Re: All you guppies living abroad!!
I was reading Jang (headlines) with my dad before I had started the first grade in Pak. Moving abroad, parents brought along naunihals, taleem o tarbiyats n bachon ki duniyas so taht I wouldnt lose touch with the language. By fourth grade, I had every page of each mag memorzied by heart. :)
Parents kept strict rules of speaking only urdu at home and with each other (siblings) while we grew up (Brother had once used shakar batti to describe some 'agar batti' seen at someone's house--this led to the 'urdu only' rule). Not so much of a prob now that all of us have vocab better than the avg Pak. student. They kept us (and still do) involved with mushairas, poetry, songs, etc to teach us the language. Also made me write letters in urdu to cousins in Pak as a child.
I can speak, read and write fluently cept some really mushkil words that cannot be made out by a pen -- (ex: bain ul aqwami -- parents once tested my writing skills using this word :) )