I Learned Persian For Two Weeks (to Meet the People of Iran)

[@Langfocus]

Hi everyone. I hope you like the video! Hopefully this video inspired you to start learning a language you've been wanting to learn. If you're interested in doing it the way I did it, check out these resources: ▶ Get a free lesson credit for italki: www.italki.com/en/affshare?ref=langfocus ◀ ▶ Get a Pimsleur 7 day free trial: imp.i271380.net/langfocus ◀ Disclosure: If you make a purchase, Langfocus gets a small referral fee that helps support this channel (at no extra cost to you).

[@ahlamnoori77]

سلام حال شما خوبه سلامتی

[@SwimminWitDaFishies]

Do you have another channel called Knowledgia? I just watched a video about why Portugal was not conquered by Spain. The narrator sounds like you - I say this because your speech pattern and inflection is very distinctive! If this is not you, then just know you have a vocal doppelganger somewhere out there!

[@user-cs9dp7od4z]

Parsi ✅ Farsi❌

[@ahlamnoori77]

@@user-cs9dp7od4z persian

[@Langfocus]

No, Knowledgia is not my channel.

[@user-nc4if1vp5q]

“Har ke Bamash bish, barfash bishtar” “The bigger your roof is, the more snow you get” meaning that the wealthier you are, more responsibilities/troubles/headaches you have to endure.

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

I like this phrase. It's so true!

[@miladeskandari7]

​@BIazy It's a proverb dude. The whole point is to not take it literally.

[@SonnyDarvishzadeh]

@BIazy "rich kid" usually has responsibility than the "poor kid", but the proverb wasn't created for the kids and the wealth belongs to the dads. And as you know, the rich irresponsible kid that inherits all the money will also throw it away for that exact reason: not learning responsibility.

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

It's a complete disgrace that Persian/Farsi is not included in Duolingo, one of the preeminant places to start learning languages for inquirers. Yet, they include Klingon and Esperanto, while Persian is one of the world's most important languages with 5000 years of history. My gut tells me there is a political reason it's not included. However, it is very hard to find ANY free resources online for learning Persian...sadly.

[@Langfocus]

Yeah, it's a shame they don't have a Persian course. I don't know why they don't, but I wish they did.

[@br19_yt]

Not to offend you but why would anyone learn Persian? It is only spoken in 3 countries at most and 90% of the world’s population don’t like these countries… I’m not talking politics but you cannot deny that politics is a significant part in learning a language, historical significance alone isn’t enough to make a language important, or you would see everyone learning Latin or Hebrew

[@omas4407]

​@@br19_yt It's one of the oldest languages in the world and had influenced in many other languages. I know that for example English is the most important language now, but Persian is also one of the most alived languages in the world and 120 Million peoples (minimum) speak this language; like German which is also spoken by 120 Million peoples

[@sigmaprojects]

@@br19_yt Duolingo has Zulu, I think that falls into the same idea of why Persian isn't available, yet they have it. Persian is quite an interesting language and many countries have taken loan words from it. Either way different people have various reason to learn a language. I do agree for Americans it's pretty difficult to travel to Iran so they are less likely to learn it. It's a shame since it's a pretty fun tourist place.

[@br19_yt]

@@lambert801 as I said before, if historical significance alone is enough more people would learn latin or hebrew… All of your points are subjective and influenced by emotions, people liking how a language sounds is totally subjective and doesn’t stand on scientific base, it is just a preference aspect, it is like saying French is the best language because people love how it sounds. And you can’t compare Japanese and Korean to Persian, they have a huge influence (both in industrial and pop-culture aspects) more than Persian has or had, again I’m not trying to offend anyone I’m just stating facts

[@JRios270]

Of the languages I've studied, Persian is my favorite. It sounds so beautiful to my ears, the grammar is the most logical of those I've studied, and it's fun finding Indo-European cognates. Also the Iranians, Tajiks, and Afghani people I've met have been so kind and friendly.

[@MADI_ART_]

ممنون بابت نظر زیباتون💙 اگه بتونید فارسی رو یاد بگیرید با دنیایی از اشعار ، فرهنگ و تاریخ کهن و غنی روبرو خواهید شد🥰 اهل چه کشوری هستید؟

[@JRios270]

@@MADI_ART_ متشکرم! من اهل ایالات متحده هستم.

[@MADI_ART_]

@@JRios270 عالیه ! امیدوارم روزی بتونم به آمریکا بیام ✨️

[@JRios270]

@@MADI_ART_ !و امیدوارم به ایران سفر کنم

[@Mehrdad.65]

​@JRios270 you're very welcome .

[@MADI_ART_]

بعد از گذشت چند سال بالاخره یک ویدیوی دیگه درباره ی زبان کشور من (فارسی) ساختید ، فوق العاده بود ✨️ سپاس از رحماتتون برای شناساندن فارسی به مردم سایر کشور ها🙏🏻💙

[@samyarmotamed9653]

خدایاشکر

[@MarcosYuryDieper]

I am Brazilian but I have three good Iranian friends. They are so friendly. ❤🇮🇷🇧🇷

[@ITSSIRWAN86]

love bro 🤍🔥

[@Mehrdad.65]

Obrigado marcos❤

[@State_of_palestine_2025]

i am from south India, i like persian songs and its rhythms. present Day Iran or persia had strong historical relations with Hindustan or India. avestan language of old Iran and sanskrit have many similarities, present day Hindi/Urdu have many Persian avestan words. some say people of north India mixed with aryans from central asia (mainly Iran) from thousands of years ago, the word Aryan means noble people

[@mariahamilton5305]

I once shared an office with a guy from Iran, a man given to loud phone conversations with his sister. Wishing to reduce the volume, I went to a Farsi 101 webpage and the next morning, greeted him with a cheery "chetori!". Not knowing whether I knew more than that single word, his phonecalls got a lot quieter from that point - RESULT:D

[@maxavery5905]

lol, smart

[@piruz3243]

😂😂😂

[@CaptainCobbler]

Did he do 50 backflips and give you his wallet for trying to learn his language?

[@thenoobprincev2529]

Truly big brain move. Respect from a Persian speaker😂🫡

[@h.c.2108]

Fact that he wasn't pleasantly surprised by your effort and didn't start a conversation about it hits at other reasons why he got quiet ...

[@asfandyar3591]

I'm so happy to see you make another video on persian after so, so long. I've watched your video on persian so many times as I learned persian and now as someone fluent in Persian I'm really happy to see this

[@Langfocus]

You’re going to be shocked when you see that you are far better at Persian than i am. Far better. 💡

[@MADI_ART_]

واای چه عالی😍! اهل کدوم کشوری؟ اسم اکانتت رو هم گذاشتی اسفنديار 🤩 شگفت انگیزه✨️❤️‍🔥

[@shahrammolaei275]

Your Persian accent is nice and easy to understand. You could be fluent at it fairly quickly.

[@RostamBahadur]

I'm a Persian speaker from Afghanistan. Thank you for your beautiful and informative content. Your speaking has improved very well. I understand the Iranian Persian 100% and Tajiki somewhat 90-95%. 🇦🇫❤🇮🇷🇹🇯 I want to share a famous poem from Rumi (1207-1273) who was born in Balkh, Present-day Afghanistan: از کفر و ز اسلام برون صحرائیست (az kofr-o ze eslām beron sahrāyist) ما را به میان آن فضا سودائیست (mā rā ba miyān-e ān fazā sawdāyist) عارف چو بدان رسید سر را بنهد (āref cho badān rasid sar rā benahad) نه کفر و نه اسلام و نه آنجا جائیست (na kofr-o na eslām-o na ānjā jāyist) These lyrics are loosely translated as below: "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense."

[@kavehrouzbahani7209]

درود بر شما🌹👌

[@SEJI5371]

whenever somebody asks us to do something we'll say "beh rooyeh cheshm" and literally, word by word means "on my eye"; but means i'll respect ur request so much that im ready to put it on my eyelids meaning {i will do whatever u ask for} and I think it's beautiful.

[@mohsengholami925]

Thanks for this enjoying video. I’m Persian and because you asked to share a Persian idiom, here is my recommended idiom which it’s like poem. “گر صبر کنی، ز غوره حلوا سازی!” In English letters: “Gar sabr koni, zeh ghooreh Halva sazi!” It literally means: “If you are patient, you can make Halva from verjuice” Halva means (A sweet food made from flour and sugar and butter)) Although Halva has different forms and I mentioned the simplest version. But it has an indirect meaning. You can’t really make a sweet food using a sour ingredient. It doesn’t work logically. But it’s an exaggeration to make a point about how effective and good is to be patient. If you are patient, you can do impossible things. At last, I need to say that there are two words that mostly used in poem and not in speaking generally. 1. “گر” (gar) means if is an ancient and shorter version of word “اگر” (agar) or “اگه” (aggeh) in daily speaking. 2. “ز” (zeh) is also ancient and different version of word “از” (az) which means “from” I hope you can master this language. خوش بگذره! (Have a good time!)

[@ahmadrashedkamal300]

چقه حوصله داری تو؟

[@mohsengholami925]

@@ahmadrashedkamal300 ظاهرا حوصله زیاد دارم! هر موقع میخوام سه چهار خط بنویسم، ناخداگاه یه صفحه ای میشه! امیدوارم برای غیر فارسی زبانان مفید باشه.

[@yorgunsamuray]

Your teacher looks such a sweet and kind person that even though I have no intention of learning Persian, I wanted to take a lesson from her. Good luck.

[@Langfocus]

Yes, Fateme is great!

[@williswameyo5737]

That teacher is great through

[@novatare]

Lol, I'm not even paying any attention to the subtext here; you're just generally quite an interesting person to listen to.

[@Camelialaveras]

I am russain and I learn turkish language. I knew that turkish had big persian influence, but WOW! I can recognize so much words, even so simple like "I" ("ben" in turkish), "or" ("ama"), "city" ("shehir")...

[@Jack97970]

I was waiting for Bahador to show up he is an iranian youtuber and his channel about languages too😅

[@achmedaan]

You replying "I don't speak Kurdish" to being asked if you ate breakfast was so funny! Great that you put that in the video

[@Langfocus]

This video would be fraudulent if I didn't include that catastrophe.

[@I.____.....__...__]

This error makes sense because native-English speakers aren't very good at several sounds in other languages, so the kh or gh of Persian become K and G, the ch of German becomes k, the ll of Welsh becomes L or H, etc. That said, Paul is no ordinary native-English speaker, so it's interesting that he didn't catch the distinction in the k/kh.

[@Langfocus]

@@I.____.....__...__ I didn't actually know what Kurdish was called in Persian, so I heard "khordi" and because of the "i" at the end I thought it was an adjective form like "ingerisi" for English or "faransawi" for French. "kh" sounds (ie. velar or uvular fricatives) in foreign languages often become /k/ in English, so I though the /k/ in Kurdish could be a "kh" in Persian. Note that I had no time to think and my mind was processing lots of things at the same time. I didn't even catch the other words in the sentence even though I think I knew them all. I am pretty much a regular English speaker. It was important for me to do this video so people see I'm not some genius or linguistic master. There is absolutely nothing smooth about me diving into a language. It's a total mess, but there's no way around that at first, especially if you want to make rapid progress. Even in my usual videos, the polished presentation you see is the result of me taking a huge mess (endless amounts of information) and painstakingly making sense of it. Once I understand it, then I'm confident the audience can understand it, but it takes a lot to get to that point. It seems to unintentionally create the illusion that languages come easily to me, or that I'm an expert in the topics I talk about, but neither is true. I never hide that and want everyone to see it.

[@John_Weiss]

@@Langfocus That incident reminds me of something I read once. A Japanese professor of English was attending a party at the home of a British socialite. At one point, the hostess offered her guest a drink: "Professor, do you like sherry?" The confused professor answered back, "No I prefer Keats." And both hostess and guest stood there, staring at each other blankly, utterly bewildered by the other's statements. 😆

[@alisafarian9512]

As an Iranian living in Iran I'd be happy to help with learning Farsi and also be your host through your journey

[@masoud4783]

When you speak English, you shouldn't say "Farsi", you should say "Persian". As an Arab doesn't say I speak Al-Arabiyyah, he says I speak Arabic. As a German doesn't say I speak Deutsch, he says I speak German. لطفا اینو رعایت کن داداش.

[@Essan7]

Paul, you honestly did very well speaking Persian in such a short time! I’m very impressed, as speaking is the hardest of the four language skills! And your pronunciations are very good as well! I’ve been teaching my 9-year-old niece here in LOS Angeles; she’s half Persian and half polish. If you want to improve further, I’d be happy to practice conversation with you, using beginner words and speaking succinctly and slowly.

[@DarkFunk1337]

Awesome, its cool to see that even LangFocus struggles when learning a new language 😂

[@Langfocus]

I think it's universal. The difference is that some people enjoy the struggle or just commit to doing it anyway.

[@user-ww5mu2ot9e]

Go for it! I'm jealous, you'll have access to one of the most profound literary languages in history! It's also pretty so :) I'll follow your lead once I finish learning uzbek

[@siyacer]

What resources do you use to learn uzbek?

[@user-ww5mu2ot9e]

@@siyacer Duolingo mostly

[@siyacer]

@@user-ww5mu2ot9e Duolingo has uzbek now?

[@antonyakimenko9572]

@@user-ww5mu2ot9e but there is no Uzbek on Duolingo

[@siyacer]

@@user-ww5mu2ot9e I thought Duolingo didn't have uzbek, do you use Turkish instead?

[@uncommonsausage7060]

It's fun to see this kind of video on your channel, it would be cool if there were some more in the future 👀

[@Langfocus]

There probably will be. This is a million times more interesting for me than making a language profile. The only reason I developed my classic format is because I was scared to show myself actually learning languages.

[@hanesco219]

​​@@Langfocus I really liked this video. I tried to nibble into Persian previously as I got interested in the history of this country. Never managed to get even to begginer's level. I liked your previous approach as well, as there were not many channels that focused on languages as professionally as you do. But this new video shows a new approach that could be more interesting for the audience and for yourself as well. Keep it up Paul!!!

[@Thatboymeher]

Good luck man, انشااله که خیلی خوش بگذره و بتونی از دو هفته خوب صحبت کنی ❤️

[@Patrick_919]

"You're about to experience an Iranian internet connection." [Ad for Google Fiber plays] Lol

[@MADI_ART_]

به لطف آخوندهای حرامزاده بله سرعت اینترنت افتضاحه

[@rezagrans1296]

@Patrick_919 🐽🐷🐗

[@flesz_]

Technologie is not important for these people

[@amirhosseinhodjatshamami]

​@@flesz_It's actually important to us but unfortunately our government keeps the internet speed on the low side so they can prevent proper access to other countries, socially, politically, and scientifically,

[@Alirezarz62]

​​@@flesz_ Umm no? It is very important to "these people" as I'm writing this comment they are actually routing a Fiber optics Internet connection to my home in Iran

[@user-ph4bc5sw1n]

I loved this video! I learned a lot of farsi when I was a uni student from my boyfriend who was from tehran. I am so thrilled to still be able to understand basic farsi. I can also read farsi slowly. I love the persian language. Thank you for sharing this experience.

[@zovalentine7305]

Raised by Persian maternal Grandfather who spoke six languages ❤

[@mehdiyasami1864]

I am wondering if you can speak Persian as well, like your Grandfather

[@alirazi9198]

damn

[@zovalentine7305]

I can not ​@@mehdiyasami1864

[@rezaF_]

as an Iranian subscriber of your channel for a long time, I've learned much from you about language structures and different language families. I would be honored to give some of it back if you ever needed help regarding learning Persian. really enjoyed your video and also appreciate your effort to make connections with the culture of Iran; especially in a time like this!

[@jansenart0]

There are no dumb questions when you're learning a language! Gotta practice everything.

[@Langfocus]

You're right. But that's how I sometimes feel when outside of my comfort zone, and I tried to narrate what I was feeling in that moment.

[@userAA]

Good luck! Looking forward to watching this!

[@Langfocus]

Thanks! I think this is possibly my best video.

[@reducedsmell5356]

@@Langfocusall of your videos are magnificent. Never gonna stop watching em

[@adampope5107]

It's so easy to see edited KZbin videos and get the impression that all these people are just learning and doing things instantly. I appreciate seeing the errors even though i know it's happening in the background with these videos.

[@bubbajenkins123]

Iranians may be nervous to talk about current events because their connection might be monitored by the government. And then bad things could happen to them if they say the wrong thing.

[@Langfocus]

Right. I was already conscious of that, but I learned that people don't want to get anywhere near those subjects. What I said to that one guy was something along the lines of "Please stay safe" (after Iran had been hit by you-know-whats launched by you-know-who). Even that minor comment caused him distress.

[@TheLinguisticDove]

I never knew this, but it’s so sad that they are monitored at every turn…

[@rickynoodles2816]

I live in NY state and I learnt the basics of French in a few months before a trip to Québec. I stuck with it on and off for a bit after whilst studying other Romance languages. Last year i visited Québec again and practiced some more! J'adore le Québec ❤

[@WeTube-mf1it]

What a crazy cool coincidence that this was uploaded a couple days after I started learning Persian! Great video

[@Langfocus]

Good timing! Good luck with your journey.

[@rebaz8978]

Hello from Kurdistan 🇹🇯🇹🇯

[@robogamer2023]

زۆر باشە کاکە،منیش خەڵکی ۆندم بەڵام کوردی فێر ئەبم

[@tomcolley9008]

Paul doesn't speak Kurdish....

[@robogamer2023]

@@tomcolley9008 yeah it's difficult I've tried learning Kurdish myself. But I'm fluent in Persian I even featured on Bahador alast's video for speaking Persian

[@not.sardar]

⁠@@robogamer2023 ئەگەر فارسی زانیت، فێربۊنی کوردی فرە ئاسانە.

[@ElamiteFreeMan]

​@@tomcolley9008 Persian and Kurdish are similar languages Like English and Danish

[@SQh7]

One of my favorite KZbinrs learning my language ,a dream come true❤alot of people judge us because of our dictator government but our people love U.S.A. and western countries #woman_life_freedom #زن_زندگی_ازادی #ژن_ژیان_ئازادی

[@amj.composer]

I had just stopped learning Persian recently because I lowkey fell off, I'm gonna get back to it!! As a Hindi+Urdu speaker it really isn't super hard!

[@robogamer2023]

I've learned Persian fluently brother, you can actually check the video I'm in on Bahador's challenge. If you want help you can hit me up

[@rezagrans1296]

TheeeeeK heiy n🔕 budhuh budhuh " is keiy ooskey pehley 🚙💰💳💸💵 gadhee peseiy dei donghaa ; )💃🎪🎠🇵🇰🐘🥁🪕🐃🎡🎢🇮🇳🕺 haNjeee heiy -ney acHhaaa

[@robogamer2023]

@@rezagrans1296 بابا چته؟

[@alirazi9198]

u r half way there

[@amj.composer]

@@alirazi9198 That's encouraging!!

[@PewPewPlasmagun]

What a cool format, finally I get to see Paul in (language learning) action!

[@myview6852]

Great video. Farsi, although very structured, is not easy to learn as it has many levels of formality and informality and due to the enormous number of words and the fact that one idea can be expressed in many many ways, is not so easy to master. We won’t even get in to the numerous regional dialects. You absolutely have a gift. The Arabic language did not have a written form. That, plus the way to write numbers, was taken from old Persian language. The reason some think the alphabet and numerals are Arabic is because of an age of high level of scientific advances in Iran after islam. Everything was mentioned under the umbrella of an Islamic ( hence Arabic ) advancement. Many Persian scientists, philosophers, etc. are erroneously thought to be Arabic because that was what they were forced to use. The stories of the Arabian Nights are from a Persian woman ( Shahrzaad) who was married to a Persian ruler.

[@azimehnasr2032]

I agree with you. It is a difficult language to master

[@Edd-el]

If one can read and understand some German, I recommend a book "Lehrbuch der persischen Sprache". There can not be a better book or pedagogy to learn the language.

[@SaeidRafiei]

not gonna lie, you talk very well my friend. Farsi is sweet and fun/easy to learn language. واست ارزوی موفقیت میکنم و خیلی خوشحالم که داری فارسی یاد میگیری. امیدوارم بتونی یه روز شاهنامه فردوسی رو بخونی.

[@Yas-gs8cm]

Your final question is actually interesting, Persian, in day to day, is mostly used with expressions, memes, slangs and poems! Rarely in the textbook form. For example, you'd say "You'd became like the Canopus (star)" (Setaare Soheyl shodi, you don't show up anymore) and others would say "Nah, actually it's you, a friend last year, now just somebody that I know" (Emsaal dust, parsaal ashna, you are not as intimate anymore) and as the example continues he might add like "If you are not aware of your friend my man, don't assume that we are having a break, not thinking about you [poem, rhymes]" (by Sa'adi) and so forth... Literally, everyday goes like this especially in the more intellectual communities. Something I missed in any other language I learned. اگر تو فارغی از حال دوستان یارا. فراغت از تو میسّر نمی‌شود ما را.

[@hayeonkim7838]

Thanks for meaningful and valuable video as always ❤❤❤

[@daralaghavand]

Hello Mr Paul. Please check the Luri language. Luri is one of those in the big family of in the European languages and it's spoken in western and south western Iran as well as Eastern Iraq. I will send you any information that you need. Thank you very much🪻🪻

[@امین-ش3ظ]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@امین-ش3ظ]

👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@امین-ش3ظ]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@امین-ش3ظ]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@امین-ش3ظ]

❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@jon.truski]

Paul, you've done it now. Persian has been on the back burner for awhile, especially now that i'm focusing on Spanish, but you've made it look so fun. I might have to take on two languages at once. side note, I appreciate the way you present yourself and your channel. There are too many channels that focus on "Learn X language in 30 days!" from youtubers claiming to speak 10 languages fluently and with ease. You're very transparent on how long it'll take to learn a language, and that none of them are easy. Thank you for your honesty

[@siyacer]

thank you for trying to learn our language

[@valmakar]

This was actually fun. I occasionally learn Persian for around 5 years on my phone (with Memrise, Mondly, etc) and I don't think I'm good at it already but surprisingly I understood most of the conversations in this video.

[@letusplay2296]

The Tajik variety is also spoken by the majority in a few cities in Uzbekistan like Samarkand

[@Langfocus]

Yes, I discovered a couple of Persian speakers in Uzbekistan when using the video chat application. But they skipped me quickly. lol

[@siyacer]

​@@LangfocusThat's sad, I'm one of those

[@letusplay2296]

@@Langfocus That's unfortunate :( I'd love to see a follow up video if you continue studying. I'm ethnically Persian and grew up in the west and only recently started learning myself

[@Fenixsamarkandian]

​@@siyacer as an Uzbek From Samarkand Uzbekistan 🇺🇿. I agree. There are a little Tajik Diaspore

[@shia_pan_iranist]

You are a genius man , you learned Persian in 2 weeks , while I haven't learned English completely even though I'm studying it for 3 years

[@hamedsoltandehghan7915]

Dude, as a persian speaker, although the grammar is way easier than nearby languages like arabic and turkish, the written and spoken forms are almost different, and the fact that you have mastered to speak "virtually" correct spoken language is really inspiring because most foreigners who speak persian, learn the written form first ( which is not false of anything)

[@Langfocus]

Thanks! That's one benefit of having a tutor. You can ask them to help you focus on the spoken forms rather than the written forms. Even the phrasebook I used (which should be for conversation) uses a lot of written forms. Also, when looking up new words, I often used Wiktionary.com to check them, because it usually gives both the literary form and colloquial form.

[@John_Weiss]

Paul, I am damned impressed! Even if you did a lot of editing, you still did a fantastic job learning to speak a completely new language with some smoothness.

[@dysprosiumdead5078]

in persian there is a saying "az maast ke bar maast", translates to "from us it is that comes at us" essentially "we are responsible for our own fate". 💕

[@abtinnavid6903]

حالا این‌ چه ربطی داشت؟ به مردم دنیا چه که سرنوشت ما چیه. به جای گریه و زاری کردن و چغلی کردن از اینو اون برو یکم فکر کن ببن شاید خودت را هم بایستی کمی تغییر بدی.

[@scousmouse1159]

Hi Langfocus! Great content as always. I'd love to see a video on the Mhallami language. It's a fascinating subject that deserves more attention. Keep up the amazing work!"

[@MartinIbert]

Dude. That was a wild ride. What you did there needed courage why above and beyond I would have been able to muster. I congratulate you on your progress (and of course of course on your son. I didn't know.)

[@Langfocus]

Thanks! The real courage comes with doing this for a video that a lot of people might see. So I had to keep telling myself that the reality will be interesting to see, even if I don't do very well.

[@MartinIbert]

@@Langfocus It was. Good on you.

[@Seiffouri]

You're one of the first people who talked about the Persian language extensively on KZbin. I think it was your first video too. Thank you 🙏

[@msulemvn]

urdu is a sister language for farsi and arabic, most loanwords are quite natural for urdu speakers.

[@robogamer2023]

Urdu is actually closer to Persian than Arabic. Urdu is actually a sister language to Hindi.Persian is more like the vocabulary used or the appearance.Basically Hindi and Urdu are like twins having different dressing senses. Get what I mean? Hindi likes to wear "Sanskrit" Urdu likes to wear "Persian"

[@msulemvn]

@@robogamer2023 hindi and urdu are dialects more so, mutually intelligible, hindi, hindustani, rekhta, urdu...

[@robogamer2023]

@@msulemvn yeah

[@nickzardiashvili624]

I am currently running a similar experiment. I gave myself one month to learn as much Farsi as possible and by the end of the month I want to surprise an Iranian friend I have by talking to her, at least a little bit, in Persian. Let's see how it goes :D

[@Ahmed_Reza_Mehrdad]

Kurdish Iranian❤️🤍💚 here! Have been watching your videos for YEARS at this point (now that I think of it, I speak English like Paul does lol). So happy to see you challenging yourself to learn Persian🥰🥲. PS: on the issue of the flag🇮🇷; It is the official flag of Iran & represents us in the international community. For me both 🇮🇷 & the 🦁☀️ flags are fine & are representative of my national identity. Hope my fellow-Iranians can understand that not everyone in the world is intrested in our internal political issues🤦🏻‍♂️!

[@majidbineshgar7156]

I have tried to avoid speaking politics on this channel , you should have done the same , but now I will try to put it this way : generally speaking when any " Flag " happens to represent an ideology instead of national heritage of a country , it can never be fully accepted and identified by the majority of citizens of that nation .

[@Ahmed_Reza_Mehrdad]

@@majidbineshgar7156 نخست این‌که: تا زمانی که سه رنگ روش سرخ❤️ سپید🤍 و سبز💚 باشه برازنده ایرانه. دوم: این دیدگاه شماست که پرچم کنونی نمایانگر یک اندیشه سیاسی‌ست. بله دینی هست امّا سیاسی نه! پرچم بسیاری کشور ها هم نماد های دینی دارند؛ از ترکیه و پاکستان همسایه بگیرید تا ایسلند و نروژ. در هر حال دوست ندارم در میان هم‌میهنانم سر پرچم هم تفرقه و جدایی باشه؛ این روز ها نیازمند دیدگاه‌های میانه‌رو برای جلوگیری از دوقطبی‌های بیشتر هستیم.

[@ranius7388]

From what i hear on the news, this flag does not represent most of the Iranian ethnical groups , especially kurds and other Christian minorities.

[@shwanmirza9306]

Which Kurdish language/dialect do you speak? Were you taught Persian and Kurdish in school or just Persian?

[@Ahmed_Reza_Mehrdad]

@@shwanmirza9306 I am part Kalhor part Sorani & so I speak in a combination of both these dialects. Persian is the language of our textbooks at schools but teachers & students are free to speak Kurdish, discuss Kurdish literature & poetry on their own. Ironically, the "Persian literature" class is where we talk about Kurdish literature the most.

[@aidenbooksmith2351]

This is such a valuable video to me. It really gave me lots of ideas about how to solidify my language learning in the future. While it is obviously never possible to reach any level of fluency in a language in 2 weeks, it's still a fun challenge to see how much you can improve in a short time-frame and I want to see if I can try something like that with my languages

[@userAA]

Really enjoyed the sense of humour! Bravo on the impressive progress you made! It really was the most fun video on your channel!

[@Langfocus]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!

[@therealzilch]

_Hut ab._ My hat's off to you. Not only for your talent at picking up quite a lot of what is not a simple language, but for your outreach. More of this and the world would be a much better place. Cheers and _Grüße aus sonnigem 'Wien,_ Scott

[@javadnamjoo1235]

Yes man. internet connection in Iran is probably the scariest thing you can ever experience in your life. (Not always but if you are connected to a VPN it sometimes gets horribly weak.)

[@pedrambabazadeh1676]

It was one of the most successful approaches to Persian considering the time limit. As a piece of advice, I could say in Persian we normally use definite object marker “Rā” after the definite object which turns into “Rō” or “-ō” in colloquial form of the language. For instance:” Man Mardom e Irān rō xeyli dust dāram”

[@davode76166]

A persian phrase which is related to your hard try: کار نیکو کردن از پر کردن است Meaning: Good results come from doing a lot (many times, for a long time) You know how to learn a language fast, because you have done it many times. So whenever someone asked you "Wow! how did you learn to talk such a good Persian?", you can answer poetically "Kaare nikoo kardan, az por kardan ast!" And his / her jaw will drop down 😅

[@lylimthr3084]

Thank you so much for this helpful video. You have just given me some tips and ideas on teaching Farsi to non native speakers. Keep up the good work and I would be happy to help you with any questions you may have as a Persian tutor. Just drop me a line.

[@siyacer]

You're very active in the comments section for this video, it's good to see content creators interact with their community

[@MartinAhlman]

Farsi is easier than Finnish, and they are our neighbours :-D But the Finnish language has a fascinating grammar, Tolkien used it for Elvish. Good luck with Farsi from Sweden!

[@lexicornix7530]

Finnish is a Finno-Ugrian language, separate from Indo-European languages.

[@majidbineshgar7156]

@@lexicornix7530 you seem to have failed to understand the subtle sense of humour of that comment .

[@hesamjey]

Hey Paul! I've been following you for a long time now and learned a lot from you. I just wanted to say I really enjoyed this video and it made me so happy to see you learning our language. Keep it up and I wish you the best!

[@NuisanceMan]

What if it turns out that "um" is some horrible swearword in Persian?

[@Farid1213]

I think this video is pretty interesting because it really reflects what the journey to learn a language is. I've tried to learn some languages a little bit and speaking with people I said complete nonsense most of the time but people in general are really nice when you're trying to learn their language so it won't really cause any trouble to you. People from Afghanistan and Iran too are espacially kind and friendly when you try to speak with them in persian, at least that's my experience I've interacted with them during a certain amount of time and i ve never seen as kind and gentle people as they are.

[@MrCosinuus]

Learns a new word (11:22 interesting / jaaleb shod) Immediately uses the word (12:01)

[@Langfocus]

In real time it was 13 hours later. :)

[@MrCosinuus]

@@Langfocus Pashmaaaam! A response from Paul in only 2 mins. ;) I like greeting Iranians with "pashmaam". They look first confused, then impressed, and then they laugh. And for the audience: It means something like "Shit / fuck / wow / impressive" depending on context.

[@mohammadzeynali499]

One interesting idiom :D "fohsh ro bendaz zamin, sahebesh barmidare" literal meaning: drop the curse (swear word) on the floor, the owner will pick it up". meaning: When you indirectly criticize someone or something without mentioning the name of the person related or responsible for that, that person understands that you are implicitly criticizing them.

[@mravalik]

Good luck! I have friends from Iran whom I attempt to speak with, although it isn't perfect, I still try 🤣 موفق بشيد!

[@Just4Kixs]

I learned Russian and Georgian in a condensed amount of time. Started with Russian first as a native English speaker, and then moved to Georgian as a native Cebuano speaker and L2 Spanish speaker. I used media, books, and videos online to help me start out. Then used sentence mining as well and my own native languages to help me learn and put things together. I can be at an A1 level in Russian and B1 in Georgian.

[@Langfocus]

Great work! If you know of any good recourses for learning Cebuano, let me know. I have one book I bought in Philippines, but it's not very good (like most language books published there, unfortunately).

[@Just4Kixs]

@@Langfocus You are correct. Most language books from there are terrible. I've got loads of PDF written resources for you if you want for free. I'm an avid lover and tutor for Cebuano. I can get you in touch with Austronesian linguists as well.

[@stefanodadamo6809]

Truly noble language.

[@mahourahmadi7090]

Oh, I am sad I couldn't jump in to help!😂 Lang focus is my go to channel when ever I want to learn about a new language! I have to say it was impressive to be honest for just 2 weeks!

[@pierreabbat6157]

I haven't experienced an Iranian internet connection, but I have experienced a Mexican mobile phone connection. A Mexican pastor I know traveled to the Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras area, and I had occasion to call him then. The quality went way down when he was on the Mexican side. The closest I've done to traveling somewhere where I didn't know any of the language was visiting Prague. I know a fair bit of Russian, so "východ" I understood immediately, and "příjezd/odjezd" I figured out with a little thought. (I had gotten off at the wrong station from the train from Berlin and had to figure out where to get on a train going the right way.) I didn't try to learn any of the language before I left.

[@mymohammad]

Happy to see you learn persian. I followed your videos all along. At this time, when we are catching world attention by standing on the right side of history and resisting cruelty, your persian learning is a great support ❤

[@user-sh3cf7kd6e]

11:36 I understood that and I'm a Hebrew speaker. Most of the sentence are loanwords from Arabic.

[@majidbineshgar7156]

Using Arabic loanwords is a matter of personal choice depending of Iranians' level of nationalism who tend to avoid using Arabic loanwords and also how much a person knows classic Persian language affect their vocabulary, and of course majority of Iranians who neither know Grammar nor vocabulary.

[@user-sh3cf7kd6e]

@@majidbineshgar7156 It has absolutely nothing to do with "nationalism". MAYbe Persian conservatism. Those loanwords aren't new. It's not like a Korean speaking Konglish. Not to mention that an Azeri or a Kurd in Iran - as nationalist/Strict Shiite may be - couldn't care less from loanwords in his 2L.

[@user-sh3cf7kd6e]

It has absolutely nothing to do with "nationalism". MAYbe Persian conservatism. Those loanwords aren't new. It's not like a Korean speaking Konglish. Not to mention that an Azeri or a Kurd in Iran - as nationalist/Strict Shiite may be - couldn't care less from loanwords in his 2L.

[@majidbineshgar7156]

@@user-sh3cf7kd6e Actually the ruling regime has been encouraging people to use more Arabic since it is their religious language accordingly they love to replace Persian with Arabic, but there has always been minority Iranian who have resisted .

[@until_now1]

@@majidbineshgar7156 Most people in Iran do not pay much attention to grammar because if you want to learn all the grammar and array, it will take a lot of time and you have to study it for many years in university to learn it completely. and the government's pressure for everyone to be Muslim has a negative effect and makes people hate hijab and religion

[@meeadsaber5350]

تلاش شما تحسین برانگیز است. ممنون از کانال بسیار خوبت your effort is admirable, thanks for your very good channel👏👏👏

[@IranLur]

Persian is a unique IE language it that it is strongly agglutinative, SOV word order, and has some aspects of vowel harmony in speech. We have Persian equivalents for most Arabic loan words. I rarely use Arabic loan words along with many others (it is a movement) and if you rely on Arabic loan words you will actually miss a lot about the language as it only dumbs down the language as Persian equivalents rely on more complex grammatical formations versus their Arabic loan word counterparts which are lazily inserted into the language and the Persian equivalents flow smoothly into speech as they are a core part of our language. Vazhehaye zabune khodemun az vazhehaye digaran ghashangtaran. Vazhehaye payinira yaddasht bokonin o inara bekar bebarin khahesh mikonam. Salam -> Dorud Motashakerram -> Sepas migozaram Jadid -> Nou Dars -> Amuzesh Persian is an SOV language, thus having a head-final phrase structure. Persian utilizes a noun root + plural suffix + case suffix + post-position suffix syntax similar to Turkish. For example the phrase "mashinhashunra niga mikardam" meaning 'I was looking at their cars' lit. '(cars their at) (look) (i was doing)'. Breaking down the first word: mashin(car)+ha(plural suffix)+shun(possessive suffix)+ra(post-positional suffix) We can see its agglutinative nature and the fact that Persian is able to affix a given number of dependent morphemes to a root morpheme (in this example, car).

[@majidbineshgar7156]

Persian is not " agglutinative " but modern Persian is evolving to become an " analytic " language having been a " Synthetic " language previously , you seem to not know anything about linguistics , moreover Persian has zero vowel harmony , please be careful what you write .

[@majidbineshgar7156]

Please could you write an example of " vowel harmony in speech " , thanks.

[@IranLur]

​@@majidbineshgar7156 Persian agglutination and vowel harmony has been published in various linguistic articles online. A simple google search will reveal all of this. You would do yourself a big favor by actually researching these topics including the definition of agglutination before replying with 100% false information. Persian entertains various types of regressive and progressive vowel harmony. In both regressive and progressive vowel harmony in Persian the syllable to the left must be open. In Persian progressive vowel harmony, a feature or some features spread from the triggering initial syllable to the immediately following target stressed syllable, provided that the triggering syllable is open (CV).

[@IranLur]

@@majidbineshgar7156 In Persian, vowel harmony applies to prepositions & postposition when attached to pronouns in the agglutinative form. The second vowel in the agglutinative word is modified to match the first vowel. Examples: /be am/ -> behem (to me) /bā am/ -> [bāhām] (with me) /az esh/ -> [azash] (from him/her) /be esh/ -> [behesh] (to him/her) /mā rā/ -> [mārā] (for/about/at us) /to rā/ -> [toro] (for/about/at you)

[@IranLur]

@@majidbineshgar7156 Look up the linguistic scientific article Vowel harmony in Persian in google and LEARN.

[@jjpb1993]

Paul it's interesting you like to speak Persian language, i am outside of iran for almost 54 years, i like to join with your KZbin conversation, that is great, thanks.

[@TurkbodndiLanguage]

Hello! Nice to meet you. We are from Japan. If you are interested in the differences between Persian and Tajik, please refer to our video "Language Comparison | Persian and Tajik | Standard Phrases".

[@goldenmoon2023]

Fascinating video .. i was utterly enchanted at 15.55 .. Maazandaraan.. a place name we have only heard of, spoken with love for a long-ago home. Maybe you can guess I am a Parsi from India .. a label applied to the Zoroastrians who came here from Persia (Pars) approximately 1300 years ago. Those who came here more recently in approximately the last 150-200 years are called Iranis and, as far as I know, spoke the Dari dialect. Now, the Parsis here speak Gujerati as their L1, and even Dari is probably falling into disuse. The ancient languages of Avesta and Pahlavi are still studied by some scholars, and the University of Mumbai has recently opened a Department of Avesta Pahlavi Studies.

[@pssurvivor]

i am indian so i am fairly aware of urdu and i could surprisingly understand a fair bit of persian, especially if the person talks simply and slowly

[@azimehnasr2032]

That's great. I wish I could understand a little indian. I've started learning on duolingo but the alphabet and sounds are a little confusing

[@liluths4601]

You’re speaking so well after only two weeks of learning Persian. And here I am trying to speak German as fluent as possible after none continuous learning of it for almost 10 years. 🥲

[@Langfocus]

Are you an introvert and book learner? I normally am, so it’s hard to force myself to take online lessons and talk to people, but that’s where most of the improvement comes from. The studying part is much more comfortable but doesn’t translate directly into speaking skills.

[@bigsarge2085]

So interesting!

[@Mr.pinkpunk]

There is a beautiful way of saying "thanks" which is "Damet Garm" and it means "may your breath be warm" which means long live or sth like that. It's so casual but saying that is not rude at all... Be aware of the pronunciation of As in the words. They should be pronounced like the first A in the word "Salam" Damet= دَم breath اِت your Garm= گرم warm

[@just_a_tajik]

🇹🇯 is with you, sir. I'm just speechless... The government of Tajikistan holds us in some freaking Cyrillic alphabet, year by year the language is getting rude. I bet you, after a couple months you speak better than deputies of Tajikistan

[@mlgdigimon]

i heard this too. many people want the perso-arabic alphabet or latin but that the goverment (dictatorship) isnt gonna allow that

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

Cyrillic is easy for me though since I already know most of it from another language.

[@coyotelong4349]

Being from Phoenix, in the Southwestern US, I can definitely tell Ahvaz is the Phoenix of Iran

[@BillyRazOr2011]

"Taarikh" in Iranian means "Date" or maybe "History". But in Malaysia is also the same word as "Tarikh" (Malay word), which means "Date" too.

[@klaaskay2685]

It's an Arabic loanword, isn't it?

[@BillyRazOr2011]

@@klaaskay2685 Yes. Malay is also have much loanwords from Arabic.

[@asapolanski3005]

Tarikh is a loan word in Persian from Arabic. so probably got into Malay via Iranian or Arab merchants via the historic marine routes.

[@user-dh9qf5uy6e]

Tarikh is an Arabic word in Persian is roidad

[@thadayu5639]

@@BillyRazOr2011 It is interesting that Malay people love using Arabic loanwords and are proud of them, while many young Iranians hate Arabic loanwords with extreme level of hatred, as something "dirty" and "disgusting" and try to use only "pure Persian" words.

[@PHH81]

omg thank you so much for sharing these awkward moments because they made me feel like I'm not the only one who makes embarrassing mistakes while trying to speak my target language. by the way I'm from Iran and good luck on learning Farsi!

[@victoriarose9802]

Gosh, I can't believe all the angry comments about a great video that teaches people how to learn to communicate in little time. Perhaps we would have less wars with more communication?

[@samuraialfredo]

For such a short time, you did great! Also, as somebody married to an Iranian, I can totally relate to you regarding Iranian internet connection. I hope you continue your studies. You will find that Iranians are extremely enthusiastic to help you learn their language.

[@davode76166]

سلام، داری به ایران می‌آیی؟ Hi! Are you coming to Iran? Great!!!

[@Langfocus]

I'm not going in person (though I would love to go someday).

[@Snk13_ty]

​@Langfocus Your misleading people with the title of this video. I'm Persian and I think it's disgusting, shame on you for being disingenuous

[@martincatoniryan1638]

@@Snk13_ty what are you talking about?

[@Snk13_ty]

@martincatoniryan1638 If you have to ask, then you wouldn't understand

[@Snk13_ty]

@@martincatoniryan1638 متأسفانه شما متوجه نمی شوید

[@pandakicker1]

Oh man… you ROCK, dude! I have been trying to find ways to learn Farsi for a while!

[@DilshodOlimov1]

70% of Samarqand and Bukhara also talks Farsi.

[@Dwight_d309]

Can we enjoy a LangFocus video without involving politics in it? Just language?

[@Langfocus]

Yes, please.

[@FireRupee]

It's hard though, because politics intersects with everything. I used to run a community association, and after a while, we avoided flags like the plague. If people excitedly brought their own, that was fine, but we avoided them when we could.

[@rajdeepvijayaraj4243]

​@@FireRupeeexactly dude. Everything is political.

[@JohnSmith-fo5cx]

@@FireRupee How so? I go through my day without ever discussing politics

[@siyacer]

​@@rajdeepvijayaraj4243everything is not political, people just try to contrive their politics into it where it doesn't belong

[@PineappleSkip]

I used Pimsleur to learn Dari before spending time in Afghanistan,and really enjoyed the listen and respond approach which required me to do more than just parrot what I was told. I discovered the hard way it was rather stilted language I was taught. It took me a long time to connect the greeting that sounded like churasti said quickly with the ‘chitor astin’ I was taught. It was the dirrence between their ‘how you going?’ and my ‘how do you do?’

[@xanadu_mkw2005]

Hi, it looks like the italki link is broken.

[@Langfocus]

Thanks. I'll double check.