Funny In Farsi
Book by Firoozeh Dumas
PowerPoint by Alex Nester
Leffingwell Elementary School
• “the following Monday, my father drove my
mother to attend school with me for a few
weeks. I could not understand why two people
not speaking English would be better then
one, but I was seven, and my opinion didn’t
matter much.”
This is a picture of the Leffingwell elementary school.
Both the Picture and the passage relate to the story
because this is the school Firoozeh went to when she
first moved to America.
Bowling for Dollars
• “It was in this mindset that my father decided to enter
bowling for dollars. In his attempts to embrace American
culture, my father had joined the local bowling league. Every
Wednesday evening he would head off to the bowling alley,
returning with spellbinding stories of strikes and gutters.”
This is an add from the 1970s. Firoozeh’s
Father was trying to fit in to American
culture. He watched this show quite often,
and eventually was on it.
Save me, Mickey
• “I wanted to tell her that Mickey was the
reason I was lost in the first place. Had I not
been trying to talk to him on those so called
phones, I wouldn’t be sitting here. I didn’t
owe that rodent anything.”
Getting lost in Disneyland was a major occurrence in Firoozeh’s
life . While there she experienced how kind some Americans
are. Also, when her parents found her, her father treated her to
whatever she wanted.
I ran.
• “ often kids tried to be funny by chanting ‘I ran
to I-ran, I ran to I-ran.’ The correct
pronunciation, I always informed them was
‘ee-rahn.’ ‘I ran’ is a sentence, I told them, as
in ‘I ran away from my geography lesson.’ ”
Firoozeh first begins to talk about her
encounters with discrimination when she is
in school. She said that instead of getting
mad and physically hurting someone, she
would say something sarcastic and make
them look stupid.
Americans love the French
• “Being French in America is like having your
hand stamped with one of those passes that
allows you to get in to everything. All Francois
has to do is mention his obviously French
name and people find him intriguing.”
Firoozeh marries François, a Frenchman.
She said that she noticed how differently
he was treated just because he was
French. The picture relates to the book
because she talks about the French being
elegant and sophisticated. The picture
shows the elegant style of French women
in the 1980s.
Pine Lodge Mountain Summer Camp
• “During the car ride back, my father asked me
if I had enjoyed camp. ‘It was great!’ I said. I
knew he had sent me to camp expecting $500
worth of fun, and I didn’t have the heart to tell
him the truth. So instead of weaving key
chains, I spent the next few weeks weaving
stories of all my great adventures.”
Firoozeh decided to try summer camp, and hated it.
This is a picture of the Pine Lodge Mountain Summer
Camp building from the 1980s.
Viva Las Vegas!
• “Las Vegas was a four-hour drive from our
house. The highway leading to this Promised
Land cut through the dessert, which meant
watching scenery from the backseat of our car
was a fishing show. My brothers, who were
both in college, were spared these trips. I
envied them.”
Firoozeh and her family went to Las Vegas
ever 3-day or 4-day weekend. This picture was
taken in 1970 of Las Vegas.
The Name Game
• “My name, Firoozeh, chosen by my mother, means ‘turquoise’
in Persian. In America it means ‘unpronounceable’ or ‘I’m not
going to talk to you because I cannot possibly learn your name
and I just don’t want to have to ask you again and again
because you’ll think I’m dumb or might get upset or
something.’ My father, incidentally, wanted to name me Sara. I
do wish he had won that argument.”
Firoozeh's name caused her a
lot of difficulty in America. Kids
as well as adults couldn’t
pronounced her name and
called her things like
“ferocious” and “f word”.
Du Jambon
• “One of my father’s favorite foods is ham. This
is fine if your name is Bob and you live in
Alabama. But when you Kazem living in
Abadan, satisfying your ham cravings can be a
challenge.”
In Firoozeh’s culture, ham is a forbidden food.
However her father Kazem loves it. This is a
picture of the 1970s version of the Oscar Mayer
wiener car. Oscar Mayer was the brand of ham
they always bought for Kazem.
Treasure Island
• “His favorites were the American Westerns,
where the good guy always won. He also loved
Tarzan, a movie so popular that it had to be
shown for several weeks in a row. But my
father’s all time favorite movie was the 1934
Treasure Island.”
This was important to
Firoozeh’s life because
after viewing this movie,
her father wanted to
change his own life. He
was determined to find a
treasure of his own.
This is the cover of the 1934,
original version of the film.
Part of the Family Carpet
• “ Before I married François, I told him that I came with a tribea free set of Ginsu knives with every purchase, so to speak.
Francois said he loved tribes, especially mine. Now whenever
we visit relatives, all of whom dote on my husband, I realize
that he didn’t marry me despite my tribe, he married me
because of them. Without my relatives, I am but a thread;
together we form a colorful and elaborate Persian carpet.”
This is a picture of a Persian rug. This is
important because she talks about her
family fitting together like a beautiful
Persian rug.
Happy Nowruz!
• “In Iran, the biggest holiday is Norwuz, New
Year’s Day. Since it is a secular holiday, it is
celebrated by the entire country, as
Thanksgiving is in the United States. It always
begins on the first day of spring at the exact
moment of the equinox.”
This is a picture of the table settings during Norwuz.
This holiday is very important to Firoozeh’s culture. In
her memoir she talks about slowly losing that culture
because she was becoming Americanized.
Threats
• “A fruit basket would have been nice, but
instead we found that a flyer had been slipped
under the door.
– Dear Brainwashed cowards,
You are nothing but puppets of the corrupt Shah. We will
teach you a lesson you will never forget. Death to the
Shah. Death to you.”
This picture shows an anti-Iranian demonstrator in
the 1980s. When the Shah visited Washington,
Firoozeh’s family went down to visit. They received
threat messages, such as the example shown above,
from protesters. This is important to her life because
it depicts the struggles she went through because
she is foreign.
Anti-Iranian
• “ Vendors started selling T-shirts and bumper stickers the said
‘Iranians go home’ and ‘Wanted: Iranians for target practice.’
crimes against Iranians increased. People would hear my
mother’s accent and ask us, ‘where are you from?’ They
weren’t looking for a recipe for stuffed grape leaves. Many
Iranians suddenly became Turkish, Russian or French.”
Once again the picture and passage represent the
discrimination Iranians faced during Firoozeh’s
time period. The picture shows Iranians marching
with signs that seem to be mocking the
government.
L’alliance Francaise
• “Even though I was the youngest contestant in
the impromptu-speech contest, I placed first.
Unbeknownst to me, this was met with
suspicion. Apparently, some people thought
that my Persian accent was too authentic for a
foreigner.”
Firoozeh wins a trip to France. She gets
there to find that her Host family is
leaving her at their house alone while
they vacation. Also while in France she
meets her husband, François.
Dating?
• “Dating. Like the rodeo circuit or trout farming, is a
completely foreign concept to my parents. They, like all their
sisters and brothers, never dated, their marriages having been
arranged by family members. My mother learned everything
she knew about dating from days of our lives, especially Hope
and Bo’s relationship. The only dates my father knew about
contained pits.”
Firoozeh’s family relied heavily on television to
learn about American Cultures. She says that her
mother only knew what dating was because of
watching TV. This is a picture of Bo and Hope,
the “role model relationship.”
Limoges China
• “As beautiful as they were, two words now described these
dishes: bad karma. François wanted to give them back and
forget the whole thing. I was willing to get rid of them, but I
did not want to give them back to his mother. I also didn’t
want to sell them; I figured their bad karma would extend to
any money the was made from them.”
This is a picture of the Limoges
China that Firoozeh received
from Mrs. Dumas which
Firoozeh and her husband
decided to donate after the
earthquake. This is important
because it represents how
Firoozeh’s relationship with Her
mother-in-law isn’t very strong.
Nose
• “When I was eighteen, my father and I headed off to a
consultation with a plastic surgeon, ‘the best in Newport
Beach.’ As I sat in this man’s well-appointed office and looked
at the expansive ocean view, I wondered how he can take
himself seriously. Judging by the framed diplomas all over the
walls, he had spent many years studying at prestigious
medical establishments. Here was somebody who could be
saving a life somewhere, but instead he was looking forward
to looping off the tip of my nose.”
Here I have a picture of Firoozeh so you can see her nose. Her
nose isn’t as big and hooked as she says it is. Her choice not to
get a nose job is different from her family members, however
she realizes she didn’t really need one to begin with.
Judging
• “I had the same dreadful feeling I’d had the
last time I was strapped into a roller coaster,
although at least that experience only lasted a
few minutes. If this evening ever ended, I
would be adding ‘judging beauty pageants’ to
my list of things never to try again, right under
‘gymnastics classes’ and ‘blood sausage.’ ”
I decided to get a picture of Spanish Wells because that’s where Firoozeh
and her husband went for a vacation. Spanish wells is a small island so they
were asked to judge the Spanish Wells beauty pageant. Firoozeh was not
happy about it, however she did it anyway.
The moneyless, but rich
• “After his last trip, I asked him if it was hard to
return to America where he is far from
wealthy. ‘But, Firoozeh,’ he said ‘I’m a rich
man in America, too. I just don’t have a lot of
money.’ ”
This is Iranian
money. In Iran,
Firoozeh’s family
was rich.
However
because of the
exchange rate,
they were far
from rich in
America.