EXCUSE me, can you tell me the way to the train station?

It's one of the stock phrases first-time language students learn, but in this case the language in question isn't French, German, Spanish or any of the traditional European tongues commonly taught in Britain -- it's Urdu.

Evening classes in Urdu have been running at Blackburn College for more than 15 years and the take-up has always been high. But what attracts people to study a language that, from the outset, appears so difficult to fathom?

Peter Meleady, 38, from Darwen, duty manager at Lancashire United Buses, was driven simply by a determination to understand what his Asian workmates were saying.

"I'm one of those people who never wanted anything to do with learning languages," he said. "But I got used to listening to phrases of the people I work with and I started asking what they meant, because I like to know things."

After first trying to teach himself the language from library books and then paying for private lessons, which proved expensive, Peter eventually tracked down the college course.

"It's got to the stage now where I love the language," he said. "All the Asians I work with think it's fantastic someone's making the effort."

Although Urdu shares similarities with other Asian languages -- particularly Hindi -- it doesn't follow that all Asians can necessarily speak it. No-one knows this better than 31-year-old clerical officer Naz Kapadim from Intack.

"Everybody assumes you know Urdu because you're Asian, but it doesn't work like that," said Naz, who works at Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

"My parents are from India and my mother tongue is Kokni. I can read and understand Urdu, because I learned Arabic at the mosque when I was younger, but I can't speak it and that's what I want."

The desire to communicate is what motivated most students to join the course, but some had more particular reasons. SaIb Connor, 24, from Brinscall, became a Muslim six months ago. He wants to learn Urdu to speak with his friends and use it as a springboard to reading the Koran in Arabic. A department manager at Morrisons in Bolton, SaIb admitted concentrating on a two-hour Urdu lesson immediately after a long day at work poses a challenge in itself.

"If I've had a long day at work I sometimes have to force myself to come to the classes," he said. "I've been shocked at the number of people sticking with the course, considering it's so difficult"

Despite speaking 11 languages, Ian Henderson, 33, who works for East Lancashire Advocacy Service in Accrington, agreed the classes are tough.

"Urdu isn't like any language I've learned before," he said. "The structure is quite different from European languages, which is why I've found it difficult."

So why are so many British people -- who traditionally find it difficult to speak a few words of pidgin French -- prepared to wrestle with an unfamiliar script, a complicated sentence structure, and words they have such difficulty in pronouncing?

"People from this country do seem to have this expectation that other people will learn English," admitted Ian. "I've loved languages since school, but I suppose I'm quite unusual as a British person."

But perhaps, as Britain adapts to accommodate non-English speaking immigrants, its parochial outlook might be changing?

Course tutor Nasir Uddin Ahmed, 64, agreed. "People want to learn Urdu because they want to know more about the people who have migrated to this country. They want to have conversations with them and learn about their culture. If these people don't speak English, then it's a good idea to learn how to talk to them in their own language."