Speak Lesson 15 | How to Talk to People in a Formal Manner, and More on Hosting and Being Hosted

Continuing with the theme of hosting and being hosted, the theme of this Persian / Farsi lesson is a visit to the in-laws on a Saturday afternoon. We follow Matt on a hypothetical visit to his in-laws house, and a potential conversation as they try to serve him food. We also talk about formal speech- as we've said before, Persian culture errs on the side of formality, especially when talking to elders. Because there's an informal and formal way of addressing 'you', it's very important to choose the correct form, especially when dealing with the in-laws. For this reason, we'll go over how to ask questions in a formal way, and speaking respectfully. This will get you a lot of points with you Iranian in-laws. We also go over how to talk about whether or not we are hungry or thirsty, because as you may know, Iranians LOVE to feed people and often will not take 'no' for an answer.

KEY CONCEPTS: 

• More about the formal and informal forms of 'you'
• Formal phrases to use with in-laws
• How to 'tarof' by asking someone to 'help themselves' or say 'please'
• Talking about hunger or thirst