Language courses
ThePersian language course offered by the British Institute of Persian Studies is aimed at the beginners level, however, based on demand and informal assessment of linguistic abilities, lower-intermediate and intermediate courses may also be offered.
Details of place, date and time of the British Institute of Persian Studies' language courses are as follows:
Venue: British Academy
Time: Monday evenings from 6.00 to 8.00 pm. Start date of the 2012 course is To Be Confirmed
Duration: 10 weeks
Tutor: Narguess Farzad, Senior Fellow, Department of Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East, SOAS
Level: Beginners
Cost: £250 (exclusive of course material)
The main text book used for the beginner's class is Complete Persian (Modern Persian/Farsi), 2010 edition by Narguess Farzad.
Below is a sample audio file from the book. The topics of this unit are: general greeting, days of the week, Iranian months and the seasons, in Persian.
Google-Video of Typical Exchange of Salaams in Persian
Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens teaches the Arabic Alphabet in a song
For more information please contact the office at: bips@britac.ac.uk
Useful information on Persian
There are many on-line resources available that can be an aid to language learning. Here is a very useful link from the University of Texas. Once you are linked to the page click on courses in the left hand column and try your hand at the various exercises it offers:
On-line Persian learning resources
Native speakers of Persian or the more advanced users of the language may sometimes feel strongly about the excessive use of Arabic or other foreign words in written and spoken Persian. Here are some Persian alternatives for the regularly used foreign terms: