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BBC Journalist learns Iranian for Partner

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
9 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
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2237 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 1 of 9
20 August 2012 at 12:43pm | IP Logged 
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."
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Jappy58
Bilingual Super Polyglot
Senior Member
United States
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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 
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
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Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 9
21 August 2012 at 3:13am | IP Logged 
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
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480 posts - 700 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 4 of 9
21 August 2012 at 9:22pm | IP Logged 
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
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Switzerland
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 Message 5 of 9
22 August 2012 at 12:09am | IP Logged 
ericblair wrote:
I wish it were possible to go from nothing to C2 in Persian through self-study and online resources and such.


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

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Jappy58
Bilingual Super Polyglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4397 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 
Volte wrote:
ericblair wrote:
I wish it were possible to go from nothing to C2 in Persian through self-study and online resources and such.


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.


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. ;)

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ericblair
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4470 days ago

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Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 7 of 9
22 August 2012 at 8:06am | IP Logged 
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 6198 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 
ericblair wrote:
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.


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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