Basic Facts Capital City: Tehran Population: about 77 million
Slightly smaller than Alaska Official Language: Persian (Farsi)
Major Religion: Shiite Islam
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Tehran, capital city of Iran
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Borj-e Azadi (Azadi Tower), Tehran
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Inside Nasir al-Mulk mosque in Shiraz
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History Over 2,500 years old Known as Persia until 1935 A
cultural center of the Muslim world Revolution in 1979 overthrew
the monarchy and established an Islamic Republic
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Persepolis, ancient capital of Persia
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An example of Persian art from the Middle Ages
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Modern Iranian women
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Culture Persian New Year (Nowruz) occurs on the spring equinox
- March 20 or 21 Celebrates new life and new beginnings Traditions
surrounding Nowruz include Chaharshanbe Suri (Fireworks Wednesday)
Sizdah Bedar (picnic on the 13 th day of the year) Haft Sin
(traditional table setting with 7 items beginning with the Persian
letter sin )
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Jumping over the bonfire on Chaharshanbe Suri
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Picnicking outdoors to celebrate Sizdah Bedar
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Haft Sin table setting
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Haft Sin meanings 1.Sabzeh wheat or barley sprouts - rebirth
2.Samanu sweet wheat pudding - affluence 3.Senjed dried oleaster
fruit - love 4.Seer garlic - medicine 5.Seeb apple beauty and
health 6.Somaq sumac fruit (color of) sunrise 7.Serkeh vinegar old
age and patience
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Culture Traditional Iranian foods include ghormeh sabzi,
fesenjoon, kebabs, rice (polo), tahdig, and ash-e reshteh Both ice
cream (400 BCE) and cookies (700 CE) were invented in Persia Iran
is well-known for its carpet-making tradition Classical Persian
poetry is popular around the world
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Ghormeh sabzi served with polo (Iranian rice)
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fesenjoon kebabs
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tahdig ash-e reshteh
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Persian carpet workshop in Iran
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Persian calligraphy in the shapes of animals
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Persian Language
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Introduction to the language Farsi is name of the Persian
language in the language itself When people speak in Spanish, they
refer to the language as espaol. When people speak in Persian, they
refer to the language as farsi. Persian is spoken in Iran,
Afghanistan, and Tajikistan Each country has a slightly different
dialect. These are similar to the different accents we hear in
English-speaking countries (ex: USA, England, and Australia).
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Hello Salaam
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How are you? Haletoon chetore?
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Im fine Khoobam
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Thanks Mersee
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And how are you? Shomaa chetorin?
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Goodbye! Khoda hafez
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A short conversation A: Hello. How are you? B: Im fine. Thanks.
And how are you? A: Im fine. Good-bye. B: Good-bye. A: Salaam.
Haaletoon chetore? B: Khoobam. Mersee. Shomaa chetorin? A: Khoobam.
Khoda hafez. B: Khoda hafez.
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Quiz How do you say: Hello Im fine Thanks Good-bye How are
you?
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Now lets learn some numbers 1 yek 2 do 3 se 4 chahar
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1 yek
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2 do
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3 se
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4 chahar
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Who would like to count to 4 in Persian?
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1 yek 2 do 3 se 4 chahar
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Lets learn 4 colors
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yellow zard
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white sefid
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blue aabi
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turquoise firoozayee
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Quiz How do you say?
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Introduction to Persian writing The writing system is called
the Perso-Arabic script. It is based on the Arabic script but
altered with new letters to represent Persian sounds. The alphabet
has 32 letters. There are 6 vowels. The short vowels are mostly
left unwritten and the reader has to supply them. Letters can have
4 different shapes. These depend upon where they are found in a
word.
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Persian writing cont. There is no difference between capital
& lowercase. Persian is always written in cursive. Persian is
written from right to left. Books are read from the back to the
front. This script is used in many languages (with some
modifications)Arabic, Urdu, Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Punjabi (in
Pakistan), Kashmiri