This UrduPod101 Review is up to date as of October 5, 2024.
Urdu is a language spoken by an estimated 170 million people in mainly Muslim communities in Pakistan, India, the UK, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
Though systematic and orderly in word construction and sentence structure, Urdu is written from right to left, which can prove challenging for those accustomed to left-to-right systems. Urdu has both informal and formal verb forms, and nouns are either masculine or feminine. Like English, it contains many words with irregular spellings and no consistent patterns.
Spoken Urdu is nearly identical to Hindi for everyday matters; however, they are written in different scripts meaning that Urdu and Hindi speakers can understand each other in conversation, but not in written language. In order to master this somewhat challenging language, a comprehensive language learning program is essential. Read on for our honest UrduPod101 review.
UrduPod101 Review: Summary
Overall Score: 4.0
Pros
- Lessons are fun and relevant for today’s culture
- Daily mini lessons help keep you on track when busy
- New lessons added regularly
- Interactive learning tools
- Native speakers host podcasts and videos
Cons
- Somewhat expensive
- Small community of Urdu speakers
UrduPod101 Review: Overview
All you have to do to sign up for UrduPod101 is enter your email address and make up a password. Once you do, you’ll receive free 7-day access to UrduPod101 Premium as well as a free lifetime account. This grants you access to:
- On-the-go video and audio lessons
- Mobile Applications
- Vocabulary learning tools like flashcards and word-of-the-day
- Core Urdu word lists and phrase lists
- Line-by-line dialogues and ‘record yourself’ feature
Should you choose to continue your studies, you can upgrade to a choice of three monthly subscription packages: Basic, Premium, and Premium PLUS. These subscriptions allow access to UrduPod101’s extensive library of thousands of lessons, daily mini-lessons delivered to your email, tips on quickly mastering Urdu, and even one-on-one instruction.
The Pros: What We Liked About UrduPod101
As you can see from our review summary, we highly recommend this course for those who are serious about learning Urdu. Here are 3 reasons we liked it:
Pro #1: Variety of Lessons
UrduPod101 uses a variety of teaching methods, ensuring that no matter your preferred learning style or pace, there’s always something for you. You won’t have to endure hours of repetitive podcasts or watch endless, pointless videos—UrduPod101 keeps lessons fresh and engaging to maintain your motivation.
Pro #2: All Skill Types Included
You can filter lessons by category and skill type, allowing you to focus on specific strengths and weaknesses in reading, writing, speaking, or listening. Unfortunately, you won’t receive full feedback on speaking skills without working with a tutor (available only in the Premium PLUS subscription). However, for all other skills, there are numerous interesting topics that specifically target those areas.
Pro #3: Comprehensive Lessons and Study Tools
There are loads of different ways to study and commit Urdu to memory. You will find interactive quizzes, custom word lists, audio dictionaries, voice recording tools, and vocabulary slide shows. These tools are not only fun, but are also designed to guide you towards fluency in Urdu in a logical progression.
Pro #4: Learning Flexibility
With mobile apps, downloadable podcasts, and desktop study tools, you can study whenever and wherever you like—even without Wi-Fi! Additionally, the program’s methodology is highly customizable, giving you full control over your syllabus while allowing you to focus on what you want to improve, ensuring you study in the way that suits you best.
The Cons: What We Didn’t Like About UrduPod101
All that said, the program isn’t perfect. Here are a few things that we didn’t love about it:
Con #1: Somewhat Expensive
Although the free and Basic subscription plans provide thorough instruction and practice for learning Urdu, to get the full experience, you will need to upgrade to the Premium or Premium PLUS subscriptions. While the cost is still negligible compared to a university course, it may be a little steep for those on a budget.
Con #2: Very Small Community
Urdu does not seem to be a popular language to learn. As a result, the online community of language learners is relatively small, limiting one’s potential to practice speaking Urdu with others. Still, you can practice speaking with a Premium PLUS subscription, if desired.
Con #3: Too Much English
Though not a deal-breaker, I’d personally prefer more immersion into the language itself, rather than videos and podcasts that discuss the language exclusively in English. This ultimately depends on your preference, and it’s important to strike the right balance between exposure to new content in context and ensuring you understand its usage, cultural background, and grammar rules.
One can lead to confusion and the other to boredom, with the optimal balance keeping you challenged while still understanding what’s being taught and how to use it. Unfortunately, I felt there was a bit too much explanation, without enough authentic language exposure for you to form your own understanding of how the language works. That being said, this learning style will suit many people who prefer a direct explanation of how the language works.
What are the lessons like?
The lessons are constructed in a way that helps you easily and quickly pick up the language. They are available via video, podcast, interactive tools, and quizzes.
Not only are the lessons engaging and entertaining, but they also provide you with bits of cultural context pertaining to the Urdu language, giving you a well-rounded learning experience.
There are five learning levels to choose from: Absolute Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, and Advanced. Absolute Beginner will start you out with pronunciation practice and lead you up to basic phrases such as ‘thank you’, ‘you’re welcome’, ‘hello’ etc. Progressing through the levels increases your knowledge and fluency.
Some Sample Lessons - A Sneak Peek
To give you a better idea of what to expect, we’ve broken down three optional sample lesson pathways for three differing levels:
Pathway: ‘Level 2 Urdu’ – The official curated pathway for Level 2, aligning with level A1-A2 of the CEFR framework.
Content: The official pathway for Level 2 consists of over four and half hours of audio content split across 25 lessons with topics that include shopping, making appointments, cooking, and meeting people in the street (all useful situations). After every lesson or two, there’s an assessment, either hand-graded or a multiple choice, to quiz you on what you’ve learned. The language content and grammar are slowly filtered in throughout the lessons, teaching you about numbers, expressing feelings, possessives, past tense etc.
Pathway: ‘Extensive Reading in Urdu for Intermediate Learners’ (4 hrs of audio content, 21 lessons)
Content: This pathway focuses specifically on improving your reading skills through a series of fun miniature books. You are encouraged to first read through the short texts in either the Urdu alphabet or the romanization, making note of any vocabulary you may know already. Next, you should listen to the audio whilst following along. You can listen to individual lines again and even record yourself speaking to work on your pronunciation skills. Topics—which include ‘Earth’s Water’, ‘Dinosaurs’ and ‘Animal Hairdos’—are basic and easy to follow.
Pathway: ‘Listening Comprehension for Intermediate Learners’ (50 mins of video content, 15 lessons)
Content: Each lesson begins with a short, authentic piece of dialogue for you to listen along to. You then answer a few questions while picking up new vocabulary and phrases. As always, the full transcript is provided for you to read as well as a full vocabulary list. Topics include ‘Looking At Apartments in Pakistan’ and ‘Reading Urdu Job Postings’.
Extra Vocabulary Tools & Features
Everyone learns a new language differently, so having a variety of options to choose from, especially for memorizing new vocabulary, is really helpful. Thankfully, UrduPod101 offers several built-in tools to assist with this very task.
Spaced Repetition Flashcards
Spaced Repetition Flashcards help you to increase your vocabulary in a fun, engaging way. You can choose from a specific set of pre-made flashcards and test yourself through an interactive game—connecting the image or English word to its Urdu equivalent and vice-versa. You can even create your own flashcard decks and track your progress with the daily stats.
Vocabulary Lists
Similar to the flashcards, there are hundreds of pre-made vocabulary lists for you to explore featuring a massive range of trendy and interesting topics. For example ‘Urdu Quotes about Love’, ‘Pakistan Tourist Attractions’ and ‘Most Common Texting Slang’. Each list is almost a whole lesson in its own right!
Urdu Word Bank
Your word bank is where you can save any new words you encounter during your lessons or while browsing flashcards and vocabulary lists. You can categorize them, add labels, and export your entire list at any time.
Most Common Words List
A super handy list sharing the 2,000 most commonly used Urdu words, helping you save time while studying. You can filter by category and and even narrow the list down to just the most common 100, 200, 300, etc. words in Urdu.
Word of the Day Emails
You can sign up for free daily Word of the Day emails. Each email features a new word, its cultural significance, and how it is used in context, which is a great way to continue building your vocabulary.
Who Is UrduPod101 Good For?
In our opinion, UrduPod101 is a great option for learning Urdu for those who:
- want to quickly and efficiently learn to speak Urdu
- plan to expand their business to Pakistan or other Urdu-speaking areas
- have Urdu-speaking friends, partners or spouses
- thrive with independent study and are highly motivated
Who Shouldn’t Buy UrduPod101?
Language learning programs are rarely one-size-fits-all. Though we think most will benefit from UrduPod101, those who may struggle include those who:
- learn best in a classroom
- are not self-motivated
- need additional instruction
- are on a very tight budget
UrduPod101 vs. Competition
We were hard pressed to find many comprehensive Urdu courses online. There are loads of YouTube videos claiming to teach you how to speak Urdu, however, we could not verify whether these videos were made by certified language teachers or not. YouTube and free podcasts can be a good option to test the waters in a new language, but we recommend a structured course for serious language learning.
We also came across multiple free websites, such ilanguages.org, that offer students loads of phrases and vocabulary words—with some sites even allowing students to hear how the word or phrase is pronounced. Although this type of tool is useful in conjunction with a comprehensive Urdu course—or if you simply need to quickly find the words to ask something in Urdu—it will not build a foundation to learn a language.
UrduPod101 vs. Mangolanguages.com
One of the few competitors we found was mangolanguages.com.
These lessons focus on salutations, food, drink, transportation, money and compliments with the goal of being able to speak conversationally with others in Urdu.
The grammar goals of these lessons include an introduction to nouns, verbs, and adjectives, as well as learning sentence structure.
To advance beyond a beginner level, you will need to find another course.
Is it Worth the Money?
The short answer is: Yes. With the largest Urdu lesson library in the world (over 150 hours of lessons by native tutors), we think UrduPod101 is 100% worth the money for anyone who is serious about mastering the Urdu language.
When you consider costs associated with taking a university course in Urdu, UrduPod101’s Premium PLUS option, which includes a one-on-one tutor, is a very good value.
If you’re still unsure, they do offer a 7-day free trial for you to test it out yourself:
Exclusive 30% Off Coupon Code For Our Readers
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of the Pod101 courses. I’ve been using them for years, and some of our other writers have become converts when testing the courses for reviews.
We approached the makers of UrduPod101 and they offered our readers an exclusive 30% discount if you sign up through this link:
You can check this page for the latest UrduPod101 Coupons and Discounts.
UrduPod101 Review Final Thoughts
UrduPod101 is one of the very few in-depth courses available to learn Urdu on your own time. Aside from private instruction or a university-level course, you will not find a better independent study course online. Though it is a bit pricey, we think it’s worth the money for serious students.
You will have access to the most extensive Urdu lesson library we could find and can learn at your own pace.
Michael has lived in Japan on and off for almost 10 years. He loves studying Japanese, and is currently working on going from N2 to N1 on the JLPT.