Register now for our 2025 winter term!
- Multiple levels
- Small class size – max. 12 students
- Native-speaking & experienced instructors
- Affordable tuition
- 4 terms per year – each 10 weeks long
- Convenient downtown location or online
Learn Urdu at the International Language Institute in Washington, DC or online.
The Urdu Language Program at ILI consists of four 10-week terms throughout the year. We offer 5 different levels from beginner to intermediate. Classes take place once a week in the evenings. Our teachers are all native-speaking and experienced. The Urdu Language Program integrates speaking, listening, reading and writing. We maintain small class sizes to enable adequate time for conversation in every class. To find your level, please refer to the level description or use our self-evaluation guide. If you have further questions, please call Jane Edwards, ILI’s Foreign Language Coordinator, at 202-686-5610 extension 105. Enroll now!
Live, Instructor-led In-Person or Online Urdu Classes
Learn Urdu in person or online from a live instructor using Zoom. All online classes are instructor-led, in real-time, allowing for the same live interaction as our in-person classes. Some of our classes are a combination of in-person and online students. We have 360-degree cameras in the rooms enabling online participants to feel part of the class. This hybrid class environment allows students to engage with each other and the instructor and to practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking the Urdu Language.
Schedule Register Now!
Register now for our 2025 winter term!
2025 Term: | Session Dates: | Registration Deadline: |
---|---|---|
Winter | Jan. 13-Mar. 22, 2025 | Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024 |
Spring | Apr. 7-Jun. 14, 2025 | Monday, Mar. 24, 2025 |
Summer | Jun. 30-Sep. 6, 2025 | Monday, Jun. 16, 2025 |
Fall | Sep. 22-Dec. 6, 2025 | Monday, Sep. 8, 2025 |
Urdu Level Description
This course is for those learners with little or no command of the Urdu language. Learners will be introduced to modern spoken and written Urdu. Learners will learn how to respond to typical everyday needs, such as formal introductions, greetings, offering thanks, exchanging personal information, expressing respect, giving commands and instructions, and making requests. Learners will be introduced to Urdu script and will learn how to form the letters of the alphabet. Basic listening, speaking, reading and writing skills will be addressed throughout the course.
Objective: To introduce learners to basic Urdu vocabulary, simple sentence structure, and to provide learners with the ability to engage in simple conversation. The emphasis of this class is placed on learning Urdu sounds and the writing system, building vocabulary, acquiring essential grammar and developing basic conversation.
Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to form basic sentences, engage in simple conversations involving greetings and introductions, descriptions, and common idiomatic expressions. Learners will further be able to read and write Urdu script.
Topics: In addition to learning the Urdu alphabet, grammatical topics covered in this level will include simple sentence structure, interrogative and negative sentences, numbers, demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, noun types and forms, indefinite words, plurality and respect with adjectives and nouns.
Textbook: Beginning Urdu: A Complete Course (with accompanying CD), Joshua Pien and Fauzia Farooqui, Georgetown University Press, $79
Lessons: Parts I and II, Chapters 1 to 6, pages 1-105, plus supplemental material selected or generated by the instructor.
This course is for those learners who have already mastered the Urdu script. Listening, speaking, reading and writing skills will be consolidated throughout the course. Learners will learn how to provide extensive personal information, including how to describe one’s family members, one’s home and one’s daily routines at work and at home. Learners will also acquire essential basic skills such as telling the time, talking about geographic locations and describing the weather and climate.
Objective: To enrich learners’ everyday vocabulary and to allow learners to become conversant with more complex grammatical structures. The emphasis of this class is enabling learners to engage in more developed conversations regarding their professional and personal circumstances and to gain further insight into local customs and traditions.
Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to pursue conversations involving descriptions of daily routines, people, possessions, home and work. Learners will further be able to tell time and discuss climate and weather-related issues.
Topics: In addition to consolidating knowledge of the Urdu alphabet, grammatical topics covered in this level will include the possessive case, comparatives and superlatives, post-positions, oblique forms of post-positions, pronouns and adjectives, reflexive pronouns, the Present Continuous, and conjunct verbs. The use of the infinitive will be explored further.
Textbook: Beginning Urdu: A Complete Course (with accompanying CD), Joshua Pien and Fauzia Farooqui, Georgetown University Press, $79
Lessons: Chapters 7 to 17, pages 113-246, plus supplemental material selected or generated by the instructor.
This course is for those learners who have already acquired a solid foundation in the written system coupled with a good grounding in basic grammar. Listening, speaking, reading and writing skills will be further developed throughout this level. This level will introduce more complex grammar and themes, such as expressing likes, needs and desires, obligations and recommendations and giving instructions, and vocabulary will be enriched.
Objective: To allow learners to express a wider range of preferences and concerns through a command of more complex structures and vocabulary. The emphasis of this class is to enable learners to apply knowledge gained thus far to fulfill a number of daily functions, including conducting transactions and communicating desires and obligations.
Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to express preferences and perform daily transactions, such as choosing items, expressing measures and discussing prices. Learners will also be able to describe past circumstances and past activities, and to iterate rules and regulations. Learners will have a more extensive command of time expressions.
Topics: Grammatical topics covered in this level will include contracted pronoun forms, the Past Habitual verb tense, the Past Continuous verb tense, expressions of compulsion, further uses of the Infinitive, and an introductions to the Subjunctive. Learners will also cover expressions of measures and price discussions.
Textbook: Beginning Urdu: A Complete Course (with accompanying CD), Joshua Pien and Fauzia Farooqui, Georgetown University Press, $79
Lessons: Chapters 18 to 30, pages 267-412, plus supplemental material selected or generated by the instructor.
This course is for those learners who, having acquired a solid grounding in listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, wish to express themselves with more complex sentence structures. Learners will complete their knowledge of the verb system and enrich their vocabulary in order to fulfill necessary functions while traveling, in addition to expressing themselves on more abstract subjects. Learners will further be introduced to aspects of Urdu culture through aphorisms, poetry and teacher-selected materials.
Objective: To allow learners to become autonomous in planning a journey, arranging transportation and accommodation, following itineraries, and seeking information on travel plans. Learners will describe past experiences and accomplishments with a wider range of tenses and practice describing ailments and physical conditions within the context of a doctor’s visit.
Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to extend invitations and discuss future plans, arrange for transportation and lodging, provide and follow directions, and obtain information necessary for travel. Learners will also be able to narrate past events with more complexity and master the vocabulary necessary for the description of symptoms during a visit to the doctor’s office.
Topics: Grammatical topics covered in this level will include the Future, Present Perfect, Past Perfect and Perfective tenses. Learners will deepen their command of the Subjunctive through use with coordinating conjunctions, review transitive and intransitive verbs, and compound verbs.
Textbook: Beginning Urdu: A Complete Course (with accompanying CD), Joshua Pien and Fauzia Farooqui, Georgetown University Press, $79
Lessons: Chapters 31 to 41, pages 413-552, plus supplemental material selected or generated by the instructor.
This course is designed for learners who have already attained the level of proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing covered in Basic Levels 1 to 4. This course allows learners to further their proficiency in various skills while gaining an understanding of the broad Urdu culture of South Asia. Learners are introduced to a variety of authentic written and audio materials, including selections from Urdu media, songs and simple authentic texts. The course also covers complex Urdu grammar and enables learners to speak on and discuss a broad range of topics.
Objective: The objective of this course is to enable learners to speak in present, past, and future tenses. The course also enables learners to listen to and understand authentic audio materials in Urdu. Learners are expected to summarize authentic Urdu articles taken from newspapers and magazines.
Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to speak in present, past and future tenses, summarize simple authentic written materials, summarize authentic audio clips, and speak with more complexity while using a wider range of vocabulary.
Topics: The grammatical topics covered in this class include postpositions, oblique forms, the present continuous tense, comparative and superlative forms, Persian adjective elements, the future tense, imperatives, and the past habitual and past continuous tenses. New vocabulary will be introduced in the class, and students will become familiar with authentic written and audio materials in Urdu.
Textbook: Let’s Study Urdu, by Ali. S. Asani and Syed Akbar Hyder, Yale University Press, $65
Lessons: Pages 96-203, plus supplemental materials selected or generated by the instructor.