Pashto is the newest Pimsleur Method language available. Pashto is spoken by 42-45 million ethnic Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is also spokenin India, Iran, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, and U.K.
Pashto is spoken by an estimated 8 million people in Afghanistan. It was made the national language of Afghanistan in 1936 by royal decree. Today, it is a co-official language of Afghanistan along with Dari (Eastern Persian). Of the two languages, Dari enjoys greater prestige, hence most Pashtuns learn to speak Dari, but few Dari speakers learn Pashto.
Pashto is also spoken by 9.6 million people In Pakistan, but it has no official status and is not taught in schools. Pashtun children are educated in Urdu.
Are you looking to learn Pashto? Try a Pimsleur Pastho course from PimsleurMethod.com. Available on CD or for Instant Download.
1. Comment by Lee Goldberg
12/Nov/2010 at 11:40 am
Pashto is not a priority for me, but I would like to learn some Dari (Afghan-style Persian), not because I have any desire to travel to Afghanistan while there’s a war going on, but because I’d like to build on the Persian vocabulary I know from Hindi-Urdu, without getting distracted by the modern Iranian pronunciation.
2. Comment by Julie McCarty
23/Nov/2010 at 3:23 pm
I would love to learn Pashto. First Im going to learn Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi and then move on to Pashto. I wish I could learn every language offered! By the way, where can I hear FREE previews of these, like maybe a five minute part of a lesson or something like this?