Mission: Make Rumi for the Ghazals or Bust | My language mission and my log | Forum

I'm going to tackle the beast known as Persian again. It's not really a beast. Let's call it the exotic cousin of Spanish—both are Indo-European languages that conjugate verbs and have somewhat flexible word order, as well as a rash of Arabic borrowings. Pressure: Low, since this is fun not work. Time limit: start of school year.

Where I stand:

•I know the alphabet

•I know some of the absolutely most common words

•I've got a grasp on what the language sounds like (though I sound like a barbarian)

My goals: 

•Get to a decent reading level

•Get to a decent listening level

Things I'm not going to make much fuss over, but will be happy if they happen:

•Spoken and written production

How I will achieve my goals:

•Learn several (let's say 20) Persian sayings, mostly for sentence structure but also grammar

•Memorize at least two ghazals, because it's a very Iranian thing to know poetry

•Read wikipedia in Persian, particularly articles relating to areas of interest: Roman history, astronomy

•Watch movies in Persian

What is success:

•I will still struggle with Wikipedia articles, but on account of uncommon vocabulary and not grammar

•I will understand enough of the spoken language to know when movie subtitles are less than accurate

•Surpassing the first two items on my how list as well as having true understanding

•Ability to navigate Persian language websites without surprises

Gaius Julius said
بامان حق!! 

What resources are you using? For future reference 

خیلی ممنون 

I've got a fleet of stuff. If I get motivated, I'll put it (all with links too) on my linguistics blog. The best stuff I have in hard copy is:

•Teach Yourself Persian (Mace edition—it has a gentle introduction to the alphabet for the barbarians among us, which turns out not to be necessary)

•1001 Persian-English Proverbs by Habibian

•600 Mulla Nasreddin Tales by Ramazani

•Persian Reader by Ayman

This doesn't include any digital sources, like Easy Persian or Chai and Conversation. Nor do I include the magic source: fa.wikipedia.org. I don't have a paper dictionary. Yet. I should get one at some point, but Wiktionary, Google Translate and Farsidics.com have been sufficient so far. I've got the Lonely Planet Farsi phrase book, but it has one weakness that put a bad taste in my mouth. It spells everything correctly in Persian. It gives the accurate pronunciation. What it doesn't tell you is that there is somewhat of a gap between written and spoken language in Persian. 

I know that there is big bias toward the spoken end of things here, but since the Ancient Greek went so well for me last year, I figure I should copy that. Do what works for me. I can bootstrap the speaking from my reading ability later. 

I've been nosing around wikipedia. Mostly in language and geography articles. And something crazy is happening. I'm starting to get comfortable. I'm ready for the difference between بود and است when I see them—it's almost as if I know when things are happening.  I am ready for the difference between کردند and  ميکنند

I'm not getting all crazy smart with vocabulary, but I'm starting to see some cognates. اقیانوس اطلس = oqyaanus e atlas Wait. I know both of those words. Oceanus and Atlas. Yes, the Atlas Ocean is the one between America and Europe. I'm starting to see enough of others—سال and کشور for example—that I'm learning them anyway. I'm reading along and I see را and I know what just happened—a direct object. I need to be on the look out for a verb. And that can really give itself away with an می. It's not just a mass of curlicues. There's a language there, and I'm starting to see its form. Not exact meaning, but the outlines of grammar are getting obvious. Which is a weird sensation on its own.

This isn't rocket science. It's not Spanish, but in some ways it is. But with all the hard stuff like gender and articles taken out. 

Ok, I'm going to crash and burn again in the face of my children. So I'm going to shut this down before I start to resent this language. It's beautiful and deserves better from me.

I'm not giving up on Persian, but I think this is a bit of a dream while I'm chasing small children. It's not that it's hard. It's actually quite easy underneath its scare features. It's all a load of excuses, but at least I know what they really are.