Ami Bangla bolte pari… almost

My Bengali language development has moved onto the next phase. It is one of the more satisfying phases so far, because it is the one where I am actually able, with intense concentration, to follow parts of conversations. The phase before this was more like picking out single words that I know and can understand, but my brain being too slow to put them all together. Now, there are times when I can recognise a few words in a row and actually make sense of them, at normal speed. However, there are often times when a question is asked or I hear a sentence and I know every single word, but I can’t for the life of me understand the meaning. I am also now able to work out, at the very least, when I’m being talked about, if not what’s being said about me, which comes in handy. There are many times when I’ve walked past people in my village and I’ve heard them asking each other questions about me, like, Who’s she? What’s she doing here? Where does she live? Can she speak Bangla? etc. It’s kind of like being a fly on a wall. And I like it.