​We don’t generally ask ourselves these questions. Our mother tongue is such an integral part of who we are that we rarely stop to consider how every one of us learned a language that was, at one point, completely foreign to us. It happened so early and so gradually that we consider our language to be part of who we are, not something we learned.

 

And we certainly don’t ask ourselves why we learned it, because it wasn’t a conscious decision. The instinct in us for relationships drove us to learn to communicate, first with our mother, whose voice we heard even before we were born. After our birth, we locked eyes with her and listened to those who picked us up and carried us around, and over time we tried to speak back and saw the delight it gave to them. That delight motivated us to learn more so that we could increasingly communicate our needs, desires and thoughts.

 

So… how did we succeed in learning our own language?  We learned because of relationships - our family members were with us all day and all night, trying to communicate with us until we understood what they were saying and began to communicate back. The bond created between us was the driving force behind our success in learning our own language. 

 

So let’s fast forward to learning another language as an adult. Neurolinguists have extensively researched how we learn languages and have concluded that the mechanisms in adulthood aren’t much different. Relationships with others are the reason we try to communicate. And one of the most important aspects of communication is sharing the same language.

 

That is why Elevate Bangla is not another school or center.  Rather, it is a growing network of curated relationships. We don’t employ full-time teachers to impart knowledge to classrooms of adult learners - when/if a learner is ready for grammar lessons, we connect them to existing grammar schools or teachers that we know and trust.  But first we look for Bangladeshis who love their Bangla language and who have generous and patient hearts, and we equip them to spend a couple of hours each day for about six months with a new learner of the beautiful Bangla language, in the hopes that the learner and the tutor will develop the kind of relationship that will catalyze the learner’s success in learning Bangla.

 

What does the tutor get out of it? Certainly it is an opportunity to bring in some extra income for a short season - Elevate Bangla will compensate the tutors so they can spend about ten hours a week with their foreign language learner. It might be an ideal part-time job for a student needing some pocket money, or a homemaker during school hours, or any adult who wants to temporarily supplement their income. But the tutor also gets to share their love for their language and country with a foreigner, and gains a new relationship with someone they might otherwise never meet. And the foreigners who come to Elevate Bangla for advice on how to learn Bangla are fascinating and extraordinary people!  Any connection with someone new is an opportunity to grow, so the tutor has every reason to believe that their own perspective on the world will grow over the course of those six months.

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The tutor also has the satisfaction of knowing they have invested in building up their beloved Bangladesh.  Most of the foreigners who wish to learn Bangla have come to offer some kind of service or industry to the people of Bangladesh, and they want to learn the language so they will be better equipped to be a blessing to this country, whether in the medical, educational, development or business sectors. Investing in the successful development of an Elevate Bangla learner is also an investment in the flourishing of Bangladesh!

 

What does the learner get out of it?  The process of learning a language is a long one, and there will be many different aspects to it, including seasons of classroom instruction and learning from books, (after all, we also developed our mother language by going to school!). Elevate Bangla creates a space where a learner can start learning Bangla in the same way they learned their own mother tongue - through a growing relationship with a kind-hearted individual who is committed to communicating with them and committed to showing them their world.

 

But what kind of relationship can we foster at Elevate Bangla that is different from just meeting someone on the street and starting to hang out regularly?  Any interaction between a Bangladeshi and a bideshi (foreign) learner can help the learner grow, but curated activities specifically designed to give the learner the building blocks they need to begin to recognize and and later produce sounds, words and sentences in the Bangla language will significantly speed up the process!  This is where the first 40 sessions of side-by-side instructions in Bangla (for the tutor) and English/ Korean/ Spanish/ Chinese/ Portuguese (for the learner) are indispensable.

 

Why else would a learner come to Elevate Bangla for their language learning needs?  Not only can the coordinator match them with a tutor who can help them start recognizing and understanding Bangla, (or train and hire a Bangladeshi the learner already knows and would like to work with in this way for six months), but over time the Elevate Bangla coordinator can also connect them with language schools, professional teachers and a whole library of materials.  These various resources have been vetted and will be recommended in a customized way based on the particular learner’s situation, goals, learning style, and current level in the language.

 

Learning to communicate in Bangla and develop deep relationships with Bangladeshis is a journey. We would be delighted to walk alongside any foreign visitor to Bangladesh who is really interested in learning Bangla!  And we would love to increase the network of life-giving relationships with Bangladeshis whose interpersonal skills are winsome and whose love for their own language and culture is compelling and contagious.