Do you want to learn Persian? Or want to improve your existing language skills? We have some tips to help you learn Persian better. Maybe you know that teachers separate the four key skills of learning a foreign language into listening and reading (the receptive skills) and writing and speaking (the productive skills).
Many learners start their language-learning journey with only a couple of these skills and quickly lose their confidence because they struggle with a skill that they’ve never practiced. For example, at school, learners concentrate on writing and reading but struggle to have a Persian conversation.
In Learn Persian courses, our experienced tutors are native Persian speakers who are passionate about the Persian language, customs, and culture. We cover all the skills, writing, reading, listening, and speaking.
Here are some tips on how to practice all four key skills.
We hope you find this article useful.
Best Farsi Learning Resource!
Ways to practice speaking Persian:
1. Become Persian straight away
Please try to stop translating from English in your head. This will take time, but if you consciously try not to do it, the Persian will come more fluently.
2. Speak to yourself in Persian
Speak to yourself out loud in Persian. You may feel a bit crazy, but it definitely helps.
3. Talking all the time
Talk, talk, talk. Resist the temptation to fall back into English and take every opportunity to speak Persian with other people. At home, try and find someone you can speak to in Persian. Head to a nearby Persian restaurant and talk with the waiters if you’re struggling!
4. Read Persian
Read aloud and repeat Persian phrases, concentrating on pronunciation. Try and read an article or short piece of text fluently, even if you don’t understand all of it. Then please check anything you don’t understand and read it aloud again. Repeat a few times.
5. Record yourself
You can record yourself speaking and listen back to try and see what your own strengths and weaknesses are. Smartphones are great for this.
6. Listen to Persian songs
Find a Persian song and sing along, concentrating on getting the pronunciation right.
Ways to practice listening to Persian:
1. Watch movies and series
Watch a familiar film or series dubbed into Persian, really trying to listen to where each word stops and starts. And you need to watch it more than once – picking a film or series you like helps here. Please try and make your listening active, rather than just letting the language wash over you.
2. Listen to books
Listen to audiobooks in Persian, while reading along on the page. Again, choose something you like and enjoy. Boredom doesn’t help you learn.
3. Look at videos
Look up YouTube videos in Persian, and listen carefully, trying to gauge the context by what’s going on.
FREE ONLINE Farsi Lessons:
- Persian Alphabet
- Persian Video Lessons: Learn To Speak Persian Fast
- Persian Grammar
- Persian Vocabulary
- Persian Conversation
Ways to practice reading Persian:
1. Find interesting articles
Choose short sections of text that you enjoy, for reading practice, for example, a sports article, blog, or short story. Read it again and again, engaging your brain actively. Please wait until the end to look words up, resisting the urge to stop-start all the way through to do this. If necessary, write down words you’re not sure about as you read. With practice, you’ll guess meanings from the context, as you do in your native language.
2. Listen while reading a book
As with the listening practice, listen to an audiobook, or short Persian story, while reading the text on a page. This will help with pronunciation, accent, and fluency. Again, wait until the end to look things up.
3. Read a book
You can start with a translation of one you know in English, to help with context and understanding words you don’t know. You can buy Persian books on the Internet. If you’re daunted by a novel, start with children’s books.
4. Use Apps
Set apps on your phone or computer to Persian, For example, Instagram. Probably it’s familiar enough to you to know what the words mean.
Ways to practice writing Persian:
1. Write
Practice your Persian writing by writing something to someone – maybe start by asking about Iran, with detail about it that you have learned in Persian.
2. Ask others to help correct your writing
Ask a teacher or other fluent Persian speaker to go through your written work with you, identifying any errors.
3. Look up words you don’t know after writing
Invest in a good Persian dictionary. But while writing, don’t keep stopping to look up Persian words. If you don’t know a word, write it down and look it up in the dictionary later. It’s best to get the flow and structure going smoothly, then you can brush up on Persian vocabulary later.
4. Write in a jotter
Invest in a jotter and write something down in Persian every day – set a trigger, for example, whenever you have a cup of tea or coffee, write a sentence down.
5. Write a shopping list in Persian
Replace items in your shopping list or to-do list with Persian words.
6. Use flashcards
Write out useful phrases, and basic Persian grammar, including verbs, on flashcards, and ask someone to test you every day or so. When you’ve learned one set, make another.
7. Do it all yourself
Avoid Google Translate! Actually, it’s not always your friend.
Useful Tips:
Bedtime vocabulary
Research and studies have shown that sleeping a few hours after you have studied can help you remember what you’ve learned better. Even better, the researchers found that a good night’s sleep after learning something new (like a new language) helps to slow down the rate of memory deterioration. So, take out your Persian words, and start memorizing before, or even as you lay in bed because it seems that sleep is key to a successful learning process!
Dare to make mistakes
People who are learning a foreign language, often avoid actually speaking it as they are afraid of making mistakes. You have no reason to feel embarrassed for not being born fluent in Persian. Just do it!
Music, podcasts, and radio
Instead of listening to your usual playlist, podcast, or radio channel, give the Persian versions a try. Why don’t you give it a try?
Special Offers!
by: Learn Persian Online Team about (category: Blog)
What people say about "Want to Improve Your Persian? Read Our Top Tips to Get Fluent Quickly"?
No one replied yet.