I do not like Urdu

[Mirch]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Hadeel

Ive seen an aunty telling her grandson;
“beta milk pee lo” and “door band karain”

oh and another aunty once said: “shabbash close close ho kay baithain!” hahaha

@Gina

This thread reminds me of when I was in kindergarten it was an American school with very little Indian/Pakistani’s. However there was a kid named Mohammed that would ask his mom never to come pick him up. One day I asked him why he didn’t like his parents or grandparents coming and he said “They always come with their urdu shakalein”.

Another kid made a grave mistake of bringing a ‘paratha’ for lunch once, this kid never played with him because he brought “urdu lunch”

[Gina]

Re: I do not like Urdu

^ I once was sitting in a cafe close to the escalator.. and a kid was constantly running-up and down them. The mother said:

"Ithay aa ni tu silly, stupid girl na huwey te!"

[Reha]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@gulab_jamun

I have an american accent in my urdu…and my siblings more so than i do. My parents speak urdu 100%. I spend more time telling my parents everything about my life and random facts of everything than my brothers do. I also spend more time chatting with my parents in genersal (with who are the only people I speak urdu with besides my urdu speaking cousins whom i visit once ever 4 yrs). As a girl, I’m simply more verbal with my urdu and hence have less of an accent.

Secondly, I also thinks it depends on how much desi dramas you watch at home. I met this girl who was born in the US and had flawless urdu, and I asked how she got that. ANd she said she started watching dramas.

Finally, I also think it depends on when you came to the US. If you were born in the US or moved here when you were very young, you are almost guaranteed an american accent in your Urdu- unless you have some other source of Urdu coming at you besides your parents.

Out of the four of us, three of us have no accents in our Urdu. The youngest one has a verrrry slight one and we cannot seem to figure out why. LOL.

The thing is, we had our Urdu coming from my parents and my grandmother. We did not speak English in the home at all. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that my parents worked and when they came home, they wanted to hear Urdu…they had been speaking English ALL day and just wanted it to feel like home now. My grandmother taught us how to read Urdu and she was in the process of teaching us writing when she got very sick. I want to learn to write for her sake and Inshallah I will.

But you know GJ, you’re right. That its a monumental effort that comes from all sides when you’re trying to teach your kids their native language. Its not just one thing and you can see this pattern in how kids pick up English even before they start school.

@Gina

I had no clue, I’d love dressing-up in my shalwar kameez and taking traditional Pakistani food for our cultural day. He never allowed his parents or grandparents to come to any school events or concerts field days either.

Me too! Oh lord Gina…at work Im the sole Pakistani/desi and even though its annoying at times I feel like its my mission to expose people to different cultures. I could tell you some stories.

[Reha]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Gina

^ I once was sitting in a cafe close to the escalator.. and a kid was constantly running-up and down them. The mother said:

"Ithay aa ni tu silly, stupid girl na huwey te!"

I was at a dawat and tried to help the hostess in the kitchen. She was warming up naan on the stove and she kind of burned her finger on the open flame.

"OH SH** YAAAAAAAAR"

[TLK]

Re: I do not like Urdu

Reha, maybe he is not an Urdu speaking Pakistani. Lot of families I know here where kids can only speak English or Panjabi.

[Reha]

Re: I do not like Urdu

He was from this place called Askari in KHI. Maybe you're right...I thought KHI was Urdu speaking in general?

[hareem01]

Re: I do not like Urdu

"May be he was a Punjabi who lived in Karachi".

[Mirch]

Re: I do not like Urdu

This thread has many hilarious posts. I can revisit on my sad and depressing days.

[Faris_Udeen]

Re: I do not like Urdu

Whats wrong with Urdu...

It's one of the top 5 languages on this planet... consider that 70% of human language is extinct, Urdu has done very well...

Besides unlike english Urdu has not stolen as much vocab from other languages and therefore has a very classic and fluent style of symantics.

[fat_spartan]

Re: I do not like Urdu

While reading your story, I was hoping to see the answer to this question.

@Reha

Aray bhai, if you only speak English to phir apki Angrezi ab tak theek kyun nahin huwi?

Then I read this:

I didnt say that of course but only responded with “I see”.

[KKF]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Faris_Udeen

Besides unlike english Urdu has not stolen as much vocab from other languages and therefore has a very classic and fluent style of symantics.

**bro, urdu is a lashkari zabaan...urdu ka apnaa kuchh nahiiN...saarii zabaanoN kii khichRii hai magar isko chaashnii, sheereenii farsi aur arabi zabaan ne baKhshii...farsii agar aap nahiiN jaante to aapko urdu shaa'iri samajhne meN bahooot ziyaada mushkil paRegii bil KHushoos ustaad sho'aaraa kaa kalaam jaise Ghalib, Iqbal, Meer etc. urdu meN 60 fee sad alfaaz farsii ke haiN, 35% arabii ke aur 5% meN digar tamaam zabaaneN haiN. magar phir bhii:

urdu hai jiskaa naam, hamiiN jaante ahiN "DaaGh"
saare jahaan meN dhoom hamaarii zabaaN kii hai**

[rizla86]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Faris_Udeen

Whats wrong with Urdu...

It's one of the top 5 languages on this planet... consider that 70% of human language is extinct, Urdu has done very well...

Besides unlike english Urdu has not stolen as much vocab from other languages and therefore has a very classic and fluent style of symantics.

Actually it has stolen a lot of vocab from Arabic and Persian.

[Faris_Udeen]

Re: I do not like Urdu

I know and I acknowledge this in my post, but in comparrison look at the influence that Urdu has had from other languages and it can be traced to a lineage of just three main langauges.

Urdu is formed from a mix or Perisan, Old Sanskrit Hindi and Arabic with perhaps a few other steppe influences.

Whereas English is derived from Saxon, Nordic, Slavic, Frankish, Barouqe, Latin, Arabic... and a host of other languages including Hindi/Urdu compared to English Urdu seems much less complex.

[Gina]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Reha

I was at a dawat and tried to help the hostess in the kitchen. She was warming up naan on the stove and she kind of burned her finger on the open flame.

"OH SH** YAAAAAAAAR"

I once was at a dawat where an Aunty was feeding her kid ice-cream that had semi-melted.. Aunty ji says:

"Eat na crazy larki, warnah i'll have to feed you just the shorba!"

[Faris_Udeen]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Gina

“Eat na crazy larki, warnah i’ll have to feed you just the shorba!”

Roman Urdu…

Now theres something we can pick on… Why call it Roman Urdu when in fact it’s more Anglo Saxon and desi mix…

[Reha]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Gina

I once was at a dawat where an Aunty was feeding her kid ice-cream that had semi-melted.. Aunty ji says:

“Eat na crazy larki, warnah i’ll have to feed you just the shorba!”

Okay so my ex-SIL used to yell at her 8 month old son in English:

“vaat haypan noww” OH LORDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, I will never forget that.

[Jolie]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Faris_Udeen

Whats wrong with Urdu...

It's one of the top 5 languages on this planet... consider that 70% of human language is extinct, Urdu has done very well...

Besides unlike english Urdu has not **stolen **as much vocab from other languages and therefore has a very classic and fluent style of symantics.

LMAO!

Stolen? You sure what you're talking about?

There's no such thing as stealing words from other vocab other languages, different words get adoted into a language when another language enters the land. Besides the Celtic influence in English has a Germanic structure because Saxons ruled the British Isles, English has significant amount of words derived (not bloody stolen) from French because Normans ruled the British Isles, English has words derived from Greek and Latin because these were the langauge of knowledge and education back in the day. You are only fooling your self if you think Urdu vocab is not influenced Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit, Gujrati, Hindi, Sindhi, Pashto etc etc. In fact Urdu is a mixture of lots of different languages. Are you telling me Urdu stole those words or the words got into the langauge because socio-political history of the subcontinent.

We use English words like glass, jug, tire, table, chair, etc in our everyday Urdu conversation, would you say we use those words because we 'stole' them for English, or the little bit of unintentional usage of English in our everyday conversation is a legacy of British Raj in the subcontinent?

[Faris_Udeen]

Re: I do not like Urdu

When I first came to England I would say

Dont swear… which was okay until one guy said something and i thought he was swearing… so I walked over to him and raised my fists :faris: and he backed away and said “I swear it wasn’t me” and I was too stupid to know any better and said “You swear?” and he said “yes” so I thumped him one… and then my friends came running over and told me I was being stupid…

I apologised and all … since then that fellows been my best friend and helped translate a lot of things for me and in return I made sure he never saw the nasty side of me again.

[rizla86]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Reha

I was at a dawat and tried to help the hostess in the kitchen. She was warming up naan on the stove and she kind of burned her finger on the open flame.

"OH SH** YAAAAAAAAR"

well that is a pretty common expression. nothing unusual about it here.

[Faris_Udeen]

Re: I do not like Urdu

@Jolie

In fact Urdu is a mixture of lots of different langauges. Are you telling me Urdu stole those words or the words gotinto because socio-political history of the subcontinent.

Yep

I still consider it worse than theft when you get hold of a language from somebody else and dont put your fair share back inot the people you take it from.

Languages can be traded and stolen just like most things in this planet. You can either trade a guys language by having a genuine conversation and getting to grips with the language… or alternatively you can subdue the unfortunate and use his every possesion both physical and otherwise as if it were yours by default.

Not all the vocab was stolen but a lot of it was…