictionary ‘My First English – English – Bangla Dictionary’ on September 7, at the South City International School. The dictionary consists of two sections, each of which contains a list of words in alphabetical order, in English, as well as in Bangla. Chief Guest for the occasion, professor Suranjan Das, vice chancellor, University of Calcutta, released the dictionary in the presence of special guest Dr Elaine Higgleton, publishing director, Collins Language, UK. Such other bilingual dictionaries have already been published in other languages- Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, and now in Bangla.

The first Collins dictionary made its appearance in 1824, while in 1840 appeared its first illustrated version. It is the largest publisher of dictionaries in the world. They have tie ups with France, China, Shanghai, Spain, and the like. They also work with education partners.

“The use of dictionaries is becoming less. I am not against globalisation, but we tend to depend more and more on machines,” says professor Das, adding, “we need to make every person use dictionaries, therefore this English – English – Bangla dictionary is truly essential.” He believes that it is our duty to ensure that all sections of the society use dictionaries for daily use, and we should all encourage this act.

Dr Elaine Higgleton says that after a market research, they found out that the language situation in schools in India is complicated. 76 per cent of students talk to their friends and family in Indian languages. Thus teaching in classrooms is also mostly in mother tongue, especially in kindergarten section. Through this dictionary, the children would learn words in simple vocabulary, with illustrations, and also know the word in their mother tongue. “Children would love to open and keep looking at the illustrated words and not think of it as something scary,” says Dr Higgleton, adding, “it would also help teachers get over the initial burden of teaching.”

When you dream in a language, it means you know the language.

English Bangla Dictionary

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