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BBC Journalist learns Iranian for Partner | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5265 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 1 of 9 20 August 2012 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This is a link to a BBC piece for "From Our Own Correspondent" An American's quest to impress his partner's Iranian granny
excerpt: "Layla's grandmother, a petite, mischievous-eyed woman from Tehran, stared at me in the eye. She addressed me in Farsi. I smiled, wide-eyed. Then the rest of the room erupted into laughter. If I'm to be the butt of a joke, I declared to myself, I prefer to understand the punchline. That was four years ago, the day I resolved to learn Farsi. Also known as Persian, it's the rich, ancient tongue of the US's bugbear antagonist, Iran - and Layla's first language." 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4641 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 9 20 August 2012 at 4:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Very interesting article. :)
Persian is a very rewarding language to learn, and it's a shame it's not explored by students as much as some other languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5963 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 3 of 9 21 August 2012 at 3:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Like the author of that article, I too dream of the day when relations between the West
and Iran are normalized and we can travel freely in each others' countries. Persian is going to have a great future when that finally happens. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4714 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 9 21 August 2012 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I wish it were possible to go from nothing to C2 in Persian through self-study and online resources and such.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6442 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 9 22 August 2012 at 12:09am | IP Logged | |||||
Why do you think it's not? There are some amazing self-study courses for Persian, from Assimil through a rich selection of graded readers. There are a lot of Persian speakers online (and in various countries around the world; there are probably some near you). Search youtube for "persian movies" and you'll find tons, some with English subtitles. There's also a gigantic amount of music available. Plenty of classical poetry is centuries old and public domain. What's missing? Edit: for instance, you can study university-level OpenCourseWare in Persian. Edited by Volte on 22 August 2012 at 12:28am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4641 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 9 22 August 2012 at 12:43am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree. Going from A1 to C2 in Persian is totally possible. It was for me, and years ago when I studied Persian there were less resources than there are today. Of course, getting past a B2 is very difficult, but if you have Persian-speaking friends and try to expose yourself the most you can to the language, it is very doable. The only benefit I had was that I knew most of the alphabet since I had already studied Arabic, as well as some grammatical structures - but other than that, I also started from scratch. I'd give it a shot. ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4714 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 9 22 August 2012 at 8:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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Wow, you two are awakening a long-held dream of mine. I guess I've just always looked in
the wrong places. I am dead-set on studying Norwegian for now, but Persian has always been a "dream" language to study at some point. Would you two mind listing resources I should consider to go from my current level in Persian (non-existent) to...well, as high as there are quality resources before (or up to a level where I could go fully native). I only know English currently, so things like Assimil don't currently apply. I am not sure how limiting that'd be in terms of other course options. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6442 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 9 22 August 2012 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
Here are Professor Argüelles' suggestions for Persian materials for English speakers. Read both pages of the thread. Here's his Persian overview, which mentions more materials, and which is what inspired me to look at the language in the first place. The material I've used has been French and German based, aside from Persian in Texas, which is a nice supplement. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten far at all in my study of the language, so can't meaningfully do more than give you links to what looks like reasonable advice from the outside. When you can go "fully native" with materials is purely a matter of preference. You can do it from day one; it's just massively inefficient to study entirely that way, and requires a lot of willingness to deal with incomprehension and uncertainty. Good luck; it's a beautiful language. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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