Mom-tested Methods for Keeping Persian Language Alive in Your Home:

If you are not living in Iran, it may be hard to get your kids to speak and practice the Persian language. As a parent, there are many things you can do to encourage your children to learn Persian, but it does take some committment on your part. Here are some tips from a working mother:

1. Speak Persian (Farsi) with your kids all the time or as much as possible.
2. Try to encourage them to speak Persian back to you.
3. Persian - English - Persian
4. Read Persian (Farsi) books to your kids as much as possible, every day starting from birth.
5. Buy or make your own alfe-ba, number, calendar, season posters.
6. Designate a space in the house for these things - the more exposure the better.
7. Search your community and the internet for Persian or Arabic learning material for kids.
8. Starting from almost birth sing the Alef-ba songs to your kids.

1. Speak Persian (Farsi) with your kids all the time or as much as possible. If only one parent speaks Persian then that parent should ALWAYS speak Persian to the child. They will get enough English here through school.

2. Try to encourage them to speak Persian back to you. I would say to my kids when they were young and would speak to me in English, "bebaxshid, nafahmidam chi gofti. dobAreh tekrAr kon." They learned to speak to me in Persian only. When they were older and would speak English I would say the same thing.

But I also had to acknowledge that they knew more English than Persian because of school. So I would ask them if they knew how to say what they were telling me in English, in Persian. If they did not, I would say it in Persian for them. Then either they would repeat it in Persian to me or I would ask them to say it in Persian. If I knew they knew it in Persian, once they finished telling me their story, I would ask them to tell it to me in Persian. So far it is working.

3. Persian - English - Persian. For kids who are a bit older and speak better English and don't have a great command of Persian vocabulary or expression, here is a trick my American mother used in Iran to teach us English. Speak to the child first in Persian; then repeat the sentence in English; then follow it up by repeating the Persian again. It might take up to 6 months or a year, but if you stick with it, your child should be understanding and speaking Persian pretty well after that.

4. Read Persian (Farsi) books to your kids as much as possible, every day starting from birth. Check online or go to your local store, or buy books in Iran if you go back. ketabeiran.com and ketab.com

The more we parents buy Persian children’s books for our kids the more the businesses will supply. In Iran, if you find books you like buy them at once. Rarely will you find those same books at other stores. Also buy a variety. I buy Persian folk tales, science books, Disney in Farsi, basically any book with a subject that I also find in English whether I read it to them or they read it in school. The variety will expose them to the language.

5. Buy or make your own alfe-ba and number posters. Have a few around the house. Hang them in their bedrooms, hang them in their playrooms.

6. Designate a space in the house for these things - the more exposure the better. Designate a place in a family room or in the kitchen to hang the alef-ba, numbers, calendars, seasons, etc. The more kids see these images in Persian the more they will get embedded in their minds.

7. Search your community and the internet for Persian or Arabic learning material for kids. Have Persian alef-ba puzzles around the house as well as numbers, maps, shapes and colors. You can buy some things in Iran. Others are available in stores in the U.S. or over the internet. If they don't have some things you need, be creative and make it.

8. Starting from almost birth sing the Alef-ba songs to your kids. They learn the A-B-Cs from birth! There is a good video with Alef-Ba sung to the tune of Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy" on the market. Play that from time to time and sing it with the kids often, maybe even at night as part of the lullabies. They will learn to sing it that way. Getting them to recognize and identify the Alfe-ba will be another challenge.

There is a good tape on the market called “Negaheh Koodak”. Most of it is in Persian and is a delightful tape for younger kids. My boys learned their numbers and shapes and some vocabulary from it. Unfortunately, the A-B-C's are in English! Maybe if enough people buy it, the producer will be encouraged to remake it with the Persian Alef-Ba next time.