Adventures in Pakistan!Follow

Assalam-o-Alekum!

Actually, none of this happened in Pakistan. RJ just decided to call it that today.

"Pakistan" is this shop in Basingstoke that is a cross between a small supermarket and a corner shop and owned by some Indian guy.

So I went in there yesterday because I've been learning Urdu but don't have anyone locally to actually correct my pronunciation; the only Pakistani friend of mine I've seen recently was raised in English and only started learning the local language in school when she was 6.
I walked up to the till and asked the guy there if he spoke Urdu because I wanted to know what this song was about. I really did want to know! It's kind of weird when I listen to the rather racist Sindhi music I have, I really don't speak enough of the language to be able to tell but it still leaves me feeling weird when I don't know (or when I know I really shouldn't listen to something even if it sounds kind of nice).

So anyway, the guy at the till pointed me toward the store owner and asked him who could translate Urdu to me and I was brought to these two Pakistani guys at the meat counter. One of them didn't really speak English, but the other did and, after telling me what the song was about, procured a pen and some paper in order to start teaching me his language.

Now, the thing about Urdu and learning it online is that they use the Persian alphabet (which essentially defaults to cursive and is really hard to learn if you don't know Arabic already). I've previously struggled with the same alphabet when I was learning a bit of Punjabi and defaulted to Gurmukhi script (what the Indian Punjabis use, it's Sanskrit based and much easier to read, and pretty like so: ਪੰਜਾਬੀ if you have the charset installed). With my Pakistani friends online I've had the problem that there is no unified way of spelling things in the Roman alphabet, so I had no chance to learn and pronounce anything because I didn't know who used which spelling.

Back to the shop. The guy taught me some basic phrases (my previous knowledge being utterly random in places) like "What's your name?" and "I'm 23 years old". It is actually quite interesting "I am 23 years old" in colloquial Urdu is basically "Mein twenty-three years ki hoon". When you watch stuff like this it becomes quite obvious that you can just use English half the time and it's still Urdu. I just have no idea which half yet. And I can't pronounce all the English words with the right kind of accent.
They told me to come back today and that they'd bring a textbook. I did go back there, they had no textbook, but this one guy's wife brought some food which I got to try and it was amazing, and the guy who'd taught me yesterday took my pen and paper and started writing down a lot of stuff, most of which I couldn't understand. I recognised the word you start questions with, and the word for "I", and "Pakistan" as well as, three lines down, "Karachi". He took a fairly long time to write all that, too, because he kept thinking what he should write down next, and he completely failed to add English translations, so if I don't keep at it the notes will be useless.

Turns out what he wrote was
"Why do you want to move to Pakistan?"
"I want to move to Pakistan to study."
"What city in Pakistan do you want to move to?"
"I want to move to Karachi."
"Are you going to move to Pakistan alone?"
"Yes, I am going to move to Pakistan alone."

(Note here: I am not going to move to Pakistan alone. It's currently difficult anyway as one of the people who want to move with me is the wrong nationality and we're not sure if he can get a visa. Emphasis on one of the people.)

It is also really nice because I am learning a lot about random cultural stuff from a different perspective - most Pakistanis I know are Karachiites, and this guy is Punjabi, which means he doesn't particularly like Karachi, he doesn't particularly like the Indian Punjab, and I always think it's cool to pick up on stuff like that with random people. I really liked it when my Palestineans talked about Israel and I find it really interesting when Dutch people argue which part of the country is the best. The same applies to all the internal bickering in the UK, but it's slightly less interesting now because I've gotten to know it too well.

Anyhoos, so he was teaching me stuff, but the other guys working in that section of the shop left and he kept sitting there with me and telling me about Urdu words and Pakistani weather and whatnot instead of working, so the store owner came over and scolded us both because I wasn't buying anything (I actually did buy something after that, had planned to all along!) and the guy wasn't working. We came to an agreement that I could have him outside the shop during his breaks. I haven't got time to go back this week, but I will actually buy more stuff next week when I'm there (need to stock up on spices, they're the only place in town I know of where they sell shahi jeera, and the same goes for halal chicken, and their vegetables are reasonably priced) and hopefully learn more, too! Or perhaps arrange some regular time frame. I've got 3 weeks off after next week and I might as well use them for this.

In other news, I could totally have adventures in the real Pakistan next month (I've been invited to visit a friend in Karachi!), but alas, I do not want to do this spontaneously on my own, and the only person insane enough to come with me on such short notice isn't really available because the visa process for Indians takes longer than "next month" even if you only go for a weekend.

Oh God, I love going over to my Turkish, Kurdish and Pakistani friends for food. It's always really amazing. Shame that I don't have any locally right now.

On a side note, two of my Pakistanis have decided they need to eat my jalfrezi now. Heh. Last time I cooked it, I messed it up (thanks to a South Indian making me compromise on spice choices and failchilies).


Edit: And it would be "Wa alekum massalam".

Edited, Jun 15th 2011 12:48am by Kalivha