Eminent poet, playwright and novelist Syed Shamsul Haq delivers a talk on ‘How much Bangla, How much English: The place of Bangla and Bangladeshi Culture in English Medium Institutions’ at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) on 24 February 2010. The talk was organized by the Department of English & Modern Languages at IUB and was led by a brief introduction by the Head of the Department Dr. Razia Sultana Khan.   The Vice Chancellor of Prof. Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Prof. Nazrul Islam were present among others on the occasion.

In his talk Mr. Syed Haq opined that whatever the case may be Bangla should and must come first. ‘But we need English as a language also for reaching the world outside Bangladesh’ he added. He said, ‘Each and every citizen of this country should have access to English language from their childhood.’ He also discussed the nature of Bangla language and cited a range of instances to illustrate the capacity of the same to absorb so many words from different foreign languages. The program ended with a lively Q&A session.