Today we’d like to introduce you to Maheen Tarver.
Hi Maheen, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
There are 13 million Bangladeshi diaspora around the globe. Being a Bengali mother abroad with two kids and in inter-cultural marriage, I was continuously trying to find enticing and interesting online content to teach Bangla. Soon, I found out, that there were no online resources for Bangla at all, neither for adults nor for children. I wanted my children to learn Bangla and be proud of their ancestral identity and my husband to communicate with my extended family in Bangladesh. This started a journey of creating content that I know, as a mother and a wife of a non-Bengali, will work for kids and adults.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Bangla Institute started as an ambitious project to connect Bengalis all over the world with the language, culture, and knowledge of their ancestral identity. It was an attempt to create an online school for anyone, regardless of their location, to be able to experience a taste of traditional Bengali teaching.
But as soon as the project was launched, we came across major challenges – one of the first being the fact that the Bengalis were scattered all over the globe. E-learning was still a new concept, and reaching out to Bengalis across the world was no small task. The founders had to think out of the box regarding digital marketing, advertising on social media, collaborating with influencers, and creating partnerships.
It has been a long and tedious road for us but over the years, we have managed to build a strong student base across continents and created a powerful network of Bengalis connected through shared learnings, cultural activities, and language-learning tools. We have succeeded in teaching people the value of cultural unity and that no matter the distance, we are all connected through the Bangla Institute.
Bangla Institute will continue to strive for cultural outreach and learning, inspiring conversations and awakenings all around the world.
We’ve been impressed with Bangla Institute – a product of Bhasha Inc., but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
With around 284 million speakers, Bangla is the seventh most spoken language in the world. Among them, 13 million people are abroad who are from Bangladesh! To make it simple math, let’s say half of the 13 million abroad are a family consisting of Parents and two kids – that makes 4 million children that are Bengalis without Bangla Education!! This simple math does not include adults who are married into the culture or other Bengali Speakers who are from India, Condo, Sudan, and Uganda or 2nd and third-generation Bengalis all over the world!!
After doing the research above and not finding suitable content anywhere, Bangla Institute started its journey in 2020 with a simple vision: to offer Bangla language education across the globe regardless of location. Bangla Institute envisions making Bangla learning tedious but making it something they actively want to do.
Bangla Institute aims to develop programs for learners of all age groups. The curricula are designed by curriculum experts, linguists, and educationists in a gamified approach to make learning Bangla fun, exciting, and rewarding!
Bangla Institute now offers courses and translation services across the globe. We take one-on-one classes with the students (be it an adult or a child) whenever the client wants regardless of their location. Yes, you heard that right, we take classes, even at night, if that’s your best time to learn or take up a project. Classes are taken when you are free!
As a mother of two, I am very careful with my children’s photos which is the reason why we take client privacy, especially children’s, very seriously and we DO NOT ever do any marketing campaigns with children’s photos/videos. We follow all the federal rules and regulations as we are a US-based company. More importantly, our biggest achievement is that- ALL of the courses of Bangla Institute are Copy Righted.
We are the only Bangla Online Education Academy across the globe, and our courses are also very engaging. We use integrated cultural experiences to teach people. We want the readers to know that we are open 24/7 365 days. We also take a mini class prior to knowing where the student stands regarding the proficiency level and also for the clients to see whether we are what they are looking for!
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I am very passionate about our work for the Bengali community, very direct with people, and sometimes you will find me at Walmart – in an aisle of groceries – dancing in public only to embarrass my kids!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.banglainstitute.com
- Instagram: @thebanglainstitute
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheBanglaInstitute
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/thebanglainstitute
Image Credits
Bangla Institute
