beginning Bengali

[David R. Israel]

Esteemed scholars --

might anyone kindly recommend self-study programs in beginning 
Bengali? -- preferably acomputer-based CD tutorial, or, 
alternatively, a textbook-plus-cassette package, or something.

Also (or alternatively), does there exist any sort of accellerated
8-week (or whatever) course in the Bengali language, either at a
university or some private instituteion (prob. preferably in the
eastern United States)?

Also, simple question: is the Bengali script altogether different than
the devanagari script used in Hindi? . . . -- relatedly: is it
especially recommended that one have some background in Hindi before
approaching Bengali?, or does a fresh dive into Bengali w/o any prior
indic-language study seem a plausible endeavor? (at least with the
goal of arriving at dictionary-aided reading ability) . . .

advance thanks for attention to this (pre)-abecedarian query,
d.i.
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