I was excited to hear about a brand new service offering lessons in Punjabi by using your mobile phone. Firstly because I’ve always wanted to brush up on my Gujarati skills so I anticipated that with the launch of Punjabi, Gujarati for phones would follow on soon. Secondly because I love my mobile phone and am always using it to talk about nothing in particular and everything in general. I gave it a whirl by downloading the software from the site, www.simarx.com and found the instructions easy to follow.

After downloading the software, it worked like a java game from my phone. I browsed the alphabet with pronunciations and said them aloud using the handy phonetic explanations.  For example, ‘Shashshaa’ is ‘Sh’ as in shimmer. It’s a great idea (albeit very basic) for learning the Punjabi alphabet, however I wish you could hear the letters being pronounced correctly and as a complete novice, I did feel a little overwhelmed. The best bit about the service was the alphabet test at the end, which was surprisingly fun - even with my terrible result.

Simarx are in the process of developing their software, as this is only Punjabi Part One . Punjabi Part Two should offer an option to be able to listen to the language being spoken and as the screen looked like a bad 80’s video game, their graphics could be improved too. Bad graphics aside, it is a great concept and it is comforting to know that the languages of our motherland are moving with the times and technology.