Sylvia Gabriel: Bengali, Arabic Dialects, Morocco

Ace Talks Language

In this episode I chat with Sylvia, another friend I've made in the online language learning community from the United States who studies Bengali, Arabic, German and other languages and is currently living in Morocco on a gap year!

In this episode you can find:

• Sylvia's introduction [2:25]
• Morocco on a gap year and what Sylvia is doing there [7:50]
• Morocco's linguistic landscape (Moroccan Arabic, French, Tamazight, Spanish) [14:30]
• Advantages and disadvantages of being an English native speaker & multilingualism as a product of environment [20:25]
• Multicultural perspective in Morocco and how this resonates with Sylvia [30:10]
• Sylvia's experience travelling in India and Jordan and gaining perspective [34:55]
• Weather in Morocco [39:10] Sylvia hosting a Bengali "exchange sister" for a year [40:50]
• Bengali language classes, language skill imbalances, underdeveloped Bengali tuition [46:10]
• Benefits of non-native teachers [49:05]
• Sylvia's Bengali learning resources project [49:55]
• Advantages of studying more commonly studied languages like Mandarin [55:45]
• Disparity between written textbook language and spoken colloquial language [57:40]
• Sylvia's advice for people studying less commonly studied languages [1:01:25]
• How to find resources [1:06:25]
• Sylvia's Bengali "exchange sister" and improving spoken language skills [1:13:15]
• Sylvia's advice for people learning Bengali and Arabic dialects [1:15:15]
• What it's like learning new scripts [1:18:30]
• How Sylvia studies languages [1:25:40]
• Reading in your target language [1:26:55]

Links to resources and things mentioned in the episode:

Sylvia's IG (@thecuriouslinguist): https://www.instagram.com/thecuriouslinguist/

Sylvia's website/blog (including Bengali grammar posts): https://thecuriouslinguist.wordpress.com/

Sylvia's patreon: https://www.patreon.com/banglablog

Sylvia's Bengali language resources project: https://www.banglablog.org/

Sylvia's Levantine Arabic resource post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_TT5lDH6E2/

Short videos in Arabic with bilingual captions which you can filter for difficulty and dialect: https://playaling.com/

You can also follow me on any social media (instagram, twitter, facebook, tiktok, youtube) using the handle @officialacebuck or as 'Ace Buck'.