Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

I started to learn Bengali, which is mostly spoken in some parts in north India. It took me a while to learn the alphabet and still I have difficulties to read and write the conjunct consonants. I started to learn it from a book called “Teach yourself Bengali” by William Radice, which also comes with two CDs. But since I started to learn it from a book, I am not able to speak or to understand this language (just some basic words sometimes). But fortunatley I found some friends from West Bengal and Bangladesh, who are willing to teach me. So I have started to learn all the unknown vocabularies.

Some words are derived from English words (like cycle, table, post office), but they are written in Bengali letters and sometimes I do not recognize them. So I am flipping through the dictionary searching for that word. But by pronouncing it a little bit different and playing around, you get an idea what it is about (e.g. shaikel is a cycle or john, which is written as j and n since the o-sound comes automatically).
The audio CDs contain the reading part of the book. If you do not understand the people, because they talk much faster than you are able to read, do not worry. You will be able after a few days or weeks (depending on how much you learn in that period of time).
Let’s see, how long it takes till I can speak my first basic sentences besides the normal and memorized sentences. Oh, if someone has the ultimative solution on how to learn to speak the “R” with the tip of the tongue, please let me know.