9 replies to this topic

[Men of Mehdi]

Everyone says its easy to learn farsi, but what i really wanted to know is;

Really how easy is it to learn it from your experience and opinions?

Just wondering

[3iraqee]

well my sister was little when we left iran to live in the west and doesnt speak farsi like me and the rest of my family do, so she went for a month to iran for zeyarata year ago and she stayed over with my cousins and relatives as we kinda have so much relatives there, so when she came back from iran she knew alot of basic words and she could hold a good conversations with farsi speakers. we were amazed and at the same time she proved to alot of people that farsi can be learnt quick as its very easy and a lovely language to be spoken, personlly i love farsi language....

[Rubaiyat]

its not hard

easier than arabic

[keys2paradise]

If you are a native farsi speaker, then you would say that!

An Iranian lady once told me that she heard on the news that farsi was the 3rd most difficult language to learn, after Chinese and Arabic if i'm not mistaken.  I have learned farsi late in life, much later than i should given the fact that my father is iranian.  I'm still learning now and probably always will be, but i consider it as a hobby!

The older a person gets, the more effort is required to learn another language.  I would say that if you have access to native farsi speakers, then skip the formal classes and learn in a more natural and comfortable environment.   Even if this is only through TV, I have learned lots from those corny serials on jame jam    It is possible to make quicker progress if you 'teach yourself' alot by finding alternative exposure to farsi rather than classes.  I'm not saying these are not useful, but you can learn without spending money.  The internet is a great resource nowadays.

If you want to speak it, a mentor is invaluable like an iranian friend, someone who will not laugh at the mistakes you will inevitably make and instead just politely correct you.  Learning to read will allow you to understand more formal words, big words that you wont hear in conversation. Plus you will learn the difference between written farsi and spoken farsi. It's very different!  

All in all if you're a non-Iranian who does not have the opportunity to live in iran or marry a native farsi speaker    the you should be prepared to put in alot of effort and motivation.  I once worked with an english guy who was so interested in ancient persia that he taught himself to read and write farsi.  Mashallah his handwriting was fantastic, he used to write me messages that i couldn't read! But I could now.

You get out what you put in.  And it's important that once you start, keep up practise and not stop i.e. always have some sort of exposure to the language. Otherwise you will lose what you have learned very quickly.  But it really is well worth it to learn, it's such a beautiful language.  I just got fed up of not being able to speak to the family back in Iran.  Alhamdulillah those days are looooong gone     Now I have to remind my dad of the farsi words he forgets.

Hope that helps

Wasalaam

Edited by keys2paradise, 23 April 2008 - 07:27 PM.

[faizauruj]

I speak English Urdu Persian farsi dari its not hard at all

[macisaac]

Comparing it to Arabic, the grammar is much, much simpler and smaller to digest.  Unlike Arabic however, memorizing the vocabulary is largely just that, memorizing, as there isn't the same type of trilateral roots whereby based on set patterns one can construct words and such.  I think about half of the vocabulary is borrowed from Arabic (with some French here and there even), so you if you already know Arabic, or Urdu for that matter, there's less to have to learn (though there, it may be that though the word is imported from Arabic, the Farsi meaning isn't quite the same as what an Arabic speaker might expect).  Urdu speakers in particular seemed to very easily pick up the language, Turkish speakers to an extent as well I think.  In terms of pronunciation it's also fairly simple, where multiple Arabic letters are pronounced the same way, though of course getting an authentic "accent" (if you want one) is a different matter.

Overall, it's a relatively simple language (relatively here, language itself can be pretty complex), though how hard it would be to learn is going to vary from person to person.

[yasahibalzaman]

Farsi is one of the easier languages to learn. There's no masculine/feminine, etc...like Arabic which is very hard to learn.

[YaMahdiAdrekne]

pretty easy, i would say it is the least complicated one from arabic or urdu, but u must always have someone speaking to u in farsi and in a matter of months u will know how. good luck man

[The Canuck]

Farsi is a relatively easy language to learn.  Linguistically it's also easy.  "Mastering" any language is always difficult, but with Farsi it's probably easier than many other languages.  The grammar is not complicated, it's construct is basic.  The Vocabulary aspect is just a matter of memorizing the words, and there are related words but not necessarily 'roots' like Arabic ( though there are some ).  There are a lot of Old Arabic words, which are also Arabic words that Arabic people don't even use ( attributed to the region historically ).  There are some or few turkic words, and a very tiny amount of French, you can probably count with your fingers.

In terms of it's relationship with Urdu, Urdu borrows the majority bulk of it's vocabulary from Farsi, so if you know Urdu you will also find Farsi easy.  Infact, a Farsi speaker can also learn Urdu easily.  Urdu might have more grammar rules, with the masculine feminine too.

I can only compare it to languages that I am familiar with to an extent.  Compared to turkish or turkic languages it is also easier because turkic languages use constructive grammar and wording which is not easy to learn from scratch.

ws

[3iraqee]

easy,...peasy,....lemon,....squeezy,...!!!!!!!!