How To Instill A Love Of Urdu In Children

 Non-academic ways to inculcate the love of Urdu in your children:-

1) YouTube zindabad!

There are some pretty funny videos of rhymes and stories on YouTube. Not the best quality of literature, but I totally used them to entice my children to appreciate their mother tongue. Some of our favourites were Aloo Mian, Azra Ki Guriya , and Podna Podni Ki Kahani. (You can search for Cassette Kahani)

For better quality, we have listened to the likes of Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua Ban Ke (classic!) and Ye Watan Tumhara Hai. Recently my kids have been loving Mujhe Dushman Ke Bachon Ko Parhana Hai.

Nauha/marsiya/naat/manqabat/munajaat are another great way to keep the Urdu language alive in the hearts of our children. As a family, we have a playlist of Urdu things we love listening to on long drives.

2) Storytime

9 times out of 10 my kids choose an English book for me to read out, and that’s perfectly ok. But I do randomly pick up a book of my choice and read it out to them, and so far they have always enjoyed it. I make sure to keep explaining words/phrases while reading. At the end, we also do a little discussion to make sure they actually understood the story.

3) Exposure

I don’t know if there’s any scientific basis to this, but I feel if they’re immersed in Urdu, I won’t have to work too hard at “teaching” it to them. So we speak it, listen to it, I read it aloud… and I write in Urdu wherever possible. On their books, they have their names written in English as well as Urdu. Anytime I have to label something that belongs to the kids, you can be sure their eyes see the English as well as Urdu script.

I’ll randomly tell them what the day is called in Urdu, and they’ll laugh at the unfamiliar, weird sounding word. Sometimes I’ll randomly throw a new word at them - increases their vocabulary, and we all share a laugh. Win-win.

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