Persian as a Heritage Language Worldwide
Language, Identity, and Education Across Generations
Teaching Persian as a Heritage Language
Although the language starts with sounds, the sounds make up vocabulary, and the combinations of them form sentences; it can be considered a combination of all of these, plus culture, to convey the message. This message can be studied from literary, linguistic, or educational angles. In this part, I talk about Teaching /learning Persian as a Heritage Language Worldwide. How do the teachers deal with the second generation of Iranian diaspora/the non-Persian learners?
Academic Studies and Linguistic Mentorship
In language teaching, supposedly, language illuminates subtle points, such as viewing the word both as a separate, independent unit and in context (the same interpretation of the individual and society). If we see the language as an unknown ocean for learners, depending on their approach to writing & speaking, some teachers begin fishing for vocabulary, while others dive into context.
Teaching Persian in Immigrant Communities
Teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers has inspired me to create a podcast focused on Persian as a second language worldwide, where I can examine the language’s status among non-Persian speakers and second- and third-generation immigrants.
1- Introduction to Teaching Persian Language Worldwide Podcast (TPSLWP)
Linguistics and Persian language are my favourite fields, and I have worked as a translator and researcher for many years, both inside and outside Iran. However, teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers and second-generation immigrants was a different experience. Persian is considered a minority language outside Iran; it is taught to adults at universities and to the second generation of immigrants at schools.
Years of teaching different languages, including English, outside Iran, and comparing them with Persian, led me to talk to Persian language teachers, to examine the situation of Persian in terms of methods, resources, and other unspoken and unheard points.
In the Teaching Persian Language Worldwide Podcast (TPLWP), I will not only interview Persian language teachers for non-Persian speakers and second-generation learners, but also introduce listeners to the field of language teaching as a sub-branch of linguistics.
Goals of the Podcast
My podcast aims to highlight various aspects of teaching & learning the Persian language that I wish to share with my audience. Please listen and join me in this research-based endeavour.
I also welcome recommendations for Persian language teachers to interview, which would enrich the podcast’s content.
Podcast Categories and Website Sections
On the website, you will find several subcategories for this segment:
Interviews with Persian language instructors.
Interviews with students, divided into young and adult learners.
Interviews with non-Persian language teachers.
Discussions on learning and teaching languages as an academic field.
2- First Interview with Dr. Behrouz Mahmoudi Bakhtiari
In the first step, a dear friend connected me with Dr. Mahmoudi Bakhtiari from the Dehkhoda Institute. It was a friendly interview and very interesting for me, because we talked about teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers in Iran. He told me about the strong presence of international students in Iranian universities, the efforts of Persian language teachers to compile textbooks, the numerous institutions that are involved in this field, including the Dehkhoda Institute, which has a longer history in this field, the Saadi Foundation a branch of the Persian Language and Literature Academy, the International University of Qazvin, Tarbiat Modares University, etc. In this regard, I will likely provide more information to the podcast listeners.
I invite you to listen to this interview. Meanwhile, I will be happy to hear my friends talk about this subject.
3- Interview with Surena Noori – Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Mr. Surena Noori, a Persian language teacher in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, holds a BA and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Concordia University. We spoke with Mr. Noori about his teaching experiences, discussed resources, and the need for Persian-language teacher training, concluding that parents and teachers should work together to teach their children and young people their mother tongue.
I invite you to listen to this interview, and I hope to conduct more interviews with Persian language teachers and share them with you.
4- Interview with Nasrin Javanfar, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
This time, I went to one of the Persian language teachers in Ottawa, Ms. Nasrin Javanfar. I talked to her about various issues in Persian language teaching and the laws governing mother tongue education in Ontario.
This introduction provides a brief overview of the sociology of language and its importance in language teaching.
I invite you to listen to this interview
5- Interview with Mr. Mohsen Leilekouhi, Australia
One of the well-known challenges in teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers, especially second-generation immigrants, is the complexity of the Persian alphabet/writing system. It is difficult to teach, even to children who learn Persian as their mother tongue in Iran. In this interview with Engineer Mohsen Leilekouhi from Australia, we hear how children can be encouraged to read and learn Persian with cards and using shapes
6- Dr. Sima Zolfaghari - Leiden, Netherlands
Educational resources in this language have many issues, both for adults and for immigrant children. A wide variety of resources has been published for teaching non-Persian speakers, both inside and outside Iran. Each one tries to have its own special methods. However, this diversity itself is not due to the diversity of methods; sometimes the issue is cultural, or better, the ideological perspective that governs them raises subtle questions in the selection of these resources. I plan to dedicate a part of this podcast to introducing and criticizing resources.
In an interview with Dr. Sima Zolfaghari from Leiden University in the Netherlands, we talked about resources for teaching Persian, which I invite you to listen to.
7- Asal Shakeri – New York, USA
In this episode, I discussed a part of language teaching that, although popular for a long time, the coronavirus pandemic accelerated its use and made it a common method for at least 2 years: online/distance learning.
Ms. Asal Shakeri, from New York, USA, uses the distance learning method on her Instagram page under the title Nimkat. In this episode, she talks about her experience with second- generation children who come to her from all over the world to teach Persian