Learn Persian With Chai And Conversation

In this lesson, we continue our discussion of the Persian concept of 'tārof'- we learn different situation in which 'tārof' comes into play, and how to successfully navigate through these situations. These situations include being paid a compliment, making a financial transaction at a store, interacting with guests and hosts, and much more.  

In this lesson, we talk about one of the most important concepts when it comes to learning about Persian culture- the concept of tārof. Tārof is basically the code of etiquette Iranians use in all social situations, and it's quite culturally pervasive. While western culture also has rules of engaging with others, Persians take it to a whole new level. For someone unfamiliar with the concept, sometimes the behavior of Iranians may seem a bit strange, but once these few simple rules are learned, a lot of cultural misunderstanding can be avoided. LINKS:  We also explored this concept in our popular Youtube video, which you can see here. In addition, Leyla was interviewed for PRI's The World about the concept- check it out on their webpage. Or checkout her interview with the LA Times, where again she championed the cause. 

In this lesson, we learn more about how to talk about daily routines, especially routines associated with waking up and going to bed.

In Lesson 49, we learn to talk about simple daily routines. These include things like eating breakfast, going to work, having meals, and resting.

In this lesson, we learn the Persian words for different types of transportation, including airplanes, cars, bicycles, and motorcyles.

In this lesson, we learn to talk about one of the most important parts of Persian culture- breakfast. We learn how to talk about breakfast- including a list of breakfast foods and important breakfast drinks.

This week, we’re continuing with our kitchen Persian vocabulary, and learning practical conversations you would have in any household. In this lesson, we learn more vocabulary for how to talk about illnesses and pain. In addition, we learn words for more parts of the body.

In this lesson, we cover a topic you will hopefully not have to use too often- the topic of not feeling too well. We'll learn how to express that you're not feeling well, how to ask others how they are feeling, and how to talk about pain that you have. Also, we will learn the Persian words for several parts of the body.  

We’re continuing on with our power series, learning a good bit of grammar and words to help fill in our vocabulary. So Lessons 21 and 22 were devoted entirely to the verbs "to be" and "to have", respectively. These are both very important verbs in the language, and both happen to have special subjunctive stems, so we are going to devote this entire lesson to their subjunctive forms. Thankfully, they’re both related!

In this lesson, we build on Lesson 42, and learn how to talk about wants. For instance, 'I want to go to the cinema.' In addition, we learn some special verbs that allow us to construct additional subjunctive sentences. These special verbs include 'must', 'might', 'it's possible', and 'it's better'.

This lesson teaches the simple subjunctive, which will allow you to take definite sentences like 'I am going to the movies tonight' to less definite ones like 'I could go to the movies tonight'.

In this lesson, we go over some 'structured infinitive sentences'. These are verb structures that include all parts you need to make a full sentence within them. The four verbs we focus on are 'I telephoned ______', 'I am happy with ______', 'I am angry with _______', and 'I am waiting for _______'.

In this dialogue, we ask Matt and Ladan what they've been up to the past few months. We get to hear how Matt's been doing in med school, and we also hear some really exciting information that Ladan reveals.

In this lesson, we’re going to listen to two people deciding what they’re going to do one evening. They go through a variety of options, including going to the cinema, getting Chinese food, and making food at home. Listen to find out what they ultimately decide.

This dialogue teaches you vocabulary to use in stores while buying things such as jewelry.

Up until now, we’ve been listening to conversations between Leyla and various family members. In Lesson 37, we listen to a dialogue that takes place in a restaurant, first between a host and patrons, and then between a waitress and patrons. This should sound familiar to you, because much of this vocab was covered in unit 2. This will serve as a reminder and also present some new vocabulary for you to use when visiting a restaurant.

Lesson 36 features a conversation between Leyla and her Aunt Farnoosh. Aunt Farnoosh describes her trip to Cancun.

Lesson 35 features a dialogue between Leyla and her uncle.

Lesson 34 features a dialogue in Persian (Farsi) between Leyla and her grandmother.

Lesson 33 features a dialogue in Persian (Farsi) between Leyla and her mother.  This lesson won't have a particular focus in terms of tenses. Rather, it will have general conversational vocabulary and skills that we need to learn.