Consul General Series - 孟加拉国驻港总领事 Mehdi Hasan
Hello, everybody! I am Mehdi Hasen, the Consul General of Bangladesh in HK.
大家好，我是孟加拉国驻港总领事Mehdi Hasen。
0)Please say something to our listeners of HK.
请对我们香港的听众说些什么。
Hong Kong is a wonderful place for us and this is the most vibrant city that I have ever lived. This is a wonderful place, where you see people who are highly tolerant and respectful to each other irrespective of religion, race and colors. They are very welcoming to foreigners, and they don't differentiate us as a foreigner, so that way we feel quite at home here and also people are gentle which makes you feel good.
香港是一个绝妙的地方，是我住过最充满活力的城市。 这是一个很棒的地方，港人非常尊重和宽容别人的宗教、种族和肤色。 他们非常欢迎我们，并没有把我们当作外国人一样，因此我们在这里既有宾至如归的感觉，人们也很温柔，这使您感觉良好。
1) Please tell us more about your country and are there any fabulous events or festivals that you want to tell us?
Bangladesh has been the cradle of civilization, a centre of cultural diffusion, since the early ages of civilisation. It was the meeting ground of various peoples in different states of civilization, the most primitive as well as the most advanced. Each phase of the history of Bangladesh has its distinct characteristics and every race of people who came and settled here, left its individual racial, religious or cultural impacts in the form of temples, stupas, monasteries and mosque along with their associated objects – making it a country of diverse attractions. Its deep-rooted multi-faced cultural heritage is reflected in its architecture, literature, dance, drama, music and painting.
As I said different civilisations and people lived here, so this country is mixed with multi races, so you will see Aryan faces, Mongoloid faces, Arabian faces in our people, You meet people of different colors in our country. Also, Bangladesh is a large green land. It’s a green tapestry, criss-crossed by more than 300 rivers, their tributaries, distributaries and canals, and this is the largest riverine delta in the world, that's why the rivers play a very important and significant role in the economic and normal live of people in Bangladesh. It is the land of festivals. It's a very tolerant and vibrant society where people from different religions such as the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Muslims, cohabitate happily with mutual respect for each other, and Bangladesh is one of the very few countries in the world where you will have public holidays for all the major religions. You won’t find such thing in many places in the world. For example, we have public holiday on 25th December. We have public holiday also for the Buddhist which is the birthday of Buddha, and for the Hindu also,we have several public holidays. So in that way, we have lots of celebrations throughout the year in Bangladesh, thus we characterise it “Your religious occasion but Festival for everybody”. For example, the Hindus have their Puja, or the Buddhist have Buddha Purnima, but it is celebrated across the society.
从文明的早期开始，孟加拉国就一直是文明的摇篮，是文化传播的中心，也是最原始和最先进的各个民族的交汇地。孟加拉国历史的每个阶段都有其独特的特征，来到这里定居的每个种族，都以寺庙，佛塔，修道院和清真寺等形式留下了各自的种族、宗教和文化影响，使孟加拉国成为一个景点众多的国家。在我们的建筑，文学，舞蹈，戏剧，音乐和绘画中都能体验根深蒂固的多元文化遗产。
正如我说过，不同的文明和人民都生活在这里，所以这个国家混杂着不同种族，因此您会在我们的人民中看到雅利安人、蒙古人、阿拉伯的面孔，您会遇到我们国家的不同肤色的人。此外，孟加拉国是一片广阔的绿地。尤如一条绿色的挂毯，纵横交错，并有300多条河流，，布满着支流和运河，是世界上最大的河流三角洲。因此，河流在孟加拉国人民的经济和日常生活中起着非常重要的作用。而且孟加拉国是一个充满不同节日的地方。这是一个非常宽容和充满活力的社会，来自印度教、佛教、穆斯林等不同宗教的人们都快乐地同居于这地，互相尊重。孟加拉国是世界上为数不多，同时几个主要宗教信仰都有法定假日的国家之一。您在世界上很多地方都找不到这种事，例如，我们在12月25日有公共假日，我们有佛教徒的公共假日，即是佛陀的生日，还有印度教，也有一些公共假日。这样一来，我们一年四季都会在孟加拉国举行许多庆祝活动，因此我们称它为「您的宗教，但对每个人来说都是节日」，例如，印度教徒有他们的供奉，佛教徒有卫塞节，但整个社会都会一同庆祝，普天同庆。
Then, we have celebrations not only on religious occasions, but also on social and cultural heritage. For example, the biggest and most colourful celebration in Bangladesh is the Bengali New year celebration which we call Pohela Boishakh. Pohela Boishakh is celebrated across the society and people of different age, religion, color join the celebration. It is held on 14th April. “Pohela Boishakh” means the first day of Bengali New Year. A colourful procession on Pohela Boishakh called the “Mangal Shobhajatra”, which means a procession for well-being of the people, was declared by the UNESCO in 2016 as an intangible cultural heritage. Agriculture occupies a major part of livelihood and economy. Bangladesh produces rice throughout the year, so whenever you go to Bangladesh, you will see the large green fields and there is harvest celebration which has been celebrated for years. Historically, the Autumn was the harvesting Season, and the Harvest Festival has been celebrated in Bangladesh. Earlier, businesses used to open their yearly book of accounts on this day which is still practiced by many. These are the few things that influence our culture and our lives in Bangladesh.
然后，我们不仅在宗教场合，而且在社会和文化遗产上都有庆祝活动。例如，孟加拉国规模最大、最丰富多彩的庆祝活动是孟加拉新年庆祝活动，我们将节日称为“ Pahela Baishakh”我们在孟加拉国举行的庆祝活动，整个社会，涉及不同年龄，宗教信仰和肤色都会参加，并于4月14日举行。 “ Pohela Boishakh”象征着孟加拉新年的第一天。2016年，联合国教科文组织将在孟加拉新年举行之丰富多彩的游行-“ Mangal Shobhajatra”，意指为了人民的幸福而游行，认可为非物质文化遗产。因此联合国其，当日的巡游表演被称为“ Mangal Shobhajatra”，人民幸福的游行。因此，这是在孟加拉国新年4月14日举行的。此外，农业占民生和经济的主要部分。 孟加拉国全年都会出产稻米，因此，每当您去孟加拉国时，您都会看到大片的绿色田野和举行了多年的收获庆祝活动。长久以来，秋天是丰收季节，孟加拉国都会庆祝丰收节日。 早些时候，企业通常在这一天开立年度账簿，此传统仍然持续至今。 以上就是一些影响我们孟加拉国文化和日常生活的特色节日。
2) How do you feel about HK and what kinds of thing you like the best?
你对香港印象如何以及你最喜欢香港的什么 ?
As I said before, first thing is that this is a very vibrant city and whenever I used the word “vibrant”, I am reciprocated with the similar sentiment by many of my colleagues, or people I meet. Some say that this is too vibrant but really, this is a colourful city and as we call it “The Asia’s World City”, it is really a city where you see the whole world joined together, living here in such a wonderful environment, and whenever you live in HK, you feel the speed of life. I like the speed of life in Hong kong but never feel that I will miss the train. In other way, it's fun to keep your pace matching the speed of the city. Also, everything is so well organized. And the most important thing that attracts me is the people who are very gentle, welcoming and respect for human-being.
正如我所说，第一件事是这是一个充满活力的城市，每当我使用「充满活力」一词时，我的许多同事或我遇到的人都对类似的观点表示赞赏。 有人说香港太活跃了，但实际上这是一座色彩缤纷的城市，我称呼这个城市为「亚洲国际大都会」，它确实是一个能够让您体验世界融合的城市，生活在如此美好的环境中。只要你是生活在香港，必定会体验到生活节奏上的速度。 我从来没有想像过自己会赶不上火车，并将自己的步伐与城市的速度保持一致。 而且，香港人都是很有条理的，一切都井井有条。 而最吸引的就是本地的人民，他们非常温柔，非常热情和互相彼此尊重。
3) So is there any specific flower of your country which is kind of like a national flower of Bangladesh?
那么，您的国家有没有特定的花朵，例如是孟加拉国的国花？
We have a national flower which is called Water Lily. You find this flower in HK also.
我们有一朵国花，叫做睡莲。 您也可以在香港找到这朵花。
4) Can Consul General teach us some language of Bangladesh, like greetings, slangs, and I mean is there any sentence you can teach our audience?
总领事能教我们一些孟加拉国的语言，例如问候语，俚语吗？我的意思是，您有什么句子可以教我们的听众吗？
First of all, when you say “Hello”, as you know in Bangladesh, the majority of people are Muslims, so in our tradition, whenever we meet people, we say “Peace Be Upon You” in English, but in Arabic, we say “ السلام عليكم” (As-salamu alaykum) which has the same meaning. It’s universal, and then you reply “وعليكم السلام” (Wa alaykumus-salam), means Peace be upon you too. Then the second biggest religion is the Hindus, they also have a greeting, so whenever they meet, they say “नमस्कार” (Namaskaar) which has similar meaning.
首先，当您说「你好」，而您知道孟加拉国人民大多数都是穆斯林，按照传统，每当我们碰面时，我们都会用英语说「祝你平安」，而在阿拉伯语中，我们说“ السلامعليكم”（As-salamu alaykum），意味着和平与你常在，是我们通用的问好，然后您回答“وعليكمالسلام”（Wa alaykumu as-salam），意味着我也祝你平安。 然后第二大宗教就是印度教徒，他们也有类似的语句，所以每次见面时，他们都会说“नमस्कार ”(Namaskaar)，意思相似。
Then, we say “ কেমন আছ (Kēmana ācha), which means how are you doing. Here, we actually have three persons, like when we talk to unknown person or elderly people, we say কেমন আছেন (Kēmana āchēna) as a respect, কেমন (Kēmana) means How, আছেন (āchēna) means how are you doing. It’s for elderly and formal format and then when you talk to your friends, families and close persons, we say কেমন আছো (Kēmana āchō), then you meet very close friends or within family, we say কেমন আছিস (Kēmana āchisa), so when we reply, there’s only a format, that I’m doing fine. We say ভালো আছি (Bhālō āchi) , ভালো (Bhālō) means good, and আছি (āchi) means I am, so it’s I am fine.
然后，我们说“ কেমন আছ (Kēmana ācha)，意思是「你好吗」。 在这里，我们现在有3个人，例如当我们与陌生人或老人聊天时，我们以কেমন আছেন (Kēmana āchēna)为尊敬，কেমন（Kēmana）表示如何，,（āchēna）表示您最近过得如何。 它适用于老年人和正规交谈，然后当您与朋友，家人和亲密友人交谈时，我们说 কেমন আছো (Kēmana āchō)，然后您遇到非常亲密的朋友或家人时，我们说কেমন আছিস (Kēmana āchisa)，所以当我们回答时，只有一种方式，就是我过得很好，我们会说 ভালো আছি (Bhālō āchi)，ভালো（Bhālō）表示好，আছিā（āchi）表示我，所以我很好。
