Speak Lesson 22 | The verb ‘To Have’
Lesson 22 is all about the verb ‘to have,’ which will come in handy very soon in our upcoming grammar lessons.
6 Feb 201219min
Speak Lesson 21 | The verb ‘To Be’
Lesson 21 is the first lesson in Unit 3 of Chai and Conversation! In this unit, we will be going over the fundamentals of grammar of the Persian language. This entire lesson is devoted to the verb ‘to be,’ and its many different forms.
26 Jan 201217min
Speak Lesson 20 | Review of Unit 2
23 Dec 201113min
Speak Lesson 19 | How to Talk About Love and Friendship
In this Persian/Farsi lesson, we learn how to talk about love and friendship. We learn common terms of endearment, how to compliment a loved one, and how to talk about your marital status. We also learn how to say 'I love you' in Farsi, which might be a bit more complicated than you would think. There's not a direct translation of 'I love you.' Rather, you could say 'I am in love with you' (man āsheghetam), or 'I like you' (doostet dāram) which often gets used in the place of 'I love you'. The most common term of endearment in the Persian language is jān or joon (either one works). This is often said after a loved one's name. For instance, if you are talking to your friend named Sarah, you could call them 'Sarah joon' to show them that you really care for them. You could also use it to call a family member. For instance, the word for maternal uncle in Persian is dāyee. Uncles are often called 'dāyee joon' meaning dear uncle.
8 Dec 201116min
Speak Lesson 18 | How to Talk About the Time and Weather
In Lesson 18, we learn how to talk about the weather, and how to tell what time it is.
12 Nov 201117min
Speak Lesson 17 | How to Describe Things (Includes List of All the Colors)
In this Persian/Farsi lesson, we learn all about how to describe things. We begin with the colors in the Persian language: black seeyāh سیاهwhite sefeed سِفیدred sorkh سُرخ ghermez قِرمِزorange nāranjee نارَنجیyellow zard زَردgreen sabz سَبزblue ābee آبیpurple banafsh بَنَفشbrown ghahveyee قَهوِیی After that, we go over some common descriptive words, and use them to describe chickens specifically. The descriptive words we go over include:bigsmallquickslownice lookinguglyexpensivecheapAnd more! We go over a dialogue in which we talk about expensive cars.
29 Okt 201122min
Speak Lesson 16 | How to Talk More About Food and Specific Persian Meals
It's hard to talk about Persian food without wanting to eat it, so we apologize for this lesson in advance. In this Persian/Farsi lesson, we will go over different mealtimes that come up in every culture, such as: breakfast - sobhāné lunch - nāhār dinner - shām and a few other meals in between. We learn how to call people to a meal, and talk about a few different extremely popular Persian foods. We also learn how to leave a party. In Persian culture, leaving requires a whole ritual- it's not a simple process. So for instance, Iranians never simply say they have to go. Instead, they use the phrase 'bāyad yavāsh yavāsh beram,' which literally means 'I have to slowly, slowly go.' This begins the incremental process of leaving. They use the phrase a few times in order to warn the host that they're about to leave. It takes a few more steps to actually accoplish this task however, such as getting up, standing by the door for a while, standing by the car for a while, etc. Iranians just like to keep the party going.
13 Okt 201115min
Speak Lesson 15 | How to Talk to People in a Formal Manner, and More on Hosting and Being Hosted
Continuing with the theme of hosting and being hosted, the theme of this Persian / Farsi lesson is a visit to the in-laws on a Saturday afternoon. We follow Matt on a hypothetical visit to his in-laws house, and a potential conversation as they try to serve him food. We also talk about formal speech- as we've said before, Persian culture errs on the side of formality, especially when talking to elders. Because there's an informal and formal way of addressing 'you', it's very important to choose the correct form, especially when dealing with the in-laws. For this reason, we'll go over how to ask questions in a formal way, and speaking respectfully. This will get you a lot of points with you Iranian in-laws. We also go over how to talk about whether or not we are hungry or thirsty, because as you may know, Iranians LOVE to feed people and often will not take 'no' for an answer. KEY CONCEPTS: More about the formal and informal forms of 'you'Formal phrases to use with in-lawsHow to 'tarof' by asking someone to 'help themselves' or say 'please'Talking about hunger or thirst
29 Sep 201113min
