Semester Beginner/Lower Intermediate Persian

September 13–December 17, 2021

Days: M-F

Time: 3 hours per day

Duration: 13 weeks (+ 1 week break in the middle of the course)

Total hours of instruction: 195

Course fee: $2500

Deadlines: August 20, 2021 (application) and September 1, 2021 (payment)

Course

This intensive course is designed for beginner learners of Persian who would like to make fast progress over one semester. A typical day of instruction will include two hours of work on grammar and reading/writing and an hour dedicated to developing speaking and aural comprehension skills. By the end of the course, students will have covered most topics in elementary/intermediate grammar of Persian and should feel confident maintaining simple conversations on a range of familiar topics, such as family and school life, culture and traveling, politics and economy, climate and the environment. A special emphasis will be placed on vocabulary, and course participants should expect to have mastered 500-1000 words by the end of the term. Our goal is to teach Persian as a living language and to expose students to the wide variety of spoken and written registers used in the Persian-speaking world. To this end, very early in the course we begin to introduce students to adapted versions of authentic materials (newspaper articles and literature excerpts, interviews, film). The course will be taught in Persian, with more English translations and explanations offered in the beginning of the course and less towards the end. 

Place

Why study Persian in Armenia? Historically, Armenia has been at the crossroads of different cultures and languages, and for centuries it was a part of the Persian-speaking world. Today, Armenia retains close ties with Iran, and Yerevan is a popular destination for students and tourists from Iran. One frequently hears Persian spoken on the streets of Yerevan, and our course participants will have plentiful opportunities to practice Persian outside of class. 

Mejlis Institute is located in one of the last surviving old neighborhoods of central Yerevan in a reconstructed old house amidst a lush fruit garden with beautiful views of the city. While remaining close to the busy city center, here students can immerse themselves in the idyllic atmosphere of old Yerevan. As long as weather conditions permit it, film screenings and other social events will take place in the open air in the garden. 

Application and Fees

The deadline to apply is August 20, 2021. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the course capacity is filled, and we encourage students to apply as early as possible. 

The course fees are to be paid as a donation made through a bank transfer by September 1, 2021 (the payment can be made in two installments).

This course is planned as an in-person program. An online version of this course maybe offered if enough applicants express interest in it. For further inquiries please contact us at info@mejlisinstitute.org.

Instructor

Maryam Torabi, MA, is a scholar of Medieval Armenian and Persian literary traditions. Having studied Armenian and Persian literature in Isfahan Ms. Torabi came to Armenia to work on her doctoral dissertation, which she is currently completing in the Department of Linguistics at Yerevan State University. She focuses on the language of the eighteenth-century poet Sayat-Nova exploring his engagement with Persian poetry. Apart from teaching Armenian to Iranians and Persian to Armenians she has formerly served as the librarian of the Blue Mosque in Yerevan. 

Financial policy

Mejlis Institute is a non-profit organization. The funds collected will be used to pay the salary of the instructor, and any surplus will be invested in the development of our future programs. A portion of the proceeds will be used to support a local charity in Armenia. A report on the usage of the funds collected through the course will be presented to course participants upon request. The applicants who wish to attend the course but cannot afford to pay the course fees can be issued a partial or full fee waiver. To request a waiver, please send us an e-mail separately after filling the application form and arrange for a reference letter to be sent from your academic supervisor or another mentor who can attest to your merit and the situation of financial need. Since students’ donations constitute our main source of funding, we encourage applicants to consider applying for scholarships offered by their universities or seek other forms of external funding prior to applying for tuition waivers.