Sunday, March 16, 2008

My Persian friends: Pardon my sarcasm! My American friends: Don’t take it against us!

Geoff is taking a Farsi class. I love his handwriting! It is very exciting to find him learning so quickly in so little time (and so little practice!) And it is very interesting to listen to his take on (and complaints about) the language especially the script. How can you tell between “o”, “v”, “u” while they are all written the same? What about “i” and “y”? How can you guys read the words without writing the vowels? Well, honey, we can!

We are not that straightforward, you know…we just aren’t! We write or say something and imply something else. We do that frequently (that is not to say you never do so)! And, yet, if you know the language, you can read (and hear) between the unwritten vowels. That implied something else is totally understood between the communicator and communicatee!!

*****
I admire Geoff for taking on the challenge of dealing with a “Persian” woman! Dealing with a woman is complicated enough! As a woman, I do admit that women are more complex than men. Here, I am, not only a Woman but also a Persian although my “o”s and “v”s and “u”s haven’t been looking similar enough for quite a while, neither have my “i”s and “y”s!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It actually is very interesting to me that Geoff is trying to learn Farsi, however after seeing his patience in our gatherings where almost 100% of the time only Farsi spoken, I can understand why.

At the same time, Halleh's parents are trying to learn to speak English very steadfastly.

I think, soon, we will all be able to communicate without causing any confusion.