White guy speaking in Punjabi about Punjabi

[HarmanSingh]

If you look at his youtube channel, he studies at the University of Toronto. Why am I not surprised?!?!

I don't know a lot of schools that offer Punjabi. Ironically enough, the only schools I can think of off the top of my head that offer it-in America-are Ivy League schools (Columbia and UPENN). Fordham doesn't (we were stuck with modern romance languages, Ancient Greek, or Arabic). NYU kids are able to take it through Columbia, but the NYU language department-itself-doesn't offer it (but I will say that they offer a lot more languages than Fordham). I don't think the CUNYs do, or the SUNYs.

I wish I had time to learn. This whole "working" thing is ruining my life.

The University of Michigan offers a Punjabi course, along with a Sikh History class.

 

[hardeep_singh]

If you look at his youtube channel, he studies at the University of Toronto. Why am I not surprised?!?!

I don't know a lot of schools that offer Punjabi. Ironically enough, the only schools I can think of off the top of my head that offer it-in America-are Ivy League schools (Columbia and UPENN). Fordham doesn't (we were stuck with modern romance languages, Ancient Greek, or Arabic). NYU kids are able to take it through Columbia, but the NYU language department-itself-doesn't offer it (but I will say that they offer a lot more languages than Fordham). I don't think the CUNYs do, or the SUNYs.

I wish I had time to learn. This whole "working" thing is ruining my life.

in the video he states that he traveled to punjab and studied punjabi there for a while, which is why his vocabulary is so nasty.

... I was joking about the Toronto thing.

I was talking in-general about the Punjabi language education offered in these United States. There's a rising amount of non-desi people who probably have an interest in Punjabi (which could be a result from various reasons-whether from having a friend who speaks it, or maybe because they are part of the rising amount of non desis who participate in bhangra and want to learn more) but going to Punjab and learning it isn't an option (which also could result from several reasons-job, school, money, etc).

I just simply stated that while "most people who dont know much about punjab or punjabi just view it as a simpleton/farmer language whereas hindi and english are viewed as more sophisticated and academic languages" (PS before we get into a debate about this and you accuse me of being an ignorant asshole, this was taken from your post word-for-word...), the only institutions that I can think of off the top of my head which offer Punjabi to their students are two of the best universities in this country. I think that's super cool, and hope that other institutions will start offering it.

ya i dont know much about the availability of punjabi in north american colleges. i'm guessing up in canadia it should be common, but in the US the emphasis seems to be on hindi mostly. i think it is changing slightly as people learn to distinguish punjabi culture. what i found interesting about this guy is that he initially started studying sikhism and that's what motivated him to learn punjabi, i think alot of gurudwaras around the US do tend to hold punjabi classes.

 

[jaz89]

KAINNTTT LOL im in love with this dude...
Why Study Punjabi?

 

[campy614]

If you look at his youtube channel, he studies at the University of Toronto. Why am I not surprised?!?!

I don't know a lot of schools that offer Punjabi. Ironically enough, the only schools I can think of off the top of my head that offer it-in America-are Ivy League schools (Columbia and UPENN). Fordham doesn't (we were stuck with modern romance languages, Ancient Greek, or Arabic). NYU kids are able to take it through Columbia, but the NYU language department-itself-doesn't offer it (but I will say that they offer a lot more languages than Fordham). I don't think the CUNYs do, or the SUNYs.

I wish I had time to learn. This whole "working" thing is ruining my life.

The University of Michigan offers a Punjabi course, along with a Sikh History class.

Which is another top-of-the-line institution. I guess I can only think of Columbia and UPENN because 2 of my closest friends took Punjabi or were thinking of taking Punjabi at these places. Any other places anyone can think of? I can imagine with such a rising Punjabi population, the Cal State and/or Cal system has to offer something.

 

[campy614]

If you look at his youtube channel, he studies at the University of Toronto. Why am I not surprised?!?!

I don't know a lot of schools that offer Punjabi. Ironically enough, the only schools I can think of off the top of my head that offer it-in America-are Ivy League schools (Columbia and UPENN). Fordham doesn't (we were stuck with modern romance languages, Ancient Greek, or Arabic). NYU kids are able to take it through Columbia, but the NYU language department-itself-doesn't offer it (but I will say that they offer a lot more languages than Fordham). I don't think the CUNYs do, or the SUNYs.

I wish I had time to learn. This whole "working" thing is ruining my life.

in the video he states that he traveled to punjab and studied punjabi there for a while, which is why his vocabulary is so nasty.

... I was joking about the Toronto thing.

I was talking in-general about the Punjabi language education offered in these United States. There's a rising amount of non-desi people who probably have an interest in Punjabi (which could be a result from various reasons-whether from having a friend who speaks it, or maybe because they are part of the rising amount of non desis who participate in bhangra and want to learn more) but going to Punjab and learning it isn't an option (which also could result from several reasons-job, school, money, etc).

I just simply stated that while "most people who dont know much about punjab or punjabi just view it as a simpleton/farmer language whereas hindi and english are viewed as more sophisticated and academic languages" (PS before we get into a debate about this and you accuse me of being an ignorant asshole, this was taken from your post word-for-word...), the only institutions that I can think of off the top of my head which offer Punjabi to their students are two of the best universities in this country. I think that's super cool, and hope that other institutions will start offering it.

ya i dont know much about the availability of punjabi in north american colleges. i'm guessing up in canadia it should be common, but in the US the emphasis seems to be on hindi mostly. i think it is changing slightly as people learn to distinguish punjabi culture. what i found interesting about this guy is that he initially started studying sikhism and that's what motivated him to learn punjabi, i think alot of gurudwaras around the US do tend to hold punjabi classes.

I mean, other than weddings-how often does a non desi walk into a gurudwara?

Colleges are different. Millions of 18-22 year old young adults (and thousands of people older than that) enroll or are currently enrolled in college. Imagine if 50% more schools offered Punjabi courses. More people would have it as an option, and more people could-at very least-potentially become exposed to it.

 

[GSingh]

Our punjabi program (San Jose State) was just shut down last year because our professor suffered an untimely death but we're lookin to bring it back as soon as possible.

My mom used to be a punjabi teacher back in punjab but she's not nearly well equipped linguistically (with english) to teach first time learners. sigh..

 

[SanghaSoldier]

If you look at his youtube channel, he studies at the University of Toronto. Why am I not surprised?!?!

I don't know a lot of schools that offer Punjabi. Ironically enough, the only schools I can think of off the top of my head that offer it-in America-are Ivy League schools (Columbia and UPENN). Fordham doesn't (we were stuck with modern romance languages, Ancient Greek, or Arabic). NYU kids are able to take it through Columbia, but the NYU language department-itself-doesn't offer it (but I will say that they offer a lot more languages than Fordham). I don't think the CUNYs do, or the SUNYs.

I wish I had time to learn. This whole "working" thing is ruining my life.

The University of Michigan offers a Punjabi course, along with a Sikh History class.

Which is another top-of-the-line institution. I guess I can only think of Columbia and UPENN because 2 of my closest friends took Punjabi or were thinking of taking Punjabi at these places. Any other places anyone can think of? I can imagine with such a rising Punjabi population, the Cal State and/or Cal system has to offer something.

I believe Hofstra University here in NY offers Punjabi as well as a Sikh History course but im not too sure about the latter. Ive heard LOADS of compliments about the professor who teaches it though, very very acclaimed scholar who knows his stuff would be just one of them.

 

[Vijay]

"The Teaching of Punjabi in American Universities.."

http://www.global.ucsb.edu/punjab/journal_14_2/mann.pdf

the larger SUNYs and tons of other colleges/universities in ny offer Hindi. not saying whether its good or bad, but i think most schools expanding their language departments would tend to lean towards adding Hindi because of the higher demand and larger potential enrollment for it, compared to Punjabi.

 

[Panj_Dariaah]

Man speaks the truth.

 

[DjFresh]

This dude just put my punjabi to shame.

 

[campy614]

"The Teaching of Punjabi in American Universities.."

http://www.global.ucsb.edu/punjab/journal_14_2/mann.pdf

the larger SUNYs and tons of other colleges/universities in ny offer Hindi. not saying whether its good or bad, but i think most schools expanding their language departments would tend to lean towards adding Hindi because of the higher demand and larger potential enrollment for it, compared to Punjabi.

So then what makes people take the languages courses that they do? I took Ancient Greek... because I was weird and apparently wanted to stress myself out completely.

Fact: A lot of European-heritaged kids tend to use these courses as an opportunity to learn the language of their ancestors. Why? Taking myself as an example, said languages aren't spoken in the home for most of us. My grandparents/great-grandparents came to America in the 1910s, and back then there was just an overall emphasis on assimilation (which lasted until the 1960s). It wasn't just the pressure of being an immigrant in a different country-people WANTED to be American. English became the language spoken in these homes... and years later, where foreign language courses became a thing, the immigrants' children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren use this as an opportunity to learn about their roots.

What I noticed in New York is that a lot of Punjabi-Americans are post-1960s immigrants (or offspring of them). This is important because the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 changed everything. There was no longer any emphasis on assimilation... or even any emphasis on being "American" in general. As a result, native languages are still spoken at home. In fact, I have aunts and uncles in Florida who got by knowing two American expressions: "Hello" and "F*K you" (no I'm not kidding). Most Punjabi-Americans I come across, especially in NYC, do speak Punjabi... so there isn't necessarily a need to "get back to the roots." But there's room for an easy A, or to learn how to speak it properly (If that's true. I say "properly" because the dialects-for lack of a better word-taught in schools tend to be more proper than that spoken in the home... at least this is true for European languages).

Fact: There's a lot of people who use this opportunity to take something DIFFERENT... this kid is a prime example (that is, if he were to have learned in the US). Back in college, my good friend Drea took Arabic. She had no use for it, but she thought it'd be interesting... this actually led her to being a double major in Middle Eastern Studies and Psychology. I took Ancient Greek because-hell-where else would I get an opportunity to learn something like that? I mean... how many of us have taken Latin for reasons other than to score higher on the English part of standardized tests? A few of my friends took German... I can imagine a lot of people saying "Oh, Punjabi. That sounds interesting!"

Fact: There's also a lot people who take this opportunity to learn languages that they will need in the future. People who want to be language teachers, people who want to work for the UN, people who are in ROTC and know they'll be in the army and probably will be going to the Middle East... the list goes on. Many people have jobs that deal with companies in Europe and Asia (esp India-with it's rising economy... ergo teaching Hindi since it's the most spoken language in India).

I took an immigration course in college and I found everything about it fascinated. Darn, I missed my calling.