English Phonetics and Urdu

So far I have been teaching the children English phonetics and Urdu. The purpose of teaching phonetics is to help the senior and junior children to recognise sound patterns that are common in English - and also to demonstrate how English words are not written in a phonetic manner. The children are well receptive idea and are slowly understanding that English words are not always spelt the way they are written.

In addition to this I have purchased some Urdu exercise books from Delhi's Meena Bazar (next to Jama Masjid - the main Mosque of the city), and have begun Urdu lessons with the senior boys. I felt it was important for me to continue to teach Urdu to the children as I had started this on my previous visit.

Unlike Hindi, Urdu is not always phonetic. There are different forms for each letter depending on their positioning in a word and also the previous letter in the word. Also, some vowels are not written unless they appear at the start of the word, and use a symbol also used for 2 other vowels.

In their third Urdu lesson so far today, I conducted a test for them to see how much they had memorised. The test involved writing Urdu words in Hindi and Hindi words in Urdu to test their comprehension so far. I am impressed with their progress so far, yet some basic errors need to be addressed - Raju keeps forgetting that Urdu is written from right to left and is therefore writing words backwards, Kailash is also forgetting how many dots are needed for certain letters - the incorrect number of dots and incorrect placement could mean a whole new letter - and a completely different word!

I am feeling satisfied at their progress so far and I am looking forward to teaching them more and correcting their mistakes. It is great to back with the children, teaching them and spending time with them.