If you’re fluent in English and enjoy food, you already know a fair amount of Persian words – sugar, spinach, pistachio, orange, kebab, lemon, caviar, and candy are just some of them. But if you want to speak Persian as if you were from Iran, then you’ll need to spend some quality time with your grammar book.
Here’s what you need to know before you start learning Persian.
The Persian Language Has Many Names
Persian comes from Iran, a country formerly known as Persia. Native speakers from Iran refer to their language as Farsi, while people from Tajikistan and Afghanistan, who also speak Persian, respectively call it Tajik and Dari. Between these three countries, Persian is spoken by 100 million native speakers.
It’s the Same as It Was a 1000 Years Ago
Modern-day Farsi is no different from its ancient equivalent. You can hear natives speaking in slang, of course, but that still doesn’t mean that you can’t read a thousand-year-old text. Take a verse by Rumi, for example. The famous Persian writer is being recited in his original form by generations old and new.
Farsi Is Pretty Hard to Learn and Master
Even though it is an Indo-European language, which means that it probably shares a lot of words with your mother tongue, Persian is not easy to learn. If you are a fast learner, you will be able to get to a conversational level in 3 to 4 months. Spend some time with native speakers, and you’ll need a month.
Persian Is Very Important for Business
Countries across Central Asia and the Middle East showcase incredible business potential. The main language of this market is Persian, as entrepreneurs from Tajikistan to Qatar use it to collaborate and make deals. If you need Persian for business, rely on Farsi translation services until you fully absorb it.
Movaffagh Bashi, or as we would say “Good luck!”