Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation11 Maj 2022

Interview | Growing Up Irooni- Caspian Chef discusses returning to his Iranian roots after decades of assimilation

In this Growing Up Irooni we talk to Omid Roustaei, better known as the Caspian Chef. In this conversation, we discuss the process of coming to the United States on his own and figuring out his own path for assimilating into American culture as a means of survival. Omid has has a very rich and varied path, first studying biotech engineering, and then becoming a personal chef and yoga teacher, to pursuing a career in psychotherapy, to returning to cooking and his Iranian roots only in the past few years.This was one of the most fascinating conversations I've had- and we really go into some territory that I think will resonate with so many of us- life is certainly not linear, and we can see that in Omid's story. We talk about career and pursuing your dreams- he first went down the ‘traditional Iranian path' of becoming a biotech engineer and worked in that field for a while, before pivoting to the perhaps more American notion of pursuing his passion- cooking and psychotherapy. We also talked about the process of assimilation as a coping mechanism- what it means to arrive in a country and need to fit in. And finally, what led Omid back to the path of rediscovering his Iranian roots- from cooking Persian food, to becoming reacquainted with the Persian language, and to ultimately seek out and become part of the Iranian diaspora community again.I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!

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Avsnitt(223)

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In this discussion on Hafez's barafshān, we go over the third and fourth line of the poem.

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Poetry | Hafez's barafshān, Part 2

In this second part of the discussion for Hafez's barafshān, we go over the first two lines of the poem in detail.

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30 Sep 202440min

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11 Sep 202436min

Poetry | Omar Khayyam's rendee deedam, Part 2

In this follow up episode about Khayyam's poem rendee deedam, we go over the poem word by word, line by line, to understand each part individually. We'll also learn how to use the particular words and...

9 Sep 202414min

Speak Lesson 75 | A Separation, Part 4

In this lesson about clips from the movie A Separation by Asghar Farahadi, we watch a conversation between Nader and Hojjat, Razieh's husband, about potential work Hojjat will be doing for Nader. We'r...

5 Sep 202430min