Remember, it's never 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 to register before the first class session is below, so stop hesitating and get to it!
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 at the EarthDiverse Centre 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 Friday 23 February 2024
• Our 2024 Term 1 Urdu 103 course meets on Fridays from 4:00-5:30pm beginning on Friday 23 February (New Zealand time) and continues for eight consecutive weekly sessions. The last class of the Term is held on Friday 12 April 2024.
• 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.
Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Thu 22 Feb 2024, 5:00-6:30 pm
US Pacific: begins Thu 22 Feb 2024, 7:00-8:30 pm
US Central: begins Thu 22 Feb 2024, 9:00-10:30 pm
US Eastern: begins Thu 22 Feb 2024, 10:00 -11:30 pm
London, UK: begins Fri 23 Feb 2024, 3.00 - 4:30 am
New Delhi, India: begins Fri 23 Feb 2024, 8:30 - 10:00 am
Bangkok, Thailand: begins Fri 23 Feb 2024, 10:00-11:30 am
Singapore begins Fri 23 Feb 2024, 11:00am-12:30pm
Tokyo, Japan: begins Fri 23 Feb 2024, 12:00-1:30 pm
Sydney, Australia: begins Fri 23 Feb 2024, 2:00-3:30 pm
Introductory Urdu 103, Part 3
• This is Part 3 of a four-part Introductory Urdu course taught over 4 successive school terms specifically designed for recent 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) continuing your Urdu learning and about Pakistani and Indian culture, and have some fun too! All of our language classes are designed for busy people.
• Our Introductory Urdu 103, Part 3 course for continuing students is specifically designed for those who have taken our Urdu 101-102 course (or equivalent) and have learned the basics of the Urdu script. This Term we'll focus on improving our ability to read, while learning new grammar and vocabularly, while we continue to emphasize conversation, proper pronunciation and comprehension.
• Native Hindi speakers can easily learn the Urdu script during the eight one-and-a-half hour sessions in our Urdu 101-102 courses (which can be made available to you through our video recordings). Those who already understand and speak some Urdu, may also chose to enrol in this Urdu course.
• Subsequent Term courses of Introductory Urdu (i.e. our Urdu 104 courses) continue with reading practice, continued 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
2024 Term 1 EarthDiverse "Introductory Urdu" text by Todd Nachowitz, PhD
Link to access Quizlet EarthDiverse Urdu flashcard sets:
20240223 T1.1 Urdu 103 class notes
20240223 T1.1 Urdu 103 video
20240301 T1.2 Urdu 103 class notes
20240301 T1.2 Urdu 103 video
20240308 T1.3 Urdu 103 class notes
20240308 T1.3 Urdu 103 video
20240315 T1.4 Urdu 103 class notes
20240315 T1.4 Urdu 103 video
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 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.
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.
• 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!
• 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 continue your Urdu learning!
• Introductory Urdu 101-102, or equivalent.
• This course is open to all learners aged 10 years and above.
