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French in Iran | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| pmiller Account terminated Groupie Canada Joined 5674 days ago 99 posts - 104 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 5 14 July 2009 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
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I understand that French used to be the second language of choice in Iran (the Shah and his wife both spoke it with native level fluency, etc.)
But how about today? Is French at all useful in Iran or has it been completely replaced by English? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 5 14 July 2009 at 8:29pm | IP Logged |
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My experience is old, pre-revolutionary, but I think you'll find a complex situation now in Iran, as always. Even then, I don't think French was the second language of choice on the street, but may have been among the elite. Iranians have always had many ties to foreign nations, including commerce, work abroad, family members, travel, and education, and you'll surely find many who speak French. Certain groups (e.g., Armenians, Assyrians, etc.) may have their own favored languages, too, whether to French, English, Russian, German, or whatever. A lot depends on your aims.
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| Caveben Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5665 days ago 40 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Romanian, Slovenian | Message 3 of 5 14 July 2009 at 8:40pm | IP Logged |
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I know this won't answer your question but it has always struck me that there is an interesting linguistic situation in the Middle East. I play in an orchestra with a lady from Saudi Arabia who speaks Arabic, French, English and Russian. She says during the Cold War the Soviet Union sent teachers and university professors en masse into her country to try and build relations. Many of them had little knowledge of Arabic which is part of the reason why she speaks Russian. There was also a strong French influence (she says her father spoke French as a second maternal language) and that this was not altogether uncommon.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6665 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 4 of 5 15 July 2009 at 9:53pm | IP Logged |
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I have met about half a dozen Iranian mathematicians during scientific conferences, none of which knew French. I don't know if this is representative, but in my field of research (Algebraic Geometry) many people at least read French as some of the key reference works were written in French. For example, most of the Argentineans I've met during those conferences were fluent in French.
PS: The Iranians were all relatively young (i.e. under forty). Edited by Marc Frisch on 15 July 2009 at 9:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5709 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 5 of 5 16 July 2009 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
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English is by far more prevalent among younger people in Iran than French.
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