Learning Persian with Mnemonics


My history with Persian goes way back as I have a Persian uncle. I have always been fascinated by Persian culture and wanted to travel to Iran and Afghanistan one day. Unfortunately, in recent years, this has been easier said than done. Actually around 20 years ago, I made my first attempt to learn Persian. It didn't last long, though, because I decided to study Japanese and Chinese at university and so I put my Persian books away. Last year, when I decided to do some volunteering work for refugees and heard that there is quite a number of Iranians and Afghans living in Germany, I remembered my Persian books and dusted them off.

The Persian language is divided into several varieties which are mutually intelligible: Farsi in Iran, Dari in Afghanistan and Tajik in Tajikistan. Farsi and Dari are written with the Persian alphabet, which is a modification of the Arabic alphabet. It has four letters, which don't exist in Arabic:  پ (pe),  چ (che), گ (ge) and ژ (zhe). Several letters have the same pronunciation in Persian, while in Arabic they are read differently. Tajik is written with an adaption of the Cyrillic script (but has been written with Perso-Arabic and Roman letters before).

For me, Persian is much easier to learn than Arabic, because it is an Indo-European language (thus a lot of vocabulary is similar to other Indo-European languages), and there are a lot of loanwords from other languages, especially from Arabic and French.

For the words, that don't sound familiar, I create mnemonics. Once I created a mnemonic, I won't ever forget the word again, even if I don't review it.

The mnemonics

I won't translate all the mnemonics into English, but just show with four examples how it works.

Der erste Mensch (آدم) hieß Adam. (The first human's name was Adam).
"Adam" in Persian means human, but in German it is just a male name. I highlighted the meaning in bold letters and the word with a similar pronunciation in italics.

Pul Biber kostet nicht viel Geld (پول). (Pul Biber doesn't cost a lot of money).
"Pul" means money in Persian. "Pul Biber" is the name of a spice.

Mit einem lauten „Baam!“ krachte das Dach (بام) ein. (The roof collapsed with a loud "Baam!")
"Bām" means roof in Persian and this reminded me of a loud sound like a bang.

Die Kühlerhaube (کاپوت) ist kaputt. (The radiator bonnet is kaputt/broken.)
"Kāput" means radiator bonnet in Persian. The pronunciation isn't exactly the same like "kaputt", but close enough for the association. The word derives from the French "capote" (soft-top of a car), which comes from the Latin "caput" (head).

More examples:
Die ganze Schar wartet vor der Stadt (شهر). 
Wer ist (کيست) in der Kist‘?
Sein Name steht im Brief (نامه).
Früher war das Leben der Arbeiter (کارگر) karger.
Der Sklave (بنده) gehört zu einer Bande.
Morden und Sterben (مردن) gehören zusammen.
Er trug (برد) das Gepäck an Bord.
Bist du zwanzig (بيست) Jahre alt?
Nach dem er blind (کور) geworden war, ging er auf Kur.
Die Kuh stand auf dem Berg (کوه).
Er barg das Blatt (برگ) in seinen Händen.

The Resources

My Persian language books are literally around 50 years old (newer editions, but old content) and Persian native speakers keep telling me, that I should throw them away and learn with modern material. But I feel strangely attached to those books and enjoy working with them. Also, it is quite difficult to find new Persian teaching material in Germany. At least there are some dictionaries available and there are more and more bilingual German-Persian children picture books available in Germany.

My dictionaries:
https://de.langenscheidt.com/deutsch-persisch/
http://de.pons.com/woerterbuch/pons-bildwoerterbuch-persisch-978-3-12-516101-6/persisch
I have an older edition. There were three picture dictionaries in the bookshop available. This one is the best for German native speakers because it has transliterations for the Persian words. The other dictionaries have transliterations for the German words, so might be better for Persian native speakers.

Other good online resources:
Persian of Iran today (textbook): https://www.laits.utexas.edu/persian_teaching_resources/
Chai and Conversation (podcast): http://www.chaiandconversation.com/
Persian Dee (online lessons): http://www.persiandee.com/
Jahanshiri (multilingual website for learning Persian, includes a verb conjugator): http://www.jahanshiri.ir/

The Music

Persian is a very poetic language. Ideal for romantic songs. Here I'd like to share some of my favourites.

Mohsen Yeganeh: Behet Ghol Midam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDNDVtoJhik

Ah, the guitar! I just love this song. Mohsen Yeganeh is a very popular Iranian singer. This March he was also on tour in Germany. What a pity, that I missed it. You can find the English translation of the song in the top comment of the video.

Hojat Ashrafzadeh: Mah o Mahi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxKaTqI5jPs&list=RDMxKaTqI5jPs#t=0

Another song that is essentially a poem reaching the depths of the heart. Here you find more information about the song and a translation of the lyrics: http://www.mypersiancorner.com/2016/10/music-monday-hojjat-ashrafzadeh-mah-o.html.

 Ali Zand Vakili: Rafti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A3WH_vhJd4

You're not crying yet? Try this song. If this doesn't touch your heart, you don't have one. ;-) Here you can find the lyrics: http://lyricstranslate.com/de/rafti-%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%AA%D9%8A-you-left.html.

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