I must say that Urdu is one of the sweetest languages and spoken widely around the world. You may agree and you may not be but, in comparison of past fifty years, growth of its literature, surpassed most of its competitor languages. When I say competitor languages I do not count Hindi among them. Because I do not consider Hindi as a separate language, in fact Hindi and Urdu both are one language written in two different scripts. Believe me, having two scripts is one of the biggest qualities which any language may have. No languages have this specialty in the world.
As if now, the world is turning to global village but still there is big obstacle for cultural exchange, and understanding each other customs of living, is language. Understanding culture fully, is not possible without learning the languages; this may be a big reason, that many people from around the world specially western and European countries travel to third world countries specially India and Pakistan. Delhi is one of the Indian cities which are considered as educational hubs of India. There are several Universities where one can take admission in language courses and learn Hindi Urdu literatures, but in terms of spoken language it is strange that you can find thousands institutions who teach how to speak a good English, but you rarely find a good institution where you can find how to speak a good Urdu or Hindi.
The other problem for Urdu Hindi language learners is, if somehow they find a language helper, or instructor, there are not much study materials available for beginners except “Teach yourself Hindi” and “Teach yourself Urdu” although there are study materials limited for Intermediate level and advanced level too. Only two good books are available in the market and they are authored by experts, Gopichand Narang and C M Naim. They are, no doubt good books but not sufficient to fulfill the thirst of language learners. In comparison of this if you want to learn French, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese and Chinese then there are a lot many options in terms of study material, CDs, software and books available so you can choose the one that suits to you. But it is really difficult when it comes to Urdu and Hindi. The same problem persist if you talk about good and qualitative institution for learning How to speak a good Hindi or Urdu, there are not many options available to choose from except very few of them who are running in remote areas, they are not easily accessible. Either you find a private tutor or consult a teacher who works for school or collage and either one is not an easy task.
Despite of all these troubles if, being a foreigner if you succeed to speak a good Urdu or Hindi, then the immense pleasure which you feel you cannot imagine until you experience it, specially if a rickshaw driver tries to cheat you and as you speak some sentences, like kya bhaiya kya ker rahe ho, mujhe bewakoof mat banao the suddenly he feels guilty then you can only imagine how happy you would be. But the thing is that to become up to that level you need to find a good institution. For that the first thing you probably will do is, you will search online. Let me tell you there is one institution run by Ali Taqi who taught Urdu Hindi in University of Washington Seattle almost for seven years, the core competency of this institution is that they have American teachers for basic classes so it is easy for western people to understand the functionality of the language in their own way. Once students complete the basic level then they provide excellent Indian Hindi Urdu teachers to teach them further. This is my personal opinion that nothing can be easier but this way. More details about this institution can be found on http://zabaan.com
Besides this there are some online resources are available to learn. Or you can find home tutor to get help in learning Hindi Urdu at your place in your own method, without getting stuck in awful Delhi traffic. Zabaan also is one of the home tutor providers. Besides this institution you may find some other places where you can learn this awesome language. Unfortunately the so called masters of these languages did not give attention preparing course materials for non-native speakers. Most of them believe that to work for it is not a literary work and it won’t help in getting promotion as a professor. It’s bizarre. I think the best service for a language is to teach the language to non-native speaker. Nothing can be better service than this for any language.
In order to learn spoken Urdu or Hindi, up to fluent level won’t take less than two years if you are full time devoted student, although you will be able to communicate in six months or less. Learning a ne language takes time, but if you are fortunate enough to find a good language school like zabaan or other, or an excellent private tutor this may take less than the standard set time.
There are some tips and techniques, through which learning language become easier. One is learning through proper grammar, sentence structure, knowing about Noun, Pronoun, verb adjective and learning to arrange them in sentences like subject first, and then verb and then auxiliary etc. and the other technique is listen, learn and practice. Both of these techniques have merits and demerits. Through the first technique you may speak correct Urdu but you would think a lot before you speak. Because you will first think in your native language and then you will translate your thought into Urdu, moreover you will be extra careful, fearing of making mistakes but this way you will become aware of the language functionality and whatever you will speak you would be confident about it.
Through the second method you learn through listening and speak the way you heard other people speaking. This is the natural way of learning a language. Just like a kid born and learn through listening and practice. Just like your native language you are master in spoken no matter you do not know its grammar, if some body will speak wrong you will be able to say hey its wrong, but why and how and what it should be and why it should be you may not explain. Through this technique you will be able to speak well and quickly but you won’t be able to understand the functionality of language which is important.
So the best way of learning a language is mixture of both techniques. Firstly listening and practicing then understanding the sentence structure and third thing is passing time with native speakers, this helps a lot.
As per a student of Urdu Jonathan Shifley and a teacher of spoken English passing more times with native speakers is a mantra of learning any language. Being student of a language and a teacher of another language his advice and tips become valuable.
