Our Amazing Urdu Journey: Why and How we did it in 3 steps!

Read this in: اردو (Urdu)

By : Sumbul

This is part two of the Urdu Learning series. To read part one about the importance of rhyme in learning, click here.

I am so excited to share my story here. Hello everyone! Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Sumbul and I have known Annie for almost ten years. (which seems crazy) When she asked me if I wanted to share my thoughts on teaching my kids Urdu, I said Why not?

Hello

A little introduction about me. I live in Toronto, Canada with my husband and three children, aged 8, 5, and 1 years old. Since Urdu is my native language but English is the majority language spoken in Canada (followed by French), we had our own ideas on which language to use with the kids.

My husband and I have always spoken in English to the kids. We thought that would be the best way to help them become stronger in one language. We also considered how that would make the daycare transition easier.

Perspectives shifted

That was until the year 2020 started and our perspective changed dramatically. The restrictions enabled us to spend more time as a family and really deepen our connection. My kids did not know any Urdu before the Pandemic started in March 2020. Then I thought why not try to teach them Urdu as a family fun activity.

After embarking on this Urdu journey using the strategy below, my daughter started to read and understand the poem bulbul ka bacha. Click to see the video

Urdu: the secret weapon

Before the pandemic, Urdu was mainly used as a secret language between my husband and me. Most people I know teach Urdu to their kids before English. The kids often do not have any say in the learning process. My kids are older so I wanted to partner with them in the journey. 

Bilingual advantage

Being Canadians, I would prefer if my kids are fluent in English and French both. A French teacher told me that kids from bilingual families learn French much faster than monolingual kids because they already have the ‘skills’ to acquire a second language.

That was my aha moment! Why not teach kids a language which is easily available to us so that they can ‘learn’ how to pick any language they want? 

Starting the process

As we started our Urdu journey, the kids and I set some ground rules. This is NOT homework for them. It is a fun journey that we are enjoying as a family.

Table of contents (click to jump)

• Our goals for learning Urdu
• The process
  • Memorize phrases in Urdu
  • Make a word bank
  • Ask children to practice speaking about common topics
• Our result so far
• Goals for the future

Our goals for learning Urdu together

I feel it’s important to clarify your objective before learning any language.

Our objective of learning Urdu is to ensure kids can have a basic conversation in Urdu, understand what parents are saying and watch Urdu cartoons, dramas, and movies without subtitles. To achieve this, I wanted the kids to be able to start speaking Urdu sooner than later so that they can actively participate in the learning process. 

The goal for them was to learn the secret weapon to decode what their parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts talk about in Urdu.

The process

Play is the language of children so I made sure every Urdu learning activity is fun and engaging.  

Our Urdu journey is focused on these three areas:

1. Memorizing Phrases in Urdu

Since my kids are older, I decided to focus on teaching phrases instead of words. This helped jumpstart the conversation and gave them an idea of the grammar and context.

For example, instead of teaching kids that ‘nashta’ means ‘breakfast’, I actually made them memorize the commonly used phrase, “tum nashtay mein kya khao gee?”

Mein nashtey mein pancakes khaonge.  

I prepared a list of the commonly used phrases we found helpful and also a blank template for you to fill out whatever phrases you would like to add for your own use. Please go to the resource library to download for free

How did I make this fun?

I used role-playing. The kids and I created shorts skits on common scenarios that happened at home. For example, mommy waking kids in the morning or mommy’s friend meeting the kids for the first time. The role-playing helped us improvise phrases.

We also added funny or scary twists to the scenarios to ensure we have lots of laughs. In one ‘twist’ a monster visited our home and scared mommy off. 

2. Activities to use a word bank

It was helpful to have a list of words we wanted to remember to use during our activities together. We came up with some fun activities to test ourselves.

We also created a word bank of high-frequency use words to describe opposites. They are in the resource library as a printable.

To learn the names of the seasons, for example, we found this song that helped us remember the names.

Click to watch

To learn the names of the rooms in the house: The kids drew a picture of a house and labeled each room. Here’s my daughter’s drawing as an example. 

To learn name of body parts : I first told them the names of the parts of the body.

Then, I would quiz to see who would be the first to identify the name I said. Whoever got it first would get one point. In the end the one with highest points would win the game.

To learn the name of common household objects: I have labeled items in the house using paper and tape. This included common household items such as table, chair, clock, fan, toys, fork and spoon etc. 

The kids enjoy playing scavenger hunt. I tell them the name of an object in Urdu and they try to find it. This helped them recognize the names of objects. 

To help them learn the sound of the Urdu alphabet: I would ask them to come up with a random word starting with the alphabet.

For example, the kids recalled funny words to match each letter such as ‘baba bandooq’ for ‘bay’ and ‘chore‘ for ‘chey’. I was happy to know watching the show ‘Burka Avengers’ was really helping in this game.  

3. Encourage kids to prepare mini speeches

To help the kids use their vocabulary, we practiced making short speeches about common topics.

I asked the kids to prepare a short 3-4 lines speech in Urdu and then made them try variants of the speech.

The topic I tried with my middle child was introducing herself and her family in Urdu. I made her repeat her speech a few times and then she cheekily added ” Aap kyun pooch rahein hain?”

My final thoughts…

It may seem like they are not ready, but I was really pleasantly surprised by the output I got as a result of making these small changes.

The kids have been enjoying the learning journey so far which is the most important part for me. I want my kids to know that they can learn anything they want if they focus.

The fact that my kids are making huge progress in Urdu is a testimonial of their learning skills.

On a personal level, I am so happy that my kids are now singing my favorite childhood rhyme ‘machlee ka bachaa‘ and loving it. Click to see the video here

Upcoming goals

Our next steps would be encouraging kids to read short stories in Urdu. For the time being, having them understand and converse in Urdu is so rewarding. We are working on introducing the script gradually as well.

I would really encourage anyone who is on the fence about it to really give it a shot. I hope you found some of these tips useful to do it in a fun way.

Please leave a comment and share your thoughts about your experience.

Read this in: اردو (Urdu)