Remember, it’s never too early or too late to register for a class, even after it’s begun. You can always catch up with any sessions you may have missed by watching the video recordings of previous sessions. The time remaining before the first class session is below, so register now, stop hesitating and get to it!
as in-person classes, live-streamed Zoom sessions, and video recordings.
• Term 1 (Feb - Apr) and Term 3 (Jul-Sep) each year, pending sufficient enrolment.
• This course is offered as an in-person course in Hamilton, New Zealand, live-streamed via Zoom if you live elsewhere, and as video recordings of the live sessions if you cannot attend the regularly scheduled class.
Begins Tuesday 28 July 2026, 7:00-8:30pm
• Our 2026 Term 3 Introductory Urdu 101, Part 1 course meets Tuesdays 7:00-8:30 pm (New Zealand time) beginning on Tuesday 28 July 2026 and continues for 8 consecutive weekly sessions, with the last class held on Tuesday 15 September 2026.
• Please note that if all students and the instructor can agree on a more suitable mutually acceptable day and time, you are welcome to do so during the first class session, provided classroom space is available at that time.
• If you live outside of New Zealand and wish to Zoom into our live class sessions, check the local Time Zone equivalents 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 within 1-2 days.
Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Mon 27 Jul 2026, 9:00-10:30pm
US Pacific: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 12:00-1:30am
US Eastern: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 3:00-4:30am
London, UK: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 8:00-9:30am
Paris, France: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 9:00-10:30am
New Delhi, India: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 12:30-2:00pm
Bangkok: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 2:00-3:30pm
Singapore/Hong Kong: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 3:00-4:30pm
Tokyo, Japan: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 4:00-5:30pm
Sydney, Australia: begins Tue 28 Jul 2026, 5:00-6:30pm
Introductory Urdu 101, Part 1
• This is Part 1 of an eight-part Introductory Urdu course taught over eight successive school terms (take as few or as many as you'd like!) specifically designed for beginning Urdu learners. Our language and culture courses focus on teaching and learning, and we do not expect you to study outside of class nor do we assign homework (unless you'd like some!). Come and spend 12 class hours per Term (eight 1.5 hour weekly classes, or 48 class hours per year) on your Urdu studies and learning about Pakistani and North Indian culture, and have some fun too! All of our language classes are designed for busy people.
• Our Introductory Urdu 101 course is for beginners and specifically designed for those who do not know how to read, write or speak the Urdu language, and those unfamiliar with the Nastaʿlīq (نستعلیق) script.
• Subsequent Term courses of Introductory Urdu (i.e. our Urdu 102 through 204 courses) continue with reading practice, continued additional introductory grammar, vocabulary, conversation and comprehension, and will continue in the same time slot for the duration of the full course.
Week by week new material will be posted throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings of each weekly session will be posted here after 1-2 days after each class.
EarthDiverse Course Information
EarthDiverse Zoom instructions
2025 Term 1 EarthDiverse "Introductory Urdu" text by Todd Nachowitz, PhD (updated 27 Jan 2025)
Link to access Quizlet EarthDiverse Urdu flashcard sets:
Urdu - Days of the Week PDF
Urdu - Fruits & Vegetables PDF
Urdu - Relatives & kinship terms PDF
Urdu numbers PDF
8 January 2023
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 is a hybrid class with both in-person sessions and live-streamed via Zoom
This course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend the live class sessions in Hamilton, New Zealand. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:
Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.
Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.
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
• In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. 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.
• Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.
• Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing 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.
• Unwaged includes students, seniors, retirees and unemployed.
• Prices remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing this course.
• Please note that If you live in the US or Canada, an additional tax may be applied as per local regulations.
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!
• There are no refunds for missed classes. If you miss a class, you can watch the video recording!
• 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.
• If, however, this course is cancelled due to insufficient enrolments please note that your registration fee will either be refunded in full or you may select to receive a course credit. Your choice!
All materials are included in the course fees. These are developed by our instructors and distributed as PDF files on the course webpage.
• Course materials are provided to all registered students as digital materials made available to you on the course webpage for download (accessible after registration). There is no need to purchase any additional textbooks for this course, although you may choose to do so to supplement your learning.
• You will only require a pen or pencil, a notebook for taking your own class notes, and a loose-leaf binder. Any notes that our instructor writes on a digital whiteboard are posted to the class webpage on your dashboard as a PDF file 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 fees. This is currently available as as PDF file for download from the course webpage once you have completed the registration process and can access your Dashboard.
A keen desire to begin your Urdu learning journey!
• This course is open to all learners aged 10 years and above.
