Best resource for learning...Tajik?

April 5, 2018 1:00 PM

I'm interested in learning how to speak/understand Farsi, but I'd like to ease into it. To me this means not learning another alphabet. I already know the Cyrillic alphabet, so I'm thinking that Tajik might be a good bet. Do you know any good tools for learning Tajik? Or a guide for Farsi that does not involve reading/writing?
posted by aaanastasia to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

I can't answer your question about tools for learning Tajik, but if you want to speak and understand Farsi, Tajik is not a useful substitute. I suppose technically it's mutually intelligible, but not practically- it's such a distinct dialect that unless the person is intentionally slowing down and enunciating clearly, you wouldn't understand anything they're saying.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 1:50 PM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'd dig and see if you can find Peace Corps Farsi materials — they cover a lot of less-widely-taught languages, and my experience is they often use the Roman alphabet in their materials even when it's not the standard alphabet for the language.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:56 PM on April 5, 2018

If you want to really ease into it, see if your library has the Pimsleur set for Farsi. Pimsleur is all aural, and all drills with no explicit explanation of grammar, which may or may not be how you like to learn languages. It also moves quite slowly. The sets are weirdly expensive to buy, but my public library had a bunch of them.

(I had a boring driving commute and did the sets for a couple of languages, which of course I forgot all of because I didn't use them, but I also would get annoyed at how they'd have you counting to 100 before you knew third person pronouns and how long they spent on describing your kids, HI I DON'T HAVE KIDS, CAN WE TALK ABOUT CATS?)
posted by Smearcase at 1:57 PM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

> I can't answer your question about tools for learning Tajik, but if you want to speak and understand Farsi, Tajik is not a useful substitute.

I strongly second this, and would urge you to find a copy of Leila Moshiri's Colloquial Persian, which will teach you to speak/understand Farsi without the use of the Persian alphabet (it's given as a table on pp. 4-5, but otherwise everything in the book is in transcription). I taught myself the language from it and found it very useful (if you decide to try it, MeMail me and I'll send you some additions and corrections). Beware, though -- there's a new version of the title by Abdi Rafiee that not only costs a hell of a lot more but uses the Persian alphabet throughout.
posted by languagehat at 2:56 PM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yes, it is SUPER common for people to learn Tajik as a path to Farsi - check this for a major example. Every Tajik class I've been familiar with was like 90% people trying to learn Farsi. Tons of summer programs exist. If you can't go to one, try the old US government ones (select Tajik). They're often very high quality.
posted by k8t at 3:34 PM on April 5, 2018

If you want to learn Farsi, learn Farsi, not Tajik. The alphabet seems intimidating, but it's not actually difficult. Here's the trick to learning the alphabet: get a list of the alphabet in order and the different forms of each letter. Write 3-letter "words" using the beginning, middle and end forms of each letter until you've used the beginning, middle, and end form of each letter at least once. For example, if the alphabet is
ا ب ت ث ج (a b t th j)
You would practice by writing
ابت بتث تثج ثجا جاب (abt btth tthj thja jab)

They're nonsense words, but if you write the full alphabet three times each day and pronounce each letter as you're writing it, you can easily memorize the sound each letter makes within 2 or 3 days to a pretty functional level. Fully memorizing the alphabet will come with exposure and practice, which I'm sure you know from learning the Cyrillic alphabet. You can find the pronunciation of each letter on YouTube pretty easily.

That being said, Farsi spelling corresponds to pronunciation of words about as well as English spelling does. If learning the alphabet is the only thing stopping you from learning Farsi, don't worry! Learning the alphabet is easy if you know how to do it.
posted by Penguin48 at 3:21 AM on April 7, 2018

I would also second the pimsleur option. I find the audio tracks so boring they sometimes put me to sleep, but when I can stay awake I do learn a lot.
posted by Penguin48 at 3:22 AM on April 7, 2018

I sent you a mefimail that may or may not be helpful.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 4:52 AM on April 7, 2018