For the linguistic landscape, I am going to feature the area or the community that I live in since I moved to the U.S. in 2016 from Bangladesh. I find this place very similar again dissimilar to my home country. Someway similar because I find the same racial people like me – the Bengali community. This community has existed even before I moved here, and now it’s growing very fast. Someway it’s dissimilar as I find healthcare, education, a form of society, and the system of government very unlike where I lived before. It’s much developed and full of opportunities for one to thrive. This community is full of diversity as I always find it exciting to meet new people. And the place is Parkchester – in the Bronx. In Parkchester, the Bengali community is largely expanding as well as I could also say the Muslim community too. The place I live in includes a large mosque, which is the largest mosque in the Bronx – The Parkchester Jame Masjid depicted below. The mosque illustrates the fact how large the Muslim community is expanding in this area.
Figure 1: Parkchester Mosque
The Bengali community in Parkchester is expanding as well, as you could see the various stores that illustrate this particular culture. The picture depicted below explains by the sign of halal food that the Muslim community is united here.
Figure 2: A Bengali Muslim Grocery Store
Figure 3: White Plains Road, Parkchester
Figure 4: Bengali Shop
The picture above shows the store has Bengali clothes, and the writing the include in Bengali as the store title.
Figure 5: Sign of Diversity, A Church
This picture shows the diversity of different religions in this area. It shows a big church where a mosque is close to it. This is a sign that a different religious group lives peacefully and performs their religious practices.
Figure 6: Bengali Hair Saloon
Figure 7: Art that represents Bangladesh.
Figure 8: Money transfer store owned by Bengali owner.
Figure 9: Bengali traditional cloth store.
Figure 10: Bengali money transfer store.
Figure 11: Area called Bangla Bazar, which means Bengali markets.
All of the figures above represent how this area is largely occupied by Bangladeshi people. This area is called Starling, and another world also called Bangla Bazar, which means Bangladeshi people have many businesses in this area. In this particular space, people can find every type of Bangladeshi material like spices, clothes, or any other Bengali necessities. By the time this Bengali area has been expanded. During 2016, it was not as busy as it is now, as it keeps get expanding as more Bengali immigrants come to the U.S. By now, Bengali people not only have businesses, but many Bengalis are now in high official jobs including politics and other wall street businesses. Also, the mosque was depicted above represents the Bengali Muslim community. Every time in Eid prayer when every Bengali Muslim comes together for Eid prayer there is not enough space for everyone to fit in the mosque. Therefore many people end up praying on the street beside the mosque. This is a huge representation of how Bengali communities has a large community to live together in the area of Bronx.