This course is intended for novice Persian/Farsi learners who have no prior knowledge of Persian or Farsi, both the language and the writing system. It largely concentrates on how to learn Persian, the fundamental characteristics of Persian, and the Persian alphabet.
We begin with a book titled First Step, which was released by the Sa’adi Foundation in Iran, one of the major institutions involved in advancing the Persian language. In addition to English and Arabic speakers, It has also created useful books in Persian for a variety of nations, from the East to the West, including Chinese, Korean, Russian, Lebanese, Croatian, Iraqi, and Turkish among many others.
There are seventeen units in this book, which will be covered in A1-1, A1-2, A1-3, and A1-4 courses. You will be able to read and write in Persian easily after finishing this book, as well as comprehend simple Persian texts, writings, and everyday conversations.

The first three courses each cover four lessons of the book and A1-4 covers four lessons. Each course comes with three pdf files, one for your homework, one for the whiteboard notes from each session, and the third for the final exam. Moreover, each course also includes additional visual or video content in which you will see Iranian people talking in Persian about their daily lives. Each supplementary video uses the same grammar and vocabulary as the corresponding course. It means that if grammatically you learn how to introduce yourself, you will see people doing so in Persian, using casual speaking, in the videos. Similarly, if you study vocabulary and expressions on how to talk about your family, you will see Iranians talking about their families using the same vocabulary and expressions.

The course starts with A1-1. It includes the preface to the book as well as general information on Persian. It explains what to expect and consider when learning Persian. The course also comes with a copyable pdf file as your homework, including those pages you need to complete or do some exercise before the next sessions. You will find five to nine smaller lessons with a video in each lesson, each covering one section of the lessons, e.g., conversation, listening, reading, etc. In the case of A1-1, you will find thirty-three (33) instructional videos (Five hours) for four lessons, one video of Iranian talks, a pdf file of your homework, four pdf files of the notes, one for each lesson, and a pdf file as your final exam. It also comes with two audio files. I strongly suggest you just listen and enjoy these two files, do not try to understand every word: one, a story in Persian from a famous book, in this case for this course it is ‘The Story of the Gate of Fortune’ written by Ahmad Shamloo, a very famous commentary author. The other, a poem, which for this course it is a poem by Forough Farrokhzad.

After completing your homework and your final test, you can email them directly to me at persiancampus@gmail.com. I will check, correct, comment on them and send you back the files. One of my strongest recommendations is to do this. You will, however, undoubtedly take patience into consideration as you wait for my email.

In this course you are going to learn the following letters and sounds: a/ā [alef], b [be], p [Pe], t [Te], s [Se], š/ʃ [She], r [Re], and z [Ze] as well as the short vowels /e/, /a/ and long vowel /i/.

Grammatically you will be able to use the present form of the verb BUDAN ‘to be’, personal pronouns (man, to, u, mā, šomā, ānhā: I, you, she,/he, we, you, they), and negative construction of the verb BUDAN (nistam [I am not], nisti [you are not/singular], nist [she or he is not], nistim [we are not], nistid [you are not/plural], nistand [they are not] ) in the simple present tense.

In the course of practice, you will be able to greet and introduce yourself and your friends in Persian, ask about other people’s names, nationalities, and jobs, ask questions about objects, and read simple texts in Farsi/Persian.

The videos are labeled so that you can follow them easily, step by step, and not miss anything. Please make sure that you watch everything and you don’t skip any videos.

Learning a new language is fun but it also takes a lot of endurance and persistence. You might feel worn out and believe that your pace is too slow. But learning a language is not about speed, it is about quality. The initial steps are always slow and difficult, but as soon as you get past this stage, you will notice that you are moving forward more quickly. And I will be by your side through every stage, no matter how big or tiny, easy or difficult they are going to be. Welcome on board, enjoy your travel, and let’s learn beyond Persian.
Sepideh Koohkan