Dave, You make some excellent points.. as an American married to a Bengali, I have spent a lot of time in Bangladesh. We have a second home in Dhaka. I doubt if my Bangla skills even come close to yours, although I try. I agree with you that most Internet using Bengalis (Bangladesh and Bengal in India) do speak or at least read and write in English; HOWEVER, Bengali is the 7th most widely spoken language in the world: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html (a little recognized fact since it is spoken in such a small region, that just happens to be over-populated.) My other observation is that IF Bangladesh is to emerge into the global economy school in Bangla medium, especially those for the emerging middle class, must have Internet access with resources in Bengali. BTW Internet access in Dhaka seems to still be remarkably slow and difficult. There is just such great potential.
BTW Dave, My husband was born in Barishaal. Linda Ullah Foothill College Krause Center for Innovation http://www.foothill.edu/kci [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Excellent post! I'm a native Bangla speaker, though my Bengali's not > great...I grew up half here in the US and half in Calcutta, India. My > dad's from Barishaal, so I can speak / understand a few dialects more > than your typical city Bangla speaker, but my reading / writing is > getting woefully rusty. Having Bangla resources on the web would serve a > secondary purpose; for people like me, it would let me keep in touch > with the language. Since I'm online a *lot* of the time, reading the > news from the subcontinent or updates on digital divide issues in Bangla > would be enough to keep me from getting rusty, especially if Google adds > a translation service to help me out eventually. Adding translation > would also mean that I could add Bangla to my list of translation > options for Drupal > (http://www.digitalraindrop.com/Drupal-CivicSpace-Translations). > > For some reason, I have the impression that there is much more content > online in the East Asian languages than in other language groups. I'll > speculate on the reasons for this; feel free to chime in with your own > thoughts. > > Firstly, I think it's significant that China, Japan, and Korea have > computers being sold with operating systems in their languages, > keyboards in their languages, even BIOS settings in their languages. I > was in Calcutta a year ago, and talked to a few nonprofits and > businesses working in computer education with marginalized communities > who are frequently not highly literate in English, and not one of them > could point me to a computer store selling hardware with Bangla (or > Hindi) defaults. A couple of computer hardware vendors I talked to > didn't even know where I could get things like that, or how I could set > my computer up to work with Bangla fonts. > > This leads me to believe that those who are using Bangla fonts are doing > so as a novelty...people who are already somewhat fluent in another > language (usually English) and who use another language (again, English) > for most of their digital lives. The "real" end user, the user who does > not speak English, is not online. The "real" user in Korea, Japan, and > China, the big three East Asian nations, *are* online. Thus there is a > specific need for content in their languages, while there is no real > need for content in Bangla...while we may represent the 6th most spoken > language in the world, in terms of languages used and needed online > we're nowhere to be found. > > Given this, I don't think Google offering Bangla search results is going > to change anything, though it's a welcome first step. The overwhelming > number of Bangali (adj: of Bengal, or Bangladesh) nonprofits and schools > involved in digital education are using English, and basing their work > on necessary English literacy classes. As long as this is the case, > native Bangla speakers will continue to be more comfortable using > English as the lingua franca of the internet. To see a significant jump > in Bangla resources online, we're going to have to see an intermediate > step: these schools and nonprofits are going to have to shift, at least > partially, to a model of digital training in local languages. And for > that to happen as anything more than a novelty or an experiment, we're > going to have to see adoption of local language computer use in > businesses, so that it becomes a valid part of workforce development. > > And this is where the problem is. There are historic social and cultural > reasons for English use on the subcontinent being linked with greater > affluence, greater power, and greater prestige. As of now, the business > models that involve digital literacy (even a secretary in an > office...not usually considered a high-powered job in the US) targeted > this elite population. And for good reason, since it's a very, very > large population in India. So why limit ourselves to Bangla, when our > middle class (really an upper class in bourgeoisie disguise) is more > comfortable typing in English, and would have to be re-educated in > Bangla fonts and keyboard skills...also necessitating, to some level, > that our support staff be re-educated in similar skills? > > To displace these models, a nonprofit is going to have to leap all of > these tiers and create an overarching solution from end to end, from > education to employment, to serve as a model that makes economic sense. > For example, if an NGO (especially a well-established, influential one > like Brac, http://www.brac.net/) were to set up a website development > service in Bangla and English, using workstations with both languages > and involving development work in Bangla, to plug in to a digital > literacy program, they would be creating their own need for Bangla > language computer operators. > > The obstacle here is that you are doing a disservice to the first people > to pass through your Bangla computer literacy course. Is this justified? > Because according to the status quo, you're hurting their job > opportunities by *not* making them English computer users. At some point > when businesses and other organizations are using this model (and it > does make economic sense, since it would let you hire newly trained > digitally literate workers for less than their higher-priced middle > class counterparts with traditional educations) and there is a > widespread need for these skills, this education will have more value. > Initially, however, it will have almost no value at all...these workers > will be locked into their work in the ngo's business venture(s), > following an almost proprietary model. > > How do we get around this? Maybe with bilingual digital education? > > I'd appreciate hearing feedback / comments on this. > > Dave. > > ------------------- > Dave A. Chakrabarti > Projects Coordinator > CTCNet Chicago > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > (708) 919 1026 > ------------------- > > > > > John Welch (RI-SOL/BNGD) wrote: >> I'm excited in the way that only a geek who likes languages can be... >> I turned on my computer yesterday and Google came up in Bangla >> (Bengali). That shouldn't be too surprising since I live in >> Bangladesh, but this was a new and surprising trick for my computer. >> I didn't change anything, but apparently Google started a local >> server (google.com.bd) which serves up content in UTF-8 encoded >> Bangla. From talking with friends around the world, it sounds like >> Google just kicked off a slew of these country-specific search >> engines. >> >> I'm country director of the Global Connections and Exchange Project >> (GCEP) in Bangladesh, a project which aims to introduce computer and >> internet technology into schools, and to promote intercultural >> lessons via the internet. Last year, we put up a website in UTF-8 >> encoded Bangla. For fun, I tried to find it...a little ego surfing >> -- I typed the name of my organization into the search engine in >> Bangla: "relief international" and hit three times. I then tried >> just "relief" and hit our page; I tried "international" and hit our >> page. In fact, as I broadened the search terms to common items like >> "school", "site", "link" and a bunch of other common words, I began >> to realize that there just aren't a lot of websites in Bangla. I'd >> like to think that our site is super-special (and it, of course, is), >> but the world's sixth most spoken language is critically >> under-represented on the internet -- talk about a digital divide. >> >> Part of the problem has been standards. One standard is used in >> India, while a proprietary standard is dominant in Bangladesh. I >> believe that Unicode Bangla was only finalized around April of last >> year. With the exception of our project, a few linux-related sites >> and a few wikipedia entries, the Bangla-language wired world has been >> a virtual desert. >> >> A few developments bode well for Bangla on the internet, though: 1) >> availability of unicode fonts (for instance, Vrinda which ships with >> WinXP and a series of open source fonts), 2) availability of browsers >> that can render unicode Bangla correctly (IE, Firefox, and probably >> others), and 3) a popular search engine that can find some content in >> Bangla. Perhaps this last factor will be enough to kick off an >> explosion of internet use, but a fourth pillar is still missing: a >> critical mass of content. >> >> We've been working on ways to jumpstart Bangla content. Last year, >> we started the first two Bangla-language projects on the Project >> Gutenberg, Europe site. We've done a number of collaborative >> projects between schools in Bangladesh using Bangla-based email and >> forums, and have developed projects culminating in production of >> essays, school newspapers and web pages in Bangla, all of which end >> up on the web. >> >> We're hoping to be part of a process to build local language content >> to the point that casual users can perform a search and find >> something useful in their own language. We may be a drop in the >> bucket when it comes to the global picture, but we hope we're a good >> example to early adapters of Bangla content development. >> >> For a brief glimpse of the language and a discussion of how it can be >> implemented on the internet, I've made a couple pages found at: >> http://www.connect-bangladesh.org/bangla >> >> Our Project Gutenberg projects can be found on the Project Gutenberg >> Europe site: http://dp.rastko.net/ >> >> ================================ >> Jack Welch, Country Director >> Relief International - Schools Online, Bangladesh >> +880-173-032-998 >> http://www.connect-bangladesh.org >> >> The Global Connections and Exchange Program is funded by the US >> Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, per >> provisions of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of >> 1961, as amended. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide >> To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. >> > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
