Youngju, Regional Researcher of Bangladesh

 

<2024. 3. 29>

Hi! My name is Youngju. I’m a student at Sejong Global High School in South Korea and I’m thrilled to be connecting with my Bangladeshi friends.

I have lived in many different cities in my life. But I’ve lived the longest here in Sejong, which is a newly-built city designed to hold the Government Complex. I wouldn’t say it’s the most exciting city, but it’s a clean and comfortable place that has become my home.

Bangladesh’s status as such a densely populated country always fascinated me, ever since I learned about the immense city of Dhaka in my geography class. I also thought it 

was a shame that I didn’t know well enough about the remarkable world of Islam. This is why I am very much looking forward to learning more about this unique country.

<2024. 4. 16.>

Hi, I'm Youngju Ahn and I'm back again to discuss an interesting topic on Bangladesh. 

In South Korea, sports like football and baseball are very popular. I personally like watching football very much. My favorite team? Maybe PSG, but I mostly watch when the Korean national team is playing. Whenever there's a big match, I can stay up all night to watch it with my family and friends. Sports unite us. (Especially when we're playing against our neighbor Japan, haha.) 

(1)

So I wondered, what are some popular sports in Bangladesh? 

I had heard that countries in South Asia love playing and watching cricket. But what IS cricket?? It was a sport almost entirely unfamiliar to me, so I watched this video online to try to get a hang of it:



Some fascinating facts I learned from the video: 
- the bowler cannot bend his elbow when pitching
- a game of cricket can be played for 8 hours straight!! Or even in the span of 5 days...
- the defense does not wear any gloves while catching the ball 
- There are three different type of games: Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. 


And about cricket in Bangladesh specifically, I found out that the Bangladesh men’s national cricket team was called the Tigers. (I figure it's because of the Bengal tigers. What a great name!) They are currently ranked 9th in the ICC Test rankings. They won their first ICC Trophy in 1997, in Malaysia! They also won second place three times in the Asian Cups. Some of the legends of the team include Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, who are both left handed batsman… Is it particularly advantageous to be left-handed in cricket?

(2)

As I slowly immersed myself into the world of cricket (even though I just scratched the surface), I began to notice something. All the countries that play cricket competitively were either once colonized by the British(Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, etc.), or within the British Isles(England, Ireland, etc.). And that was how all the South Asian countries came to play and enjoy cricket. 

Now, I have some questions I'd like to ask you. 

- Which sports do teenagers in Bangladesh prefer today?
- Which country do you consider Bangladesh's biggest rival in cricket?
- Do you think that more countries should watch and play cricket? 
- What do you think about the lasting British influences on Bangladesh?

If you would like to answer any of these questions, please leave a comment below!

Thanks for reading, I’ll catch you next time. 

<2024. 5. 11.>

Today’s topic: Population and Demographics!

A couple of years ago, I learned about population pyramids. Do you learn about them in Bangladesh too? Population pyramids are graphs that show the population distribution by sex and age, like so: 

This is the population pyramid of South Korea. The population of Korea has almost doubled since the 1960’s(from 25 million to 50 million). However, it is now starting to decrease because of the extremely low fertility rate, at 0.73 in 2023. Because of this, in the near future, there will be many old people and not enough young people to make money and take care of them, which will be a huge problem. 

Let’s take a look at the population of Bangladesh then. Bangladesh has a whopping population of 171 million in an area of 148,460km², thus making a population density of 1,165 per km². Its population has been growing ever since its independence as a country in 1971, when it was 68 million. I guess Bangladesh was always a bigger country than South Korea. 

Here’s the population pyramid of Bangladesh:



That’s what a ‘pyramid’ should look like, haha. They say this shape is ideal (and also typical) for a rapidly developing country. An increasing population, therefore a lot of young people to provide the workforce. Quite the opposite to the situation in my country.

However, Bangladesh’s fertility rate is naturally and slowly decreasing, recently just below 2. This means that, if the population growth rate stays consistent, the population pyramid would first show straight sides and then start to get narrower in the bottom. 

This is a natural progression that most counties go through. Each country is just in a different stage. For now, Bangladesh should use its particular demographic characteristics to its advantage. 

Side note: I couldn’t help but notice how Pakistan’s fertility rate was much higher at 3.47. (Do you think this is because of the difference in education for women in the two countries?) This teaches me again the very important lesson, that even close countries can differ hugely in their ways of life. Every country is unique.

Now here are some things I got curious about while writing this blog.
What do Bangladeshis think about the “crowdedness” of their country? 
What are the pros and cons of population growth that can be seen in Bangladesh?

Feel free to answer any of these questions, or give your own opinion in the comments!

Thanks for reading :) Until next time!