What is the benefit of learning Urdu through television?

A worldwide community speaks a great many languages, and translation always loses something. Learning a shared language lets people understand sermons and guidance directly and speak with fellow believers from other countries themselves.

When people in many countries share the same faith, they speak dozens of different languages. Yet they still want to hear the same Friday sermon and the same guidance as everyone else. Until now, that was only possible through translation.

Simultaneous interpreting, however, has a natural limit. Even a very good interpreter has to process a sentence in his mind while the speaker is already moving on. Parts get lost, and he unconsciously fills in the gaps himself. In matters of religion such a mistake can be serious, because someone is then credited with a statement he never made.

That is why languages are taught on television, and not only Urdu. Arabic, German, French and other languages are taught as well. Everyone can choose. Whoever learns Urdu can understand the sermons in the original. Whoever learns German or Albanian, for example, can speak directly with fellow believers in those countries. So the exchange runs both ways.

The method is the one mothers everywhere use to teach their children to speak. They use no other language as a bridge. They point at things, name them again and again, use gestures and make it enjoyable. For a long time the child seems to learn nothing, and then suddenly it starts to talk. In the same way, adults in the television classes learn step by step, first simple things, and later they even understand jokes.

Those who have no television of their own can join the lessons free of charge at the community's centres, and the recordings may be copied for personal use. The aim is that no one is left out.