My capacity to read, write and speak Urdu has developed tremendously under the guidance of ZabaanвЂ™s patient and attentive teachers: the school has been very responsive to my needs as a student вЂ“ helping me with conversational issues as I request them, or focusing on questions of translation and archival documents as necessary for my PhD work. Following my return to London, I have continued my classes online, accustomed now to hearing the sounds of Delhi over Skype rather than outside the office window. I have progressed a long way since that early intensive course: I relocated to New Delhi in October 2011 and spent a year taking weekly classes at Zabaan, arranged helpfully to complement my research work. Two years later, I continue to work with the teachers I first met in June 2011, and remain inspired by their commitment to pedagogy and their love of languages. *UPDATE* 30 October 2013 My original review of Zabaan was posted in 2011, and I thought it might be useful for visitors to the comment board to hear about my continued experience with the school.

IвЂ™ll be returning to Zabaan in future travels to Delhi, and look forward to doing so. I progressed very quickly in reading, speaking and writing throughout my time in East of Kailash, and found the school in general to be a friendly and comfortable place to study, retaining lots of personality due to its size and wonderful staff. The teachers I had were inspiring and helpful, not to mention patient considering my minimal prior experience with the language. I benefited tremendously from the course, which Zabaan was able to structure so that it suited my budget and particular requirements: I was able to take grammar lessons as well as conversational classes, looking at the language both in its contemporary usage as well as in a more historical context (very useful for my archival work!). I studied at Zabaan June-July 2011, taking an intensive Urdu language course in preparation for my research as a PhD student working in Indian archives.

Urdu stories online reading