5.9 Cultural Notes and Extra/Optional Online Materials
Cultural Notes
| # |
Topics |
Explanation |
| 1 | Fruit and Vegetable shops in India and South Asia | In America, we typically go to a supermarket and/or farmer’s market to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. But in India and South Asia, each small town/city/village has many small fruits and vegetables. Some towns have designated areas for these small shops. Unlike America, you need to talk to the shopkeeper to ask for the price and negotiate the price before buying it, so conversation is a must. |
| 2 | At a restaurant in India and South Asia | Effects of globalization are very visible when it comes to restaurants in India and South Asia. However, there are still many smaller food stalls and restaurants which are still old-fashioned. In these restaurants, they typically do not have menu cards with a price list. There is a typical server who will come to you with a glass of water and tell you what the available items are and their prices. |
| 3 | چاہنا and چاہیے | In English, there is a big difference between “to want” and “to need”. However, in Urdu, native speakers use چاہیے “to need” for everything they want/need. چاہنا “to want” is typically used in constructions like:
…میں چاہتا ہوں کہ “I want that…” |
| 4 | Expressing desire/need | Native speakers do not use direct statement such as:
“مجھے ……… چاہیے-” to express desire/need. Instead, they ask indirectly using a question sentence and/or subjunctive. For example: کیا کھانا ہے؟ (Is there food?) = -مجھے کھانا چاہیے (I need food.) کیا آپ کے پاس قلم ہے؟ (Do you have a pen?) = -مجھے آپ کی قلم چاہیے (I need your pen.) |
Extra/Optional Online Materials
!شکریہ
