For those of you who grew up abroad.....

Lifestyle Relationships
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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

^do you speak broken horrible urdu?

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

I speak basic urdu with a very british accent.

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

little children do say 'inko urdu nahi bolni aati hai' although I can have full conversations with people and shop etc

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad…

inspiron, don’t worry too much about people figuring out that you are from abroad. Afterall you were born and bred in the Uk, so there will be slight differences.

As long as you are having fun with family and all, that is what matters :flower1:

And like mentioned before, now you might know what a ‘fob’ feels like :stuck_out_tongue:

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

so ppl who speak broken horrible urdu shouldnt be saying anything about the ppl who speak broken horrible english

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

i am saying i wish i could be confident in my broken urdu like people here are confident in broken english. i admire the confidence.

well because i am from the uk people see me as 'better' whereas i see myself as worse....because i wish i could be more pakistanified, whereas i do sympathise with 'freshies' i dont think they are seen as 'better'

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

i didn't say that :/

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

^hmm ok

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

why can't she?
she's fluent in English and not in Urdu

I always say to my students its good to make mistakes because you always learn from them especially in languages. So if nobody corrected each other most languages would be butchered by those who can't speak it..

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

so I just got back from Pakistan a few months ago after not visitng for 7 years. My relatives and everyone I encountered were SUPER sweet, trying to speak as much English as possible initially to accommodate me until they realized that I was fluent. I think more than anything most of them are curious and expect you to be a lot more westernized than most foreigners actually are. After they got over that shock and realized that I love shalwar kameez, watched all the same shows they did (english and urdu) and was willing to try new things (food, go in a rickshaw) without acting like I was too good for it we got along really well!

It depends on teh area you're in. I visited my family's village where they're the jageerdaars and the rules were different from what I was used to. Straight up wearing nikaab when I went out but I tried as hard as I could to fit in. Of course, because it's a rural village I still stuck out because I can't speak punjabi very well and I was too "modern" in the sense of the styling of my clothes/hair (fully covered). Then I went out with some distant relatives that go to elite schools in Lahore/Karachi and no one noticed/said anything.

The only thing is that most people want you to speak english with htem so they can "practice" their skills but I had to tell them that I wanted to speak Urdu since I never get a chance to!

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

Yeah, but everytime I come back with a realisation that my gaaliyaan vocabulary needs updating :(

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad…

I feel the same way about my urdu.:frowning: I speak urdu at home too but people from Pakistan can tell my urdu is different like they say its english style but I don’t see it myself… I did urdu at school and really wanted to try hard at the end got A* at A level but I still think my level of writing and reading is probably lower than that of a 5 year old in pakistan ! … I just wish I could be as good lol

The first and only time I went to pakistan was about 4 years ago. To be honest I think it was partly my fault I didn’t fit in. Basically I’m scared of every moving thing , cats , dogs , you name it . It doesn’t help that in Pakistan there are animals everywhere ! I would be just walking in the bazar and then there would be a donkey right next to me. I used to got so scared. On top of that our family had cows , chickens and goats. I was petrified of going to their houses. Everyone thought I was overreacting and being silly. They were like a 14 year old scared of animals how stupid… but I really wasn’t pretending. Even here if I see a dog or cat I run LOL .That was my main problem and reason why i couldn’t fit in :teary1:…
Actually this year I have got a bit better and if a dog is on the same street and on a lead I can pass it like a normal person …

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

^ yay finally someone who can sympathise with me!

I also feel like my urdu is good in the uk but in pak its so englishified that I hate it booo :(

I am also scared of dogs and cats and animals lol but so are my family here. The girls in my family are scared of flies and stuff lol which I am not so I look better in that respect!

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

What some people in Pakistan say is that when i speak urdu I've got a soft touch to it , like a washed down version .. " itna zorr nahi lagati alfaz par " but I kind of get them. When I hear them it seems more real urdu if you get what I mean lol ...

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

its the strong R sound I find very hard. Like you know the R in Baray for big.

boooooo. I also wish I knew how to do all the 'buttering up talk' it doesn't come naturally to me in urdu and I feel so rude.

Like ' no you sit ill do it' and ' please have more food' etc etc

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

^ OMG same ! I can't say the rrrs like tarap and baray lol
I can't say the K sound properly too like khargosh , kharab

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

the kh's im ok with but they sometimes fall flat.

i also struggle with Q and K.....like Quran with the throaty sound

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

^ inspi... we get corrected by our parents when we say Keema, Kuran etc. My maternal side cousins also disagree with the gender of towel, pillow (towel geeli hai or towel geela hai; pillow rakhi hai or pillow rakha hai).

But I think the pronounciation and language issues are not just faced by us who are brought up abroad. People living in Pakistan also have similar problems. In fact, I see that they try to show that they don't know urdu as much whereas we don't hesitate to use urdu proverbs etc. Our cousins are conscious to speak in English when we are around whereas we tend to speak in urdu since its the way we are supposed to speak. We only speak English when we are at work where there are colleagues from other nationalities. Other than that, I don't find much Pakistanis in UAE who speak English when they in a desi gathering or a place where there are only Pakistanis.

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

OMG relax.... (I knw its easier said than done) I went to Pak a couple of months back to the village.... everyone just spoke to us normally no special treatment. I can speak, read, write urdu but i'm not that confident in speaking it.... i always use english words so do those back home...take is easy i mean come on when they come to our country they struggle to, let them judge if they want to.. i knw u dnt want to seem silly but you will learn with time.
I'm scaaaaaaaared of animals especially cats and dogs and they were roaming around everywhere.... i just kept a very far distance from them, sometimes it’s hard just hide behind someone else na on a serious note my cousins knew we were scared so they use to lock their dogs away.

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Re: For those of you who grew up abroad.....

I don't fit in but I don't give a fudge. I'm not insecure.