Farsi Farsi is the main language of Iran. It is also spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan, southern Russia and India. It’s spoken by approximately 25 million people in Iran. In Afghanistan, where another 7 million people speak it, the language is known as Dari. Farsi is an Indo European language that has been greatly influenced by Arabic. The Arabic script was adopted after invasions and conquests by desert Arabs in the seventh century. So while the language is, like English, Indo European, Farsi speakers may have difficulty with reading and writing because of their unfamiliarity with Latin script. Farsi, like Arabic, is written right to left with the letters joining each other according to very definite rules. There are no capital letters in Farsi so using them in English can be difficult to get used to. Numbers, although Arabic, are different from those used in English. They are however written from left to right. With no pronoun gender distinction in Farsi, but a single pronoun instead, he/she may well get mixed up. Nouns don’t take plural forms when used with numbers and this can get carried over into English, e.g. Five car drove by. There are few similarities between English and Farsi vocabulary, though mother–madar and brother–baradar show their Indo-European origins and bad is bad in both languages. One of the hardest things to learn is word order. In Farsi the verb is usually placed at the end of a sentence and adjectives always follow nouns. Getting to grips with subject–verb–object construction is hard. There’s also less punctuation in Farsi so sentences tend to be very long and phrases joined with a lot of ands and buts. Stress and intonation patterns vary greatly between Farsi and English. In Farsi stress usually falls on the final syllable of a word. Therefore word stress is highly predictable in Farsi and learners might struggle with English’s unpredictability. Distinguishing vowel sounds can sometimes be difficult, e.g. a Farsi speaker might say sheep for ship. With consonant clusters, a vowel might be placed between the letters, e.g. perice for price, gelue for glue. This is especially true at the start of words beginning with s. A Farsi speaker will say espeak, esmart, espring. There are no words in Farsi starting with w and it’s likely to be replaced with a v sound. A Farsi speaker speaking English might sound aggressive without meaning to. They have a special positive response to a question Chera which means Why not? Are you going shopping? Why not? Chera is a question tag used in nearly all situations so learning different tags in English can be difficult. Didn’t he? Didn’t you? Wouldn’t you? Couldn’t you? A typical Iranian greeting is Salam meaning Peace. Iranians generally greet each other with a slight bow or a hug and kisses on the side of the face. Iranians are natural communicators. Conversation is important in Iranian society. They gesticulate a lot, point and often talk loudly. None of this is considered rude. Tilting the head upwards means no; tilting it down means yes; twisting the head means what? Extending the thumb is considered offensive, and showing the soles of one’s feet or shoes is rude, and slouching or stretching one’s legs in a group is offensive. Teaching in Iran is usually formal and very structured so Farsi learners will more likely accept a more formal teaching style when learning English. Respect for elders and teachers is very important. © 2000 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ESOL HOME TUTOR SCHEMES (INC). PO Box 12-114, Wellington 6038, New Zealand. Ph 64-4 471 2382, Fax 64-4 471 2383, Email: natoffice@esolht.org.nz Farsi DURING THE LESSON GENERAL ENGLISH FARSI PRONUNCIATION Hi/Hello Salaam Bye/Goodbye Khodu hufez How are you? Hule shomu chetor ast? Fine/Well, and you? Khoob hastam va shomu? Not so good Zeeyud khoob neestam What’s your name? Esme shomu cheest? My name is Esme man _______ ast Pardon? Baleh? Yes Baleh No Nah I don’t know Man nemeedunam Please Lotfan Thank you Mamnoon, mersi Good! Ufareen! Do you understand? Meefahmeed? Try again Dobureh sa’y kon Do you want some help? Komak meekhuheed? Don’t worry, learning takes time Negarun nabush, yud geeree vaght meebarad Shall we take a break now? Behtar neest yek kam esteruhat koneem? Let’s finish (the lesson) now Beeyueed alun dars ru tamum konim You’re doing well Dureed khoob peesh meeraveed Can you say it now? Hulu meetavuneed begooyeed? Can you answer (the question)? Meetavuneed javub daheed? Now you ask me Hulu shomu beporseed See you next week Hafteye deegar meebeenametun