Offered By	ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Academic Contact	Dr Richard Barz
Areas of Interest	Asian Languages

Urdu, an official language of Pakistan and an important language of culture and government in India, over the past 500 years has been the vehicle for a rich and highly sophisticated literature.  As a result, a knowledge of Urdu is essential for those interested in any aspect of the civilisation and society of pre- modern India and modern and contemporary Pakistan. 

The aim of the Urdu program is to provide the ability both to communicate in spoken Urdu and to read a wide range of material written in Urdu, encompassing novels, newspapers, magazines, advertisements and scholarly works.   Since Urdu is grammatically the same as Hindi, Hindi 1A and B provide fundamental instruction in Urdu as well as Hindi and serve as the introductory courses for the Urdu major.  The Urdu script is taught in Hindi 1B so that students of both Hindi and Urdu can acquire an ability to read Urdu.  

The Urdu 2A, B, C and D courses, which may be taken in any order, are centred on the reading of a variety of original, unedited texts and the viewing of a selection of films with discussion of those materials in Urdu.   These courses are conducted as far as possible in Urdu  and students are encouraged to produce their own short plays and other compositions in Urdu.

Advanced Hindi courses, including the Year-in-India and other in-country courses offered in India, can be a part of the Urdu major.

A range of Urdu study materials at introductory and advanced levels is available on the Urdu program website.

Requirements

The Asian Language Major (Urdu) may comprise courses from the  Summary of Courses page and must include 36 later-year units in Hindi or Urdu.

The information published on the Study at ANU 2011 website applies to the 2011 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2010 website.