Learning a new language is an opportunity to broaden your horizons, meet new people and see the world from a different and new perspective. For some people, it’s a challenge worth trying. Others view learning another language as an impossible task. And few people dedicate their entire lives to it.
Regardless of where you fall, you’re here because you want to learn Persian on your own, which means that you’re already invested. Maybe you want to figure out a way to work abroad. It’s also possible you want to learn Persian just because it’s one of the top languages spoken in Asia. The point is that you’re here to learn and we’re here to help you learn better and easier.
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How to learn Persian on your own
Just because you want to learn Persian on your own, it doesn’t mean you’re going to sit quietly in a room with your eyes closed until you can magically speak it. In order to learn Persian, you need to put in the necessary time, sweat and dedication. Below is a step-by-step guide to help you learn better:
1. Understand your motivation
Before you begin your journey, it’s important to answer the question, “Why do I want to learn Persian?”. Please take a few minutes and have a discussion with yourself about this question. The stronger and more logical your reasons, the more likely you’ll be to stay on task, tough it out and achieve your goals.
Try coming up with three or four, and be sure to write them down. Whenever you feel like you’re struggling, read your reasons again and keep going. You’ll get there.
2. Set a daily learning cadence
Everyone learns differently, but no matter how you learn Persian, you need to set a schedule to actually do it. In order to learn a new language, you’ll need to take it one day at a time, so it’s best to only plan out a few hours of language learning per day, broken into intervals. 1.5-hour blocks are recommended since we typically begin to zone out after that. Maybe you’re a morning person. If so, create two learning blocks right after your breakfast. If you’re more productive and more active in the afternoon, do it then. Or if the night’s your time to shine, set a schedule for the evening.
Once you have the time set, map out what your plan is. It could be to read for 30 minutes, watch a 1.5-hour movie, speak with a pen pal, write for 15 minutes and listen for 20 minutes. Again, you’re the master of your destiny here. The point is to create your own schedule and stick to it.
3. Identify necessary resources
Remember what we said above about not sitting in a room alone until you can magically speak Persian? It’s true. So in order to learn Persian on your own, you’ll need a set of tools. The type of tools can vary, but we’ve included a handful, with direct examples, to help you:
Apps
Books
- Beginners Complete Persian Course
- Learn Farsi in 100 Days
- Read and Write the Persian Language in 7 Days
Movies
Music
You can also, use YouTube videos, audio recordings, podcasts, picture books, or a multitude of other things to help you get up to speed.
4. Practice, practice, practice
Do you hear this idiom, “If you don’t use it, you lose it?” Well, it applies to language learning too. If you don’t frequently practice Persian, especially since you’re learning it on your own, it won’t stick. If a language doesn’t stick, and you take a few weeks or months off from it, it’ll be harder to remember anything about that language when you go try learning it again.
Below are a few ways of practicing:
a. Writing
Keep a journal that you only use for writing in Persian. Write for five or ten minutes every night. As time goes on, write for 15, 20, then 30. It’s suggested to write about your day just as you’d write it in your native language. If you want to use a word that you don’t know its meaning, look it up in a dictionary, write it down and keep going. The act of writing (with a pen or pencil), will help embed Persian in your memory more.
b. Apps
Please use one of the apps we listed above a few times a week. some of them employ what’s called “gamification,” which means that using the apps will make you feel like you’re playing a game. This makes it more fun for everyone.
c. Books
If you’re just starting out with Persian, please find a few children’s books, in addition to the ones we listed above, and work your way through them. It may seem silly to read about talking animals or something else that’s usually in children’s books, but the simplicity will help you to lay a strong and great foundation for more complex works.
d. Movies
Pick a few movies in Persian and stick with them. Make sure you actually enjoy them, and please watch them at least once a week. You can start off with English subtitles, but you’ll eventually need to turn them off. Struggling to understand and realize what an actor is saying is normal. As time goes on, you’ll be able to understand more and more. Not only that, but you’ll tune your ear to different accents and pronunciation, which will help you speak more like a native.
e. Music
The same advantages of watching an Iranian movie apply to music. Except with music, it’s, even more, portable, rhythmic, and may help you learn Persian more, quicker.
f. Immerse yourself in Iranian culture
Immersing yourself in Persian culture, while leaving your own behind, will allow you to feel Persian. Like a method actor, this will help you get into the role of a Persian speaker more, which will undoubtedly accelerate your learning. The best way to do this is by eating Persian food, reading the Persian newspaper, finding a Persian pen pal to speak with, and even adopting Persian manners and behavior.
g. Take a proficiency test
Tests are one of the important parts of the formula for learning Persian on your own. If you want to formally gauge how much you know, it’s not a bad idea. Aside from your own feeling of progress (Persian pen pals not having to translate, completing a few books in Persian, journaling every night without a dictionary, etc.) having some sort of exam saying that you’ve achieved a beginner, intermediate or expert level is a nice way to know that your self-learning is working.
There you have it, a healthy amount of information, advice, tips and tricks to help you get started learning Persian on your own. It won’t be easy, but being able to carry a conversation within a few months, watch movies without translating and even feeling Persian will be worth it.
If you want to get faster results in Persian and don’t want to spend a lot of time learning, we highly recommend checking out our site.
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by: Learn Persian Online Team about (category: Blog)
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