Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

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In an effort to connect to my roots and to be able to communicate and understand Pakistan a bit more, I’d think it’s time I started properly learning the language. However I mainly speak English at home with my father (he’s speaks Punjabi with most people, but mainly English with us), but I was thinking, if I was ever back in Pakistan, would I ever leave the village life behind and move to the city or a more urban area, yes. This brings me to my next point, what should I start learning, asking a family member he told me to not forget my mother tongue and learn Punjabi, he said Urdu is what other people in Pakistan speak, and that I wouldn’t need it, I’d need Punjabi instead, my dad says its better for communication on a wider scale, but I should learn Punjabi properly and believes there isn’t much a difference between the two. I was thinking Urdu, I hear it’s more classier, and it has words from Arabic, Persian etc, useful if I want to learn other languages to, and hopefully I should understand songs a lot more, unless they’re in Punjabi lol

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

They’re similar; you can pick up both.

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

I think Punjabi can be classy as well, sometimes what you hear most people speaking isn’t really the real language but the slang version of it. Same goes with Urdu, not many of us can actually speak real Urdu or even understand it perfectly when spoken. Even in Pakistan, many people still haven’t forgotten their roots so in places like Lahore you will have many speaking Punjabi instead of Urdu and in Karachi it’s like a blend of many languages, including Sindhi, Gujrati, etc.

Go with what is easy for you to learn and I think if you pick up one language out of the two, the other will at least become easier to understand.

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

Thanks, but I think Urdu is more recognized in neighbouring countries to?

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

Out of the two, urdu would be more practical imo and it’ll provide you with a foundation from which you’ll be able to pick up other languages and dialects.

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

Learn punjabi and you will understand urdu by default.

Even if you fail to master punjabi but you will still end up with mastering urdu.

But if you only learn urdu and cant master it then you will end up being BBCD/ABCD

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

I would say go straight for Swahili, it would be accepted mainly in Tharr regions and also very helpful if you’re ever in South Africa or Mali. Good luck.

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

http://www.paklinks.com/gs/culture-literature-and-linguistics/650084-family-tree-of-languages.html

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

Urdu for sure. It’s more useful when you need to talk to different people from varying regions. Punjabi limits you more. Like I’ve never needed to use Punjabi in my life and I live in punjab but I do think an urdu speaker can pick up Punjabi on the side. I understand it quite well. With your father’s help you might find it easier to pick up Punjabi.

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

Please learn urdu.

A person trying to speak urdu, but have english accent, looks some what funny.
A person trying to speak panjabi, but have english accent, sounds complete punk.

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Re: Urdu Or Punjabi, which is more practical for me to learn

If you mean India then it depends where you travel because there’s hundreds of languages and only the northern part really speaks hindi.

But just go with what you feel comfortable learning. Any language learned is still better than nothing.
Plus I grew up speaking punjabi and picked up urdu later on more so after marriage, so it’s quite easy once you’re familiar with one.