Writing POC 101

Bangladeshi Characters - @JustKeepShipping

I am half Bangladeshi, half white.

I grew up in the English countryside which basically means its very conservative and very white. In primary school I was the only kid that wasn't white for 5/7 years. In secondary there were five other POCs in my year.

People ask me where I'm from and then they ask me where the hell Bangladesh is. It's a small country wedged between India and Burma in the Bay of Bengal. It is very flat and it prone to floods and storms.

Tbh I don't have any stereotypes to destroy because Bangladeshi people never seem to appear in anything.

In Britain there are A LOT of Bangladeshi people, most of them migrated from Bangladesh in the early 80s. They're the first generation. These are Nanis, Nanas, Nanus and Nanabhais (Nanis and Nanas are old relatives on your mums side and Nanus and Nanabhais are your grandparents). Basically the old generation. They are treated with loads of respect and are addressed politely. Aphne Bala Asone is the greeting we use, but they say it so fast I thought it was balasone until I was 12. Many brought children with them when are now in their forties and fifties and still first generation.

The second generation are all the children of the immigrants. They're our middle aged parents or cousins. They were born and raised in the uk.

The third generation is our generation, mainly in their teens and twenties. They're all usually pretty integrated and not that traditional. Most of us don't speak that much Bangla, don't wear hijabs and our favourite clothes are probably jeans and a top. I'm third generation.

Most Bangladeshis are Muslim, and a small minority wear a hijab if you're a girl. Also, there are still lots of arranged marriages going on, though they aren't as common as they used to be.

Family is extremely important to us, and there's lots of it. There are 5 people on my dads side (the English side) and on my mums side (the Bangladeshi side) theres probably 2000. I can't keep track and I forget people's names. It doesn't matter. You just smile, hug, move onto the next person.

Weddings are massive and there are lots of them. The biggest wedding I've been to probably had 7000 people. You have to invite everyone or someone'll get offended and not speak to you for 15 years. (It's happened before). All the women dress up in their fanciest jewellery and prettiest saris and swan about gossiping. The blokes are luckier and most just wear suits. Some of the older Nanas wear sherwanis, though.

Saris are the most awkward, uncomfortable, difficult to put on, impossible to move in pieces of clothing ever. I loathe the things. They can sometimes an hour of so to put on, especially if you're terrible at putting them on (like me). And sometimes the bit you wrap around falls off and everyone secretly laughs at you and all the Nanis think you come from a broken home or something. The little girls don't wear saris, though, they usually wear salwar kameezes. They're basically long tops/dresses over trousers and often have a cute scarf to go with them. They're OK to wear cause they've got loads of pretty beading and stitching but can be really itchy.

We're late for everything. When my sister got married she told our Nanu (grandma) that it started 2 hours earlier than it actually did. Nanu still arrived 2 hours late. Whenever we go to weddings on time (these times are few and far between) no one else is there except a few bewildered looking English people. It isn't purposeful, it just somehow always happens.

Because there's been a lot of integration, we look a lot like Indians and Burmese. We're also very short. Nanu is probably 4 1/2 foot. My mums 5 foot (ish). We speak Bangla or Bangladeshi, but my family speaks a dialect called Sylheti, as we are from a region of Bangladesh called Sylhet in the north. We still have family back there and it's very common for families to regularly send money back to relatives who stayed behind. In London schools, Sylheti is the second most spoken language because most of the Bangladeshi migrant were from Sylhet until recently. A lot of Bangladeshis settled in east London.

I would write about the "Asian parent" stereotype, but I would just be repeating what's already been said in here. They just want me to do well, get a good job and have a stable life. That's all there is to it.

Ok, I'm vv sorry for this shit ton of info, but I wasn't really sure how to sum it up. I didn't want it to be boring and long and only really scratched to surface of it all. If you want to know more you can PM me. It would be great for there to be a Bangladeshi character in something. Also comment if you have any extra info or if I've said something incorrect.