A friend of mine is of Pakistani origin, and mentioned there is a surprising amount of Qataris who know Hindi/Urdu out of necessity of communicating with speakers of the language. Even I notice it would be a huge advantage. Is this true and where can I learn? Haha.
I saw an add the other day where the Chinese kids were being taught Hindi ,as part of their curriculum,....LOL,... Jokes apart learning Urdu/ Hindi as a spoken Language atleast is a true advantage in ME specially if you have to deal with a lot of workers.Good Luck !
It was a pleasure meeting you last night. I hope you enjoyed literary programme ‘shab-e-afsana’. I must say that I am impressed with your keen interest in Urdu and your Arabic language skills.
@Faisal, thanks so much for your help thus far. I skimmed your article. It is very interesting. I never read Iqbal before since I try to stay away from translations. Your discussion of his philosophy, and its adaptations as manifested in his poetry, is pretty cool. I had heard of Iqbal largely through the writings of V.S. Naipul, tangentially. His opinions on him are not that great, but I am intrigued and want to know more.
As for the Bazm-e-Urdu, I would be interested. Just let me know when and where and I will try to attend. For the reference of other non-Urdu speakers: are the conversations typically in Urdu? English? I assume Urdu, but I want to know what I am up against.
alharaka, Welcome to Urdu group. I have sent you a PM with my mobile number.
I am glad to know that you have interest in Urdu literature and particularly in poetry and Iqbal. You might find this article interesting. I wrote it a few years ago.
http://www.qatarliving.com/node/1437201
There are many Urdu forums in Doha. They regularly conduct mushairas and other literary programmes. I can update you about upcoming programmes if you would like to attend.
You have posted this at opportune time. This Sunday Bazm-e-Urdu Qatar is organising a small programme on 'Urdu Afsana' (short story). You are most welcome to attend.
I will join the Urdu Group in a bit. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I was pretty shocked and annoyed that I received no response when asking these questions two months ago, prior to arrival. Turns out QL users do not look at the question/answer section it seems, and the forums were the place to go. Glad I finally found some people.
I am serious. I have started Hindi with Rosetta Stone in the interim. This is not very helpful for me, as the vocabulary is childish. Yes, I know Hindi is different, but as far as dialect continuum goes, the mutual intelligibility is pretty high from what I hear so I wanted to start somewhere. Please PM me if you can put me in touch with Urdu tutors. I am primarily interested in spoken Urdu, but would love if I can make my way into Urdu literature and poetry (I would love to be able to quote some Iqbal; I never bothered to read him if I cannot read the originals). I studied Arabic in university, so the advanced vocab from Arabic/Persian will excite me and they will not have to waste their time teaching me writing from scratch (I know there are obvious differences, but I can learn them).
I got a pleasant feeling by reading your post alharaka!...
Urdu learning is not hard for Arabic language speakers, as we both share almost the same alphabet, same script writing and a large collection of same root words...
Join Urdu Group as mathboy suggested (we sometimes write Urdu in ’Roman' there :)
alharaka, It is good to hear that you want to learn Urdu. Urdu is a beautiful language. Let me know if you are serious about learning Urdu so I can connect you to an Urdu teacher. Or you can contact Pakistani schools in Doha. They should be able to help you.
I run an Urdu group on QL as well as an online Urdu forum. You are welcome to join both.
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I saw an add the other day where the Chinese kids were being taught Hindi ,as part of their curriculum,....LOL,... Jokes apart learning Urdu/ Hindi as a spoken Language atleast is a true advantage in ME specially if you have to deal with a lot of workers.Good Luck !
alharaka, Thanks for liking my article on Iqbal.
It was a pleasure meeting you last night. I hope you enjoyed literary programme ‘shab-e-afsana’. I must say that I am impressed with your keen interest in Urdu and your Arabic language skills.
Enjoy learning Urdu!
@Faisal, thanks so much for your help thus far. I skimmed your article. It is very interesting. I never read Iqbal before since I try to stay away from translations. Your discussion of his philosophy, and its adaptations as manifested in his poetry, is pretty cool. I had heard of Iqbal largely through the writings of V.S. Naipul, tangentially. His opinions on him are not that great, but I am intrigued and want to know more.
As for the Bazm-e-Urdu, I would be interested. Just let me know when and where and I will try to attend. For the reference of other non-Urdu speakers: are the conversations typically in Urdu? English? I assume Urdu, but I want to know what I am up against.
alharaka, Welcome to Urdu group. I have sent you a PM with my mobile number.
I am glad to know that you have interest in Urdu literature and particularly in poetry and Iqbal. You might find this article interesting. I wrote it a few years ago.
http://www.qatarliving.com/node/1437201
There are many Urdu forums in Doha. They regularly conduct mushairas and other literary programmes. I can update you about upcoming programmes if you would like to attend.
You have posted this at opportune time. This Sunday Bazm-e-Urdu Qatar is organising a small programme on 'Urdu Afsana' (short story). You are most welcome to attend.
I will join the Urdu Group in a bit. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I was pretty shocked and annoyed that I received no response when asking these questions two months ago, prior to arrival. Turns out QL users do not look at the question/answer section it seems, and the forums were the place to go. Glad I finally found some people.
I am serious. I have started Hindi with Rosetta Stone in the interim. This is not very helpful for me, as the vocabulary is childish. Yes, I know Hindi is different, but as far as dialect continuum goes, the mutual intelligibility is pretty high from what I hear so I wanted to start somewhere. Please PM me if you can put me in touch with Urdu tutors. I am primarily interested in spoken Urdu, but would love if I can make my way into Urdu literature and poetry (I would love to be able to quote some Iqbal; I never bothered to read him if I cannot read the originals). I studied Arabic in university, so the advanced vocab from Arabic/Persian will excite me and they will not have to waste their time teaching me writing from scratch (I know there are obvious differences, but I can learn them).
I got a pleasant feeling by reading your post alharaka!...
Urdu learning is not hard for Arabic language speakers, as we both share almost the same alphabet, same script writing and a large collection of same root words...
Join Urdu Group as mathboy suggested (we sometimes write Urdu in ’Roman' there :)
each and every word in urdu sweet& beautifull
alharaka, It is good to hear that you want to learn Urdu. Urdu is a beautiful language. Let me know if you are serious about learning Urdu so I can connect you to an Urdu teacher. Or you can contact Pakistani schools in Doha. They should be able to help you.
I run an Urdu group on QL as well as an online Urdu forum. You are welcome to join both.
When urdu speakers can learn to speak arabic, then its true.After all Urdu has emerged from Arabic, Percian and Turkish languages.
You will be really surprised if you see Dubai Police, as they can speak very well Urdu and I heard that it is a part of their training.