Why you should learn a language :

1. When you already like a language
2. When you are required to learn a language

But there can be a third reason. You see that it is a doable task for you. And you do it.

Learning a new language is a time taking process. Before making your first conversation, you would need to build on the basic blocks first. Reading the words, knowing the vocabulary, and understanding grammar rules for making a sentence.

As a North Indian, I would say learning Farsi is a moderately challenging task. If you have ever wanted to learn a Foreign language in your life, I would say go ahead and learn Farsi.

You may not realize it, but you already know many of the words!

These are some of the familiar Farsi words from your everyday life :

“Gup” , “Dukaan” ,”hairaan”, “Kissa” , “Peshaani”, “Roz” ,”zindagi”, “Manaa” , “Sawaal-Jawaab” , or every parent’s favourite “Behuda” , “Naalayek” or “Badmaash” 

Zaban is a Farsi language teaching program. They offered 8 weeks of classes from January to February for beginner and intermediate levels. The classes were over zoom calls and very interactive. There was attention given to all aspects: grammar, vocabulary and reading skills.

Reading a new script can be tough at times, but the team at Zaban was kind enough to provide Romanized versions of most of their Farsi text. At times I could zone out, and focus more on the language than worrying about the alphabet.

What we learned in this class:

1. We learned about verb conjugations and sentence formations. What are the present tense forms of verbs, and how to identify verb roots.

An example sentence: Hindi “Mei kha-rha”, Farsi “Man me-khord-am”. 

2. How to negate a word: For example, “to be” is: “ast”. The past tense of “to be” is “was” which is “bood” in Farsi. Adding a “na/ne” before a verb negates it. Thus “ne-eyst” means to “not be/ to not exist”. “na-bood ” means “was not”.

So you can deconstruct the seemingly poetic word “neyest-o-nabood” as: “is not and was not”; implying to destroy; to not exist anymore.

3. How to make Ezafe:  Combining “Bacche-ha” (kids) with “Asmaan” (sky) gives you the poetic farsi word “Bacche-ha-ye-asmaan” meaning children of heaven.

4. Learning to read the script is a challenge. I would not make the mistake of downplaying it. It may cost you 3-4 months to first learn the script on your own. But a good teacher can help you jump through those initial hurdles and keep you motivated through the journey. 

Once past the initial hurdle, the language learning process itself becomes enjoyable and you can go talk to real people to “brag” your expertise!