So I got a great email yesterday. Currently I am managing a city council campaign in Philadelphia (through my full-time job, SCORE!) The woman who is running works for a U.S. Congressman. She sent me a nomination email for a programs called ACYPL (American Council of Young Political Leaders) which send delegations of young people, aged 25-40 overseas to learn about foreign policy and relations. She was a fellow and traveled to Brazil. They choose their fellows from the nominations of former fellows and are always in need of women and people of color. There are several countries they are sending delegations, one of which is Pakistan. I replied that yes, I would like for her to nominate me, in particular to go to Pakistan. She sort of questioned why on earth I would want to go there, especially right now. Well the thing is, my A and I often talk about starting an NGO that focuses on teaching young people about government and democracy in Pakistan.
So in the mean time, I am going to actually start to try to learn Urdu and Punjabi. You know, more than the handful of words I know now. To the goris who’ve successfully learned Urdu, what were the resources you used? Any websites you would suggest?
The problem is all of the stuff teaching Urdu is really old, like 1956 old, so I’m worthless in Urdu. . .just what I’m learning passively. One that I liked when I tried it was Rosetta Stone Hindi. . .the problem is that you learn the Hindi script instead of the Urdu one. So, join my fight, lol and put in one of those Rosetta Stone requests (on their website) so that they develop an Urdu one.
Very cool! Good luck with Urdu. I wish Rosetta Stone had it, but they just have Hindi for Indian languages. There is a petition on Facebook to try to get them to produce Punjabi, though.
I am not good with learning languages but I should do this!
LiveMocha.com has urdu
Hey, this is right up my alley.
there are many people who have used:
mydesiguru.com
for teaching childrfen and if you can stomach the cartoons, they might help.
GG has some sites that you might like. i can’t remember them because many of them are not that accessible for me.
http://www.urduword.com
had a dictionary, but I don’t know if it is my browser or what, but i can’t access it anymore and have to go to the less comprehensive
http://www.apniurdu.com/translation
i think that
http://www.123urdu.com
also has a dictionary, but the urdu is in arabic letters and not roman letters and my screen reader can’t read them either.
Maybe Lucky Fatima has some resources.
for me; the resource that has helped the most (besides that dictionary that is no longer accessible – yet, i started making my own and will find it for you if you want)
is
http://www.livemocha.com
i can’t access the picture matching portion – but the part that i do like is when you can make up your own flashcards.
then, there is a way that you can quiz yourself on the flashcards.
that is the only part that is accessible to me, but you will probably get so much more out of it.
Facebook has a
‘learn urdu’
page and i know one of the moderators, Fahd, who is pretty good at helping you.
Skip phrasebase and mylanguageexchange
No one is commited.
I also had a couple of audio learning courses. i’ll have to ask dh what they were. they were pretty good.
i know that rosetta stone and the more comprehensive Pemsleur has “learn Hindi” which might be helpful, yet, with all of its similarities, it is not a ‘learn Urdu’ course. and, many of the ‘learn Urdu’ courses are taught (the video portion) by Brittish guys; so if you have trouble understanding brittish dialect, you might want to listen to the BBC first to get your ear use to it.
And, while we are talking about the BBC, check out their documentaries page. they have lots of documentaries on pakistan.
i think that I have one that might be too old for the archives: not sure.
But, there has been a wave of Brittish/pakistanis who have explored Pakistan in the search to see if they could live there or to explore their roots.
this, too has been documented.
hmmm, i can’t remember their names (one is Saira Khan, a journalist), but there have been a few Brittish born pakistanis to do this and it would give you insight into Pakistan.
And…. reading.
find some Pakistani authors and try to discuss what you read with A.
Hey, an NGO: that is right up our alley!
If you do go, I’ll have to try to find you when we visit.
If you want to learn about urdu , the best site I Wus suggest is http://www.gorichunni.com. This is a great site.
I learned Urdu in a classroom setting and later through study abroad. IMHO unless you are very extremely linguistically inclined (which is very rare), people cannot “teach themselves” a language, but need support from courses, practice, immersion, etc. It is easier if you have been exposed to Urdu and then try to teach yourself, rather than starting from scratch, so you have an advantage in that sense.
I would start out with Urdu and not Punjabi. If I were you I would look for an Urdu class or a private tutor in your area. Would you get language study support from the program? There are several intensive Urdu courses that take place around the US in the summer. Could be one near you. Also, there is the American Institute of Indian Studies which has a summer Urdu program in Lucknow, but you have to be a uni student to qualify, AFAIK.
I recommend picking up basic vocabulary for a few weeks before learning Nastaliq script. I do believe you can teach yourself the script but Urdu script is tricky and you will need help from someone with that as well to get good, but at least you can learn the basic unconnected letters.
In terms of material to use, there is:
There is the Teach Yourself series http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Urdu-Complete-Course/dp/0071546995/ref=pd_sim_b_2
as well as the Colloquial Urdu http://www.amazon.com/Colloquial-Urdu-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/0415135427
I like this website for bare basic grammar.
http://learninghindi.tumblr.com/It is Hindi focused but not overly Sanskritized. The page site has an Urdu section.
These materials are for support, but I still recommend finding a teacher to use them with you.
You could seek a tutor on Craigslist or any uni near you that has an Urdu program with needy grad student tutors to help you for a small fee.
That sounds like a really cool opportunity! I’m glad you have this chance to connect with things you love!
I tried finding a tutor and had little success. the closest one is 2hours away. and, i am in our capital city, now. I might post a flyer at our local Indian Center, but it is more difficult than it seems.
yet, i agree with lf, you have to find someone who will speak it consistently with you.
learning the script is useless and i only want to learn conversation.
That is not to say that I don’t want to know grammar. But, writing it is not going to help me anyway — heck, i can’t even write the letters of my native country – except to sign my name.
i woule recommend pemsleur over Rosetta Stone anyday. But, that is just my evaluation of their course setup and what they actually teach you.
i have tried the “teach yourself series,” and while helpful, it is still mostly memorization of complete phrases.
for me, repitition helps, but i need a bit of creativity.
if i know that basic sentences are formed by
subject/object/verb
and need a
“main/tum/aap/woh/yeh/hum” then maybe a noun for the object
a conjugated verb and a ‘hoon/hai/hain/ho
then, i can practice by making my own simple sentences.
My learning has stalled largely because I don’t have anyone to speak with.
it is all well and good to make up sentences in your head and i write them phoenetically just to hear them;
but I tried the other day to speak to DH’s sister and … … i thanked God that she is better at English than i am at Urdu.
But, i will check out the sites listed above and see if i can access them and extract the benefit.
Thanks.
wow.. that sounds sooo cool… Im sort of stuck at the small phrases at the moment, but Im totally stealing all the suggested links from here
I wish you all the luck and hope to hear how it goes 
I would love to learn urdu. I am just trying to get some basic vocab and surprise my Indian man. But I love urduword.com The name alone is so cute right?
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There is a Yale book called ‘Let’s Study Urdu’ which is great especially couple with Teach Yourself Beginner’s Urdu Script.
For both Punjabi and Urdu I think it is easier for Westerners (unless you have a background in Farsi) to learn through Hindi.