Offered:

  • Introductory Urdu 102, Part 2 is offered in Terms 2 (May-Jun) and 4 (Oct-Dec) each year.

Date & Time:

  • Our 2022 Term 4 course is offered on Wednesdays 11:30am-1:00pm (NZ time) beginning on 19 October 2022. The course is offered for 8 consecutive weeks, ending on Wed 7 December 2022.

Time Zone equivalents:

for live-streaming Zoom sessions from New Zealand. Please be advised that due to time zone changes in our respective countries, time zones may shift an hour forward or back depending on when northern hemisphere time zones change again in October or early November (varies from country to country). When possible, we will shift our class time in New Zealand to best accommodate your schedules and will endeavor to keep your scheduled class time the same.

  • Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Tue 18 Oct 2022, 12:30-2:00pm

  • US Pacific: begins Tue 18 Oct 2022, 3:30-5:00pm

  • US Central: begins Tue 18 Oct 2022, 5:30-7:00pm

  • US Eastern: begins Tue 18 Oct 2022, 6:30-8:00pm

  • London, UK: begins Tue 18 Oct 2022, 11:30pm-1:00am

  • New Delhi, India: begins Wed 19 Oct 2022, 4:00-5:30am

  • Bangkok, Thailand: begins Wed 19 Oct 2022, 5:30-7:00am

  • Singapore: begins Wed 19 Oct 2022, 6:30-8:00am

  • Sydney, Australia: begins Wed 19 Oct 2022, 9:30-11:00am

Description:

  • Our Introductory Urdu 102, Part 2 course focuses on continued learning of 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 course also continues to introduce basic introductory grammar & vocabulary and gets students speaking with some introductory conversational ability.

  • Native Hindi speakers can easily learn the Urdu script during the eight 1.5 hour sessions starting with our Urdu 101 course and continuing with Urdu 102. Those who already understand and speak some Urdu, but who do not know how to read and write, may also chose to enrol in the Urdu 101 course.

  • Subsequent Term courses of Introductory Urdu (i.e. our Urdu 103-104 courses) continue with reading and writing practice, introductory grammar, vocabulary, and conversation.

  • Please note that this course is only offered if sufficient numbers register. Please contact us (via the form on our Contact page using the Menu Bar above) if you are unsure about registering. If you do register, and this course is cancelled due to low enrolment, please be advised that we will refund your tuition in full.

Meet our Instructor:

Executive Director, Senior Lecturer Dr Todd Nachowitz, PhD

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.

Location:

EarthDiverse, 401 Anglesea St, Hamilton, or online via Zoom.

We're located just a couple of shops north of the Hamilton Central Bus Station on the same side of the Street. We're located on the first floor, above Copier Word. Our Entrance is on the left side of the building. Those looking for parking for our evening classes can park just in front of the building in any of the available car parks. Daytime parking can be found in our dedicated car parks, or free 2-hour on-street daytime parking can be found just in front of Anglesea Street.
Location

Distance Learning:

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.

Distance-Learning options:

  • 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.

Pricing options:

All prices in New Zealand dollars. Unwaged includes students, seniors and retirees.

Course curriculum:

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.

    1. Lesson goals

    2. EarthDiverse Zoom instructions

    3. 2022T3 Todd's Beginning Urdu textbook (draft of early chapters)

    1. 20221022 T4.1 Urdu 102 class notes

    2. 20221022 T4.1 Urdu 102 video

    1. 20221026 T4.2 Urdu 102 class notes

    2. 20221022 T4.1 Urdu 102 video

    1. 20221102 T4.3 Urdu 102 class notes

    2. 20221102 T4.3 Urdu 102 video

    1. 20221109 T4.4 Urdu 102 class notes

    2. 20221109 T4.4 Urdu 102 video

    1. 20221119 T4.5 Urdu 102 video

    2. 20221119 T4.5 Urdu 102 class notes

About this course

  • $150.00
  • 22 lessons
  • 12 hours of video content

Notes:

  • 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.

Materials:

  • The course fee includes all teaching materials.

  • An “Introductory Urdu” text, written by Dr Todd Nachowitz, is included in the course fees. This is currently distributed via the course curriculum page as a PDF file once registration is completed.

  • 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 the class whiteboard are posted after each class as a digital PDF file so that you can print these out at home and add them to your own notebook. The video recordings from each class session are also posted to the course webpage 1-2 days after each live session.

Prerequisites:

  • Urdu 101 or equivalent. If not sure, please contact us.

Students reviews:

Testimonials: