The South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University, Germany, will offer an introductory course in Pashto during the spring vacations 2010. In this course, students develop speaking, reading, listening and writing skills and acquire basic vocabulary as well as knowledge of the main grammatical structures and conversational etiquette of Pashto.

The instructors, Professor (Dr) Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah and Mr. Sheerin Dil Gardewal, have taught regular Pashto courses at the Quaid-i-Azam University (Islamabad), Kabul University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). Both are native Pashto speakers and will introduce the students to various dialects of the Pashto language mainly spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  

Classes are scheduled to take place from Monday to Friday, 9 am to 3.30 pm. Participants who take part in the full programme and pass the written tests will be awarded 7 ECTS or equivalent credits. Languages of instruction will be English and Pashto.

All participants are requested to acquire a basic knowledge of the Pashto script prior to the course. For this purpose, we recommend: Manfred Lorenz, Lehrbuch des Pashto (Leipzig, VEB Verlag Enzyclopädie, 1979) and the following websites:

• http://www.omniglot.com/writing/Pashto.htm
• http://www.khpalapashtu.com/homee.htm
• http://www.khyber.org
• http://www.pashto.se/Alfabet%20Pashto/Alef%20Ba.htm

Contact:

• Dr Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah, Allama Iqbal Professor, South Asia Institute,
  E-mail: drswas@hotmail.com  and alishah@sai.uni-heidelberg.de
• Dr. Christina Oesterheld, Department of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, South Asia Institute,
  E-Mail: oesterheld@uni-heidelberg.de