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Beginning Persian:how and where to start? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4052 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes  Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 7 23 December 2013 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi all, members of this amazing forum,
I decided to start with Persian. There is apparently a good number of resources, and of course I want to use my time with good quality resources to improve fast. I don't know if it is feasible or not (considering that I'm studying Dutch and I want to begin also Mandarin) but I would like to reach a level around A2 and B1 in one year, or, to better explain, being able to understand the general meaning of written text and spoken language and being able to have basic conversations with natives. But where to start? How can I optimise my time since the very beginning? Should I focus on learning the alphabet first and meanwhile starting with spoken centric resources as or like Pimsleur and Michel Thomas? There are methods that are particularly recommended? Is it possible to plan meticulously my study? Thank you very much in advance! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4873 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 2 of 7 23 December 2013 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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For free stuff you can find on the internet (and it's surprisingly a lot!) have a look here (second post) and at my Persian log (many different people posted a great collection of useful links, 1st and 2nd page).
I think it's feasible to make a study plan. With a meticulous plan to follow it's much harder to get distracted - and if you find it impossible or impractical to stick with the plan, just change it as you go along. I started by learning the alphabet and haven't regretted it. You could combine that with a focus on spoken language if the alphabet becomes tedious or discouraging (it took me a while to distinguish letters which look so similar, except for a few dots). Pimsleur seems fine (as far as I recall ellasevia started with it, maybe he can comment more). A great free resource for the same purpose (but probably not as comprehensive?) are the Chai and Conversation podcasts. Assimil looks very good, but is only available in French. I'm sure you can optimise some, but in the end what counts is the amount of exposure you get, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Edited by druckfehler on 23 December 2013 at 8:33pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5604 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 3 of 7 23 December 2013 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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When you are at a stage that you want to read simple texts, I find the childrens library amazing: 476 high quality children books to read online!
PS. The Assimil Persian course is quite good, it centers on the written register and progresses not too fast. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4052 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 4 of 7 24 December 2013 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you very much @druckfehler and @Cabaire for the very useful links!
Now I have more starting points. Since I need to prepare a sustainable study plan, I need to measure in a reliable way how much time is required and which level is achievable at the end of each phase. I'll try therefore to apply some principles of agile project management in the software industry. Chai and Conversation is max 20 minutes per day, ready to use in dead moments so it requires to me from 0 to 20 minutes at maximum. Pimsleur is the same but a bit longer: 30 minutes per episode. Chai and Conversation seems to focus more on conversational speech while Pimsleur is more for business/travel purposes. About Assimil, it should be around 30 minutes per day, is it correct? Or does it require more for a language like Persian? And what about easypersian? Which level is it averagely likely to obtain by using from scratch and separately these two resources? Should I choose between these two and do only one, or starting with one after the other? Which resource is considered the best to learn the alphabet? Sorry for the thousands question :) My target is to understand which is the expected final result of the year by working 1 hour per day (that means 30 minutes of extra time work by using the dead moments to exercise listening and talking, while the extra time is used to firstly learn the alphabet and then build up the language grammar and vocabulary). Thank you in advance! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Élan Senior Member United States Joined 5449 days ago 165 posts - 211 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 5 of 7 24 December 2013 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello, welcome to studying Persian! Indeed, there are many good resources for Persian. One that wasn't around
when I first started studying is this textbook by University of Texas, Austin. You can download the pdfs of the lessons + mp3 audio for free. Audio is on the right side ("Book One", "Book Two"). They teach the alphabet right away and don't rely on transliteration, which I think is the right way to go. I personally started with lessons on EasyPersian + Pimsleur. EasyPersian isn't the most exciting resource, but it is good. I like Pimsleur's Farsi offering, but there are only 30 lessons. One book I always find myself going back to is John Mace's Persian Grammar. I haven't read it all the way through, but I pick it up every time I'm doing a lesson elsewhere and think "Okay, why did they write this sentence differently like this and not explain it?" I bet our TAC14 Persian team will have a thread soon with even more resources and ideas. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 7 24 December 2013 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Pimsleur is also expensive, so if you can't get it from a library or torrents, don't bother. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4052 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 7 of 7 26 December 2013 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unfortunately I found only the first 10 for farsi, and 30 for dari (but I know they're slightly different).
1 person has voted this message useful |
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