as in-person classes, live-streamed Zoom sessions, and video recordings.
• Individual tutorial lessons
• This course is offered as a live-streamed Zoom-only course from Hamilton, New Zealand classrooms and as video recordings of the live sessions if you cannot attend the regularly scheduled class.
Begins Friday 20 June 2025 (NZ time), or Thursday 19 June 7:45pm (US Eastern)
• This private tutorial course meets on Fridays via Zoom from 11:45am-12:45pm beginning on 20 June 2025 (New Zealand time). The course meets in consecutive weekly sessions for as long as you like.
• If you live outside of New Zealand and wish to Zoom in to our live class sessions, check the nearest local Time Zone equivalent below.
for live-streaming Zoom Sessions from New Zealand. If your Time Zone doesn't suit our live-streamed class, you can also access our courses by watching the live-recorded sessions that are posted to the course webpage each week, usually the next day.
US Pacific: begins Thu 19 Jun 2025, 4:45-5:45pm
US Central: begins Thu 19 Jun 2025, 6:45-7:45pm
US Eastern: begins Thu 19 Jun 2025, 7:45-8:45pm
Karachi, Pakistan: begins Fri 20 Jun 2025 4:45-5:45am
8 January 2023
As this is an individual tutorial, our Urdu 1-on-1 sessions are tailored to your level and we can focus on whatever you are most interested in.
• If you already speak Urdu or Hindi we can focus solely on Urdu literacy for new learners of the Urdu language, native Urdu speakers who wish to learn to read and write, and Hindi speakers who wish to learn the Urdu script.
• We focus on learning the Nastaʿlīq script and basic reading and writing capabilities. As such, it is suitable for both new learners of Urdu, and for native Hindi speakers who may wish to familiarise themselves with the Urdu script. This tutorial can also introduce basic introductory grammar & vocabulary and gets students speaking with some basic conversational ability.
• Native Hindi speakers can easily learn the Urdu script during these one-on-one sessions. Those who already understand and speak some Urdu, but who do not know how to read and write, may also chose to enrol.
• Basically, you let us know what you need and we'll provide individually tailored sessions to your level. Once you are up-to-speed you can consider joining one of our Urdu group classes or continue with individual sessions.
EarthDiverse Course Information
EarthDiverse Zoom Instructions PDF
“Introductory Urdu” textbook by Dr Todd Nachowitz, PhD (updated 10 March 2024 with complete Chapter 4)
Urdu alphabet chart
Link to access Quizlet EarthDiverse Urdu flashcard sets:
Urdu days of the week PDF
Urdu Fruits and Veggies
Urdu Numbers PDF
Arabic Sun & Moon letters in Urdu PDF
20250620 T2.1 Urdu with Hasan
Dr Todd Nachowitz, PhD, is the Founder and Executive Director of EarthDiverse. Todd is a Hamilton-based lecturer, anthropologist, environmentalist and diversity educator. He previously taught in Religious Studies at the University of Waikato, teaching courses on Comparative Religion and Religious Fundamentalism & Extremism. Todd holds a Masters Degree in Development Anthropology from Syracuse University in upstate New York (1991) and a PhD from the University of Waikato (2015) in Political Science and Public Policy where he completed his thesis on diversity governance and the Indian diaspora in New Zealand.
Prior to settling in New Zealand in 1995, Todd lived and worked in the United States, India, Pakistan and Nepal. He spent 11 years in South Asia as the Academic Director for university study-abroad programmes in Varanasi, India (for the University of Wisconsin-Madison); Lahore, Pakistan (for the University of California-Berkeley); and Kathmandu, Nepal (for School for International Training, based in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA) focusing on language, culture and religion.
Todd speaks Hindi and Urdu, and is a specialist in comparative world religions and the history, religions, languages and cultures of South Asia. He also currently teaches our Hindi and Urdu language courses and the Religious Diversity courses at EarthDiverse.
This course is only live-streamed via Zoom from our Hamilton, New Zealand classrooms.
This course is a Zoom-only course. Students have two options for attending this course once they have registered:
Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.
Re-watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.
Live Zoom sessions and Video-Recordings
• Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.
• If you are unable to attend any scheduled sessions, or if you need to skip a class due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, please contact the instuctor at your earliest convenience to cancel the session so that the instructor know you will not be there. In these instances, we can postpone a class and make it up at the end of any given Term.
• Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components are available upon your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.
• All prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST. • Term 2 prices are for 3 sessions only, and are priced accordingly. Our 2025 Term 3 course will return to our usual 8 sessions. So the total cost is for three Term 2 sessions (at NZ$28/session Waged) and eight Term 3 sessions (at NZ$28/session Waged) for a total of eleven 1-hour sessions. • Unwaged includes students, seniors, retirees and unemployed. • Prices remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing this course. • Chose either Waged or Unwaged according to your situation.
Those who cannot make the class meeting day and time via live Zoom sessions may consider accessing this course through the weekly recorded video sessions. Class videos are usually posted within 1-2 days of each live class session and are available for your own personal learning on a day and time of your choosing.
• This course has no assignments, quizzes, tests or exams.
• You will not need to purchase any additional course materials.
• All classes encourage questions and group discussion.
• PDFs of class presentations and video recordings of each session are posted 1-2 days after each session for the duration of the course. You are most welcome to come, sit back, relax, take part in and enjoy the discussions!
• If you’re attending in-person, course fees include tea/coffee/snack at each session. Help yourself!
• Please note that if no one shows up for a particular class, either in person or via Zoom, we will make every attempt to postpone the class and make it up at the end of the Term. However, this may not always be possible. Teachers are not required to teach a class if no students show up, but the teacher has the discretion to record a video with no students present if s/he is unable to postpone a class. Please email or text your teachers if you are unable to attend any specific class session.
• Guests of registered participants are welcome to attend a single session without registering.
All materials are included in the course fees. These are developed by our instructors and distributed as PDF files on the course webpage
• Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced Urdu materials will be used throughout the course and are included in the course fees. These are distributed as PDF files and posted to the course web page, which you can print at home and add to your own loose-leaf notebook.
• You will require a pen or pencil, a notebook for taking notes, and perhaps a recording app on your phone to record yourself and your spoken progress.
• Any notes that your instructor writes on the class whiteboard will also be posted as a digital PDF file on the course web page so that you can print these out at home and add them to your own notebook.
• An “Introductory Urdu” text written by the instructor is included in the course fee. This is currently available as a PDF file for download from the course webpage once you have completed the registration process and can access your Dashboard.
A keen desire to continue your Urdu language journey!
• There are no prerequisites for this course.
• This course is open to all learners aged 10 years and above.
