#persianspeaking

This Thanksgiving break, I had the pleasure of spending time with my cousin and uncle who were visiting from Iran. My uncle does not know English, so I have never really had the chance to talk to him. Using my new Persian skills (with help from my cousin who helped me with new vocabulary), I was able to tell him what things I was planning on baking for Thanksgiving, and ask him which desserts he would like. I had a lot of fun because I have spent a lot of time around my uncle throughout the years, but we have never had a way to communicate until now. Something that surprised me was that a lot of words are the same in both English and Persian. For example, the words “tart,” and “pie” were the same in both languages. 

I don’t think this experience challenged any stereotypes, but I did find it very interesting that the two languages have so much similar vocabulary. I also noticed that even when I made mistakes, my uncle was able to understand exactly what I was trying to say. Also, when I would pronounce an English word in a Persian accent, a lot of times my uncle knew exactly what I was talking about, even though he does not know English. This experience showed me that English and Persian have a lot of similar words, and that Persian-speaking people have a very flexible understanding of their language and can adapt it to understand people speaking other languages. 

-Julia K