Beginner's Persian (Iranian Persian Farsi) with 2 Audio CDs (Hippocrene Beginner's) Paperback – May 1, 2012

As is so often the case with critical languages, and Persian is no exception, textbooks usually fall into one of two categories: [1] suitable for studying reading, writing and grammar but not very fit for developing oral/aural skills or [2]suitable for developing oral/oral skills but trailing behind as a study tool with respect to reading, writing and grammar. Khorrami's text accompanied by two CDs inserted into each inside cover of the book falls squarely into category [2]; but that being said, I find it to be very good in its class and excellent value-for-money. Conversations are presented in the vernacular (i.e. as actually spoken currently) and transcripts of conversations are provided in both the vernacular and "bookish" versions. There are ten chapters and each chapter has a vocabulary list (the words of which are recited orally on the CDs). There are some drills that require conjugations in Persian according to tense or aspect but these are not recited on the CDs.I did not give this learning resource five stars for two reasons.Reason#1: While quality is good, quantity, in terms of audio material, is scant. There are two CDs. The first CD offers 48 tracks but just 50 minutes and 41 seconds in length of audio; the second CD offers 36 tracks but just 44 minutes and 11 seconds in length of audio. This means that the entire listening part of the course is just over an hour and a half. This is just too short. The longest track is track#2 from CD1 on the alphabet. Conversations are repeated slower the second time to facilitate repetition -- not a bad thing but it just goes to the relative dearth of material.Reason#2: The written questions that test comprehension are in English rather than Persian. This may be desirable for those envisioning taking the DLPT but immersion dictates having the questions in Persian. English translations of the questions could have been appended at the back of the book. (To its merit, the book includes answers keys in the back of the book.) By the way, there is no summative glossary at the end of the book and there is no index.It would be a good idea if you are already familiar with how to read/write using the Persian alphabet before using this book.

I needed this book for a introductory persian language course i'm taking, but I didn't want to pay the crazy price the university's book store was asking. I was super stoked to find it on amazon new, sealed for much cheaper than what the book store was offering, and it came VERY quickly! I'm very pleased!As for the book, it does a great job of introducing you to the language of Farsi, and the audio CDs help make the material stick. Overall, this is a great book even if you aren't taking a persian language course and just want to learn the language on your own.

I can read Arabic, so I can't comment on the script learning part of the book. It took a couple of minutes to learn the new letters that represent some phonemes that (not all) Arabic dialects have. I think I would give this book more of a 3.5 star rating but I'm rounding up to 4 due to Stockholm syndrome.When I first started this book, I didn't like it as much. I thought it was extremely confusing to have this written / spoken part in the vocabulary without really any explanation as to why and the rapid switching between them was extra fun. I had to read a different source that explained this distinction better and //then// the book clicked with me. Basically, the Tehrani accent has a few modifications to written Persian that are usually fairly predictable. However, the book totally neglects to mention these obvious patterns and the language feels like a blur -- what is colloquial? What is bookish? Why did these words change!? Ahhh!The book is broken into a number of lessons that are conversations plus questions about the conversations. Sometimes you answer questions about a paragraph (reading comprehension) , and sometimes you fill in certain words (listening comprehension), and finally sometimes you change grammatical forms (she -> we, singular -> plural, ezafe -> attached pronoun, etc.). All in all, not too bad. I like doing these sorts of exercises, but they won't help you speak better.I liked that a transcription of the Persian was given in brackets, but then that goes away! I understand the author's desire to remove the "crutch" of the Latin script, but Persian is not Arabic -- it is NOT phonetic and so the written form of a word does NOT explain how the word should be pronounced. Even the written form of a so-called "colloquial" pronunciation is ambiguous due to Persian orthography. Instead, if you want to know how the word is actually pronounced, you have to skip to the right track in the CD and wait for your word in the vocabulary list tracks to be given. I don't always have my MP3 player around, and so without it, if I forget how a word is pronounced, I just have a hole in my vocabulary -- I can recognize a word on paper but not really be sure how it is pronounced -- unless it is in Chapter 3 or earlier. Argh.The conversations contain a lot of vocabulary that is odd. I suppose the audience is college students, because we're learning the words for "chemistry" and "psychology" and "[school] term" before how to conjugate most verbs correctly. It's not all bad, and I'm actually really happy that they added more conversational phrases like, "In my opinion..." or "me too!" early on. However, it's kind of dull to talk about dormitories and number of bathrooms on each floor unless you're studying abroad in an Iranian dorm. I suppose everyone has their preferences.All in all, it has a ton of flaws, but it's enough to get you started and teach you a bit. It's cheaper than private lessons and potentially more useful, but my goodness you have to have some willpower not to become bored. Have fun asking your Iranian friends how many bathrooms their house has!

The problem with this package is the audio portion -- not the printed text. The printed text is a fairly standard introduction to Persian presented to an English speaker. The audio cds reproduce only the Persian portion of the printed text. A more useful approach would have been to present a sentence or phrase in Persian followed by its translation into English. I would have learned the language much faster if the publisher had made this change. Unfortunately, this product is not user friendly.

I've been learning Persian for a year, principally from Teach Yourself Complete Persian and Colloquial Persian, both very good but in different ways. This course unites the virtues of both. For example, it uses script throughout, as do both of the other courses, but unlike Colloquial, there is little fallback on transcription. This really works to get you to read and write authentic Persian and unlike Teach Yourself eschews pointing. You will need a dictionary, Yavar Dehghani's is excellent in that it will provide transcription if stuck. This course also balances spoken and " bookish" Persian well. Most courses plump for one or the other. You need both. The structure is grammar based, like Teach Yourself, and logical. I find the Colloquial course too rich and random. This is clear and focussed. The Audio too is helpful and ample, well related to the text, though you might listen to it independently. Finally it's compact ; too many language courses are heavy and overproduced.

Una buona introduzione al persiano di Iran. Ottimi i dialoghi e le registrazioni su cd (imprescindibili per la pronuncia della lingua e l 'ascolto). Disorganica e un po' sconcertante la presentazione dell' alfabeto: si comincia con degli "avvertimenti" sulle lettere e la loro scrittura senza prima aver presentato tutto l' elenco (riportato poi alla fine della presentazione stessa). Nella presentazione sul retro viene fatto riferimento ad un breve capitolo circa la storia e allo sviluppo della lingua persiana: io non l' ho trovato! Molto buona la struttura delle lezioni: alla versione "parlata" dei dialoghi segue la versione "colta" (del persiano esistono infatti due versioni: lingua colta e lingua parlata). La chiave degli esercizi e il vocabolario finale (persiano-inglese) sono ben fatti e di sicuro aiuto per chi studia; avrei aggiunto una breve parte inglese/persiano. Un buon testo per avvicinarsi al persiano, ma da integrare con testi più completi, una volta raggiunto un buon livello di lingua.