Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation

In Iranian culture, family is extremely important. Instead of having just one Persian word for 'aunt' for instance, we have two- there is a different word for the sister of your father (amé) versus the sister of your mother (khālé). So when referring to one or the other, people know exactly whether you are speaking of your maternal or paternal aunt. Similarly, while there is only one word for 'cousin', in Persian there are eight different words for cousin depending on whether they are female or male, or whether they are on your mother or father's side of the family. This might seem complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it makes figuring out who a given person is referring to quite easy! In this Persian (Farsi) lesson, we go over all the different words for extended family. These will be very useful when talking to Iranians, because, as we've said, family is extremely important in Iranian culture. In addition, we learn the most important question words to help you form useful questions when having conversations. Questions are a useful tool for getting to know someone, and these question words will allow you to form many different sentences using the vocabulary we've learned so far. The questions words we go over in this lesson are:Who WhenWhereWhatHowWhichWe also learn some key questions you can form using these words including: Where are you?What do (would) you like?How's it going?Who is this?Why not?How many?How?Where is it?How much? At this point of Chai and Conversation, you'll be amazed by how much you can understand of casual Persian conversations.

In this Persian (Farsi) lesson, you learn to talk about your likes and dislikes. Also, we will be learning the Persian sound ‘gh’. There are two sounds in the Persian language that you don't hear in English. The first is the sound 'kh' heard in words such as 'khoobam'- we went over this in Lesson 1. The second is the sound 'gh' which we'll be going over in this lesson. We learn it specifically to learn the word for music, or museeghee in Persian. The phrases covered in this lesson will allow you to say whether or not you: like your job like chocolate like nature like sports like music Or, whether you like specific figures such as Charlie Chaplin. In order to learn how to say that you like a specific person, we have to learn about the 'direct object marker', the sound rā which has no direct translation in the English language. We also go over talking about what you like to do. The phrases we learn with regard to this are: I like to watch moviesI like to read booksI like to exerciseI like to eat chocolateI like to learn PersianWe also learn to speak about these in the negative sense, and say that we don't like to do certain things.

In this Persian (Farsi) lesson, you learn how to talk about your job, say where you work, and whether or not you like your job. We learn vocabulary for a long list of jobs, including: student engineer lawyer writer architect accountant cook waiter dentist pilot artist We then learn how to combine these words into the phrase saying what we do and asking others what they do for a living. Again, very useful phrases for making casual conversation with others to get to know them better. We also learn how to say whether or not we like our jobs, and to ask others if they like their jobs as well. We then learn the vocabulary for different places you could work. These include:RestaurantHospitalFactoryOfficeNot all people work, however. So we also learn the following Persian phrases:I workI don't workI am joblessI am retired  

In this Persian (Farsi) language lesson, we expand on introducing family members to others, and we also learn how to count to ten in Persian! Also, we introduce a special guest at the end of the program. If you need a quick reference, the vocabulary for counting from one to ten in Persian is:yek - onedō - twosé - threechāhār (chār for short) - fourpanj - fivesheesh - sixhaft - sevenhasht - eightnoh - ninedah - ten

In this Persian (Farsi) lesson, we learn the words for members of your immediate family, and learn how to introduce your family members to other people. We finish off the lesson by learning how to introduce the names of your family members to others. We begin by learning the vocabulary words for several key members of the family in Persian. As you know, family is very important in the Persian culture, so these vocabulary words wll be more useful to you than you could imagine. The words learned in this part of the lesson include:brothersistermotherfatherdaughtersonhusbandwife   In the Persian culture, family is extremely important, and there are many many more words for specific family members than there are in English. For this reason, we'll leave the vocabulary words (yes, there are multiple multiple words) for cousin, aunt and uncle to a different lesson. We also learn how to talk about a direct relative of yours by saying phrases such as:my mothermy sonmy daughterThis is my ____________We finish off the lesson by learning how to introduce the names of family members.

In this Persian (Farsi) lesson, we review all past lesson materials. You'll have a chance to test out your comprehension of the vocabulary learned, and see if you're able to use the words and phrases in the correct context.We also learn the words needed to answer simple questions in the Persian language- essential when having any casual conversation! These words are:Yes (balé)Yeah- more informal (āré)No (na)Then we learn how to say where we live (and if it’s different than where we are from), and how to answer some simple questions. The phrases in this section include:I am from ___________I am not from _________I live in ______________Where do you live?I am from _______________ but now I live in ______________As always, we'll go over several potential conversations you could have using just this vocabulary.In addition, we learn that in the Persian language, it's not necessary to state the subject in the sentence. The subject is understood based on how you conjugate the verb in the sentence. For instance, instead of saying 'man az Iran hastam' (meaning I am from Iran), you could simply say 'az Iran hastam'. The listener can tell from the conjugation of the word 'hastam' that the sentence is referring to the first person singular, so you can drop man (meaning I). 

In the Persian language, there are two different ways of saying 'you'- a formal version (shomā), and an informal version (tō). In this lesson, we learn both forms, and learn when it's appropriate to use them. For instance, when you're talking to a close friend or a family member close to your age, you would use the informal you, tō. When speaking with someone older than you, or someone you should show respect for, you use the formal version, shomā. Iranian culture places a high value on respect, so when in doubt, err on the side of formality. In the podcast, we talk more about this so that you are confident with your choice of which to use. In addition to the different forms of you, we go over some questions you can ask using the formal or information versions of you. These include:And you?What is your name?Another wonderful topic of conversation and good way to get to know others is by asking them where they're from. This is a great topic of conversation no matter where in the world you are. We'll learn the formal and informal way of asking. The phrases learned in this section include:Where are you from? (informal)Where are you from? (formal)I am from ________We also learn a list of countries and how to say them in the Persian language. The countries learned in this lesson include:Iran (pronounced ee-rān)the United StatesSpainEnglandGermanyFranceMexicoWe also include several other countries in the bonus vocabulary.

In this lesson, we build on the last lesson, and learn how to greet people during different times of the day, several forms of the word goodbye, and how to introduce yourself in the Persian language. 

Salām, and welcome to the first-ever Persian (Farsi) language lesson of Chai and Conversation! In this lesson, we learn one of the most important things in any language – how to greet people and ask them how they are doing- in Persian! We also learn a few simple ways to reply when asked how we're doing. In addition, there's a short introduction to the teacher, Leyla Shams, and the student, Matt Bourneuf. If you're new here, you can find out more about our comprehensive language learning program here.