Short Stories in Farsi for Intermediate Level and Beyond

By Ali Borhan

If you feel you need to become fluent in Farsi/Persian and you are tired of learning Farsi from the books which do not understand the peculiar challenges that "informal" Farsi poses to learners, this book is right for you. Unlike many books which copy/paste Farsi stories from different sources, this book contains twenty-one short stories which were carefully (re)written specially for students from intermediate to advanced level.

Thoughtfully organized, each unit is comprised of the main text, vocabulary list, comprehension questions and informal Farsi notes. To avoid spoon-feeding the learner, English equivalents are not provided. Instead, synonyms are given for the main words and phrases following each story. Still, learners are encouraged to guess the meaning of the unfamiliar words in their contexts before looking them up.

Primarily designed to enhance your reading comprehension of both formal and informal Farsi, this book can also be used to solidify your speaking ability. Authentic spoken dialogs in the stories will help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking skill. You may refer to the fluency notes at the end of each unit to better understand the major points regarding the changes in grammar and pronunciation from formal to conversational/informal Farsi.

Please do note that students are required to be able to read Farsi as no transliteration is given. Still, diacritical marks are meticulously used to prevent misunderstanding and misreading of the script.

• Language: فارسی
• Publisher: Ali Borhan
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005941710

Ali Borhan

Abbasali Borhan is an Iranian author and university lecturer. He holds a Ph.D. in English literature and has been teaching Farsi to international students since 2016.

Book preview

Preface

According to Web Technologies Statistics, Persian is ranked fifth in the world as the most popular content language on the web behind Spanish, Turkish, Russian, and English. This huge spate of virtual content available on the internet, however, has little to offer to the Farsi enthusiasts across the world. The almost complete absence of materials and resources required for Farsi learners and tutors compels an urgent need to fill this aching void.

This book is primarily designed to enhance reading comprehension in Farsi for intermediate level and beyond. Except for the last story, The Soccer Game which is written by the author, the remaining stories are adapted from a variety of sources and mediums ranging from contemporary writings by unknown writers to classical masterpieces such as Sadi’s Golestan. All texts, prose or verse, were thoroughly revisited so that they become accessible to learners of different lexical backgrounds. To this end, the texts were revised and modified in terms of spelling, vocabulary, and grammar, hence making the language used fresh, clear, and easy to comprehend. The source texts were not just adapted but appropriated into more down-to-earth yet efficient narratives with a present-day tone, thereby making the stories more attractive and the vocabulary more practical.

Informal Farsi or Farsi as spoken by native speakers is yet deemed as mysterious and mystifying as the dark half of the moon, owing to the same aforementioned lack of educational resources. In this book, however, learners will find most of their basic questions pertaining to conversational Farsi answered as the dialogues used in the stories are exclusively written in everyday spoken form. After each story, there is a section devoted to explaining key pointes related to informal Farsi. The major points regarding the changes in grammar and pronunciation are distinctively singled out in sections titled conversational Farsi. For further elaboration of these notes, useful examples are given to support them. As such, learners can use the book to solidify their speaking skill as well.

This book is suitable for both class and private use. It consists of twenty-one units and each unit begins with a reading passage. Synonyms for the main words and phrases are provided following each text. To avoid spoon-feeding the learner, English equivalents are not given. There may be other words in the story that you do not know, but in many cases you can work out their meaning from their contexts. To evaluate their reading comprehension, learners may refer to the questions which come after the vocabulary section. These questions can help engage student participation during class activities too.

Based on my successful experience of teaching Persian to international students, I tried to focus on cultural aspects of the language as well as I find it more engaging for learners to absorb, hence facilitating the cultural interaction between readers and the target language they are struggling to master. It is worthy of note, then, that students from different walks of life, cultures and nationalities have read the stories listed in the book and they were all able to connect to them. And, now my hope is that it can reach out to a much wider audience from all around the world and help them take a big step ahead towards making their dream of comprehending and speaking Farsi fluently come true.

Abbas A. Borhan, Ph.D.

Esfahan, 2021

UNIT ONE

داستانِ اَوَل: پیرمَرد وَ کَلاغ

پیرمَردی هَفتاد ساله با پِسَرِ جَوانَش دَر خانه بودَند که ناَگَهان کَلاغی کِنارِ پَنجِره یِ