How to Learn Urdu: Step by Step

There are many reasons to learn Urdu. The national language of Pakistan and one of India’s official languages, Urdu boasts over 230 million speakers. Often nicknamed “the language of the heart”, Urdu is known for its rich repertoire of poetry and music. Written with a Perso-Arabic script, Urdu flows across the page as beautiful calligraphy. Regardless of your reason for learning Urdu, this post will show you how to learn the language successfully.

1) Start with beginner-friendly materials

If you’re new to a language, reach for novice materials. When it comes to starter books, you can’t really go wrong. In fact, I often enjoy using more than one, as I’m reviewing the same content across different contexts. Consider Basic Urdu, a free textbook from Michigan State University.

Of course, Urdu is written in another script. You’ll want to invest time into learning this writing system. Otherwise, you’re significantly limiting the amount of content you can access and enjoy. Set aside some time to learn this script.

• Madarsa Faizan’s Urdu reading course guides you to literacy in 10-minute lessons.
• Islamic and Tech offers a free Urdu writing course on their YouTube channel.

LingQ Mini Stories

LingQ Mini Stories, available in Urdu, are optimal, beginner-friendly resources. Each story, accompanied by audio from a native speaker, explores a wide range of everyday situations. The stories are packed with high-frequency vocabulary and written with simple, repetitive structures.

Listen to the mini stories in your car, shadow the pronunciation, or dive into the nuts and bolts of the language through sentence review. Upon completing the series, you’ll be prepared to dive into more interesting, intermediate-level material.

2) Connect the language with your interests

Progress as a language learner, regardless of level, requires consistent reading and listening. However, intermediate and advanced learners should reach for more interesting content. Once you have a grasp of the language, it’s important to connect your learning materials to your personal interests.

Don’t let your learning get stale. Learning Urdu should be an engaging, enjoyable process. If you’re a fan of travel, dive into Urdu travel vlogs. If you’re drawn to politics, explore this interest through Urdu news articles. Building a collection of Urdu-language content that aligns with your interests is essential to stay motivated and consistent. You can import your favorite content and make an Urdu lesson with anything you find online with the LingQ Importer. Here are some YouTube channels you might be interested in…

Naush Kitchen Routine

Nausheen Shahzad is a Pakistani vlogger who posts recipes for Desi cuisine. Filmed entirely in Urdu, you’ll not only boost your listening comprehension, but also gain cultural insight regarding Pakistani cuisine.

Learn Urdu with Sara

Sara is a professional Urdu teacher. Her channel explores daily life, poetry, and movies, but also emphasizes grammar, vocabulary, and idiomatic expressions.

Urdu Seekhiye

Follow Shireen on her journey to teach herself Urdu. She posts reading lessons, vlogs, and interviews with other Urdu speakers around the world.

Urdu with Zia

This channel boasts nearly over 2,000 videos to practice reading Urdu. The content varies from poetry to entire books. Dive into more cultural texts with more thorough guidance and explanation.

Infomatic

Infomatic posts content on a wide range of topics relating to Pakistan: Islam, politics, business, etc. Videos tend to be shorter, but there’s no shortage of interesting content.

Urdu Diary

This channel is for those who are interested in history and politics. Urdu Diary offers content on Islamic studies, the history of religion, political updates, and war.

3) Emphasize speaking at your own pace

As you progress in Urdu, consider speaking with a private tutor or a language exchange partner. Once you’ve built up strong comprehension skills through listening and reading, speaking allows you to put your knowledge to the test. When you speak, you quickly discover topics in which you’re conversational and areas in which you’re lacking, due to insufficient vocabulary or shaky grammatical structures.

There’s no set time to start speaking. Beginners may find speaking with a tutor motivating. Intermediate and advanced learners, on the other hand, often want to prioritize using the language more actively. LingQ, italki, and tandem are all great websites to connect with other Urdu speakers and teachers.

4) Push yourself towards content for native speakers

Consistent listening and reading remain a core part of your language learning journey, regardless of level. The key for sustainable learning is to constantly push yourself towards content designed for native Urdu speakers. At your own pace, steer your learning away from content designed for language learners and simply enjoy the language the way native Urdu speakers do.

Whether you want to explore Urdu literature, stay updated with the UrduPoint or DailyJang, or tackle this Goodread’s list Urdu Novels to Read Before You Die, let the Urdu language wash over you in its natural, unmodified cadence.

5) Keep enjoying the language

There’s no set finish line to learning a language. There’s always a new expression to learn, a niche cultural subject to explore, and a seemingly infinite literary canon to appreciate. If you truly love the language and align your learning routine to your interests, the elusive nature of perfection in language learning isn’t daunting. It’s exciting. Follow these tips, trust the process, and enjoy the journey. Happy learning!

Writer Bio

Tyler is an American language teacher and language learner. He’s taught Spanish, French and Latin in the K-12 system since 2018. Tyler also speaks Thai and Italian. Currently, he’s learning German and Polish on LingQ!