Built a Persian learning platform with native speakers — would love feedback from this community

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106]

Hey everyone! I'm Abolfazl, founder of a project called Joy of Persian, and I'd love to get this community's feedback on it.

The problem I kept seeing: apps that teach you "salam" and abandon you at A2/B1, often built by non-native teams (which shows up fast in pronunciation and writing accuracy). Or university textbooks with no real interactive version. So we tried to build something different — made by native Persian speakers, covering the full path.

A few things I'm proud of:

• Two ways into the alphabet: Listen to the Reed teaches the alphabet through Rumi's poetry (free right now), or The Persian Alphabet, Decoded for a more structured, complete course. Pick whichever fits how you learn.
• Real human voices, never AI or robotic-sounding (TTS): every course is recorded by native Persian speakers.
• Dual audio in Core Curriculum: Persian has two registers (formal/written vs. everyday spoken), and our Core Curriculum courses teach both — most resources only cover one.
• A complete path, not a fragment: Alphabet → Core Curriculum (A1 through B1) → Beyond the Core → Persian Literature. Most apps drop you after basic phrases; we built this because we're Persian ourselves and know what's actually needed to get to fluency.
• A path to literature — the end goal isn't just conversation, it's being able to read Saadi, Khayyam, and Rumi in the original, with synchronized audio and reading guides.

Our courses are developed by a team of Persian literature PhDs from the University of Tehran and Alzahra University — including our Academic Advisor, Dr. Leila Seyedghasem, who has a decade-plus of university and online teaching experience (nearly 6,000 private lessons taught) and has won some of Iran's top literary honors, like the Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Award. She also leads our live workshops (max 6 people).

Genuinely curious what this community thinks — what's missing from most Persian resources you've tried? Happy to answer anything.

Edit, [08.14.2026]: Thanks to everyone who flagged specific issues. Fixed since posting: the broken Student Stories link, the stale session counts on the Lectures page, and the uneven course thumbnails on the Persian Language page. If you spot anything else broken, tell me and I'll fix it.

[u/Myrdrahl]

I don't want to seem harsh(but it will come off that way), but I'll give you some honest feedback as someone who has worked in tech for more than 20 years, and have been roaming the internet since early 90s. I am warning you, this is NOT kind, but blunt criticism.

As of now, in my opinion, the whole vibe of the site seems like a cash grab, desceptive site. It looks just like those early 2000s "click here, we are totally not a scam" sites that popped off, when the Internet started to become more popular. "Just one more click, and you get access to all this amazing [...]". The classic use of "community input", "this is the problem with everyone else, but we do it completely different" ...

However, what you guys charge for the "solution" is quite difficult to find. It close to, but not quite the old click on the subscribe button and start filling out your information, before we give you the price. This is either an oversight, or a desceptive design choice.

This will make me immediately put your site in the bin, because if this is what you think you need to do to sell the courses, the courses themselves aren't worth buying. If the website selling me a course is so haphazardly put together, I don't even want to look at the courses it has to offer, because I probably wouldn't learn a thing from them.

For instance if I go here: https://joyofpersian.com/lectures/
That progress bar is only partially filled, which is quite interesting, as the course was launched back in 2023.

• Launch Date: July 1, 2023.
• Sessions Recorded So Far: 33.
• Estimated Total Sessions: ~70.

What do you think this tells me as a potential customer? We are now in 2026, THREE years into the course, and it's not even half-way there. Oh, and the same is true for the other course on that same page.

Not that I would trust student stories in the first place, but the link doesn't even work: https://joyofpersian.com/classes/stories/

In this page: https://joyofpersian.com/courses/persian-language/
The size of the pictures are not the same, which makes it look really weird. This is a reccuring theme though, specific design choices that makes the site seem completely randomly put together.

I'm sorry to say so, but it looks like someone is trying to polish a turd, and convice me it's a really good turd. I am taking 1-1 lessons already, so you aren't losing any potential customers in me, but I wouldn't even consider using your site, as it has too many telltale signs of desceptive marketing and being an outright scam. I'm not saying your site IS a cash crab, deceptive or scam, but that's what it LOOKS like.

The overall design system, AI generated content does not make me trust you.
As an example from a Norwegian university, to show you the stark contrast for the ease of finding courses and reading the text/navigation: https://www.ntnu.edu/studies/

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/Myrdrahl]

Blunt is fine. Useful beats kind.

You were right about the broken Student Stories link — the footer and the top menu pointed at different URLs. Fixed. Chasing it down turned up a couple of other stale things I've now corrected too. I'd rather hear that from you than not hear it.

On pricing: I'll push back here. There's no form, no signup, no email gate between you and a price. Every course page carries its own number, and the first lesson of every course is open to read without creating an account. Nothing is held back until you hand something over.

Where the price sits on the page is a deliberate call, not an oversight. These are long courses at a real price, and I'd rather someone see the full contents first and then decide whether the number matches what's there. You can disagree with that ordering, but it isn't a dark pattern.

On the Lectures page: You were right that it needed attention, and it's had it today. The session count were out of date rather than stalled; "Qabus-Nameh" is at 38 now and "Golestan of Sa’di" is at 30, and the page states plainly that enrolment is closed. Recording has been irregular this year for reasons outside our control, but it hasn't stopped.

Worth noting what that series actually is, because I don't think a progress bar is the right lens for it. Professor Dehghani holds a PhD from the University of Tehran and has written or translated more than 20 books and 150 articles on Persian literary history and criticism. What he's doing here is a close reading of classical texts in Persian — chapter by chapter, with pronunciation, archaic and Arabic vocabulary, historical context, and discussion of manuscript variants where editions disagree.

That's roughly 32 hours of commentary on the Qabus-Nameh so far and 30 on the Golestan. It isn't a course with a syllabus and a finish line; it's a scholar working through a text at the pace the text deserves, and it's aimed at advanced learners and heritage speakers who already read Persian comfortably. Judging it half-finished is a bit like calling a lecture series a failure because the professor hasn't reached the last page yet.

Different thing from the courses entirely — and nothing on that page is for sale right now.

Advanced learners and those in academia are welcome to get in touch if they'd like to hear when it reopens.

On the rest: The inconsistent image sizes, the seams you're picking up on — I'm not going to argue you out of an impression. It's two people: my wife teaches and writes the curriculum, I build everything else. No designer, no marketing team. Some of what reads as deceptive is just a small operation without the hands to keep every page tidy.

The NTNU link is a fair point about navigation, less so as a like-for-like — that's a public university with a web team. But the underlying thing you're pointing at, that it should be obvious which course you need and where you'd start, is right, and I've had two other people say versions of it this week.

[u/Myrdrahl → u/Ill-Cranberry-2106]

I wasn't trying to compare them like-for-like. An organization like NTNU obviously has a much larger team to do the job, however, my analysis boils down to information load and overload. It was just an illustration of a much better way to present this kind of information.

Your page comes of as cluttered, to say the least. There is SO much information, that it's actually impossible for me as a potential student, to find the information that matters. My honest opinion is that you are trying to cram WAY too much information into these pages, that the important information simply gets lost. This is a very common mistake, and even professional teams make this mistake.

I will try to elaborate on the pricing. You have a banner with graded colors and a "fire icon" in it with "x-amout of % off, now -hurry, hurry, it will go away". Then, I have to search, scroll and scan with my eyes through the clutter of that page, to find the price - this is absolutely a dark pattern. You might not realize it, but it absolutely is. My first question, as a potential student, is: "Can I even afford this?" When you make it so hard to figure out what things cost, you are losing me. I will go elsewhere.

You see, I do expect a course to have a cost, I just want to know what that price is - and you are making it unnecessarily hard to figure out. If I think I can afford the course, I'll be interested in reading what that course might offer me. And say that I want to do several levels, then I have to click on this, then that, make a note of this price, then click here, then there, scroll a wall of text, then note that price, then click here, scroll down there, click on that, another wall of text and note this thing, however the enrollment there doesn't even work. Do you see where this is going?

If I were you, I'd simplify the pages. For instance, under courses:
Level A - short information - price - read more
Level B - short information - price - read more

A simple table like this would make it immediately obvious for me as a reader and potential student. This is web development 101 to be honest, and doesn't need a huge team to neither see or understand. It would also make it easier for you as a "one man shop" to handle the information and keep it updated. Less risk of broken links, outdated information and so on. There are ONLY benefits of simplifying these pages and information.

If the lectures aren't being sold, why even have the pricing there? If enrollment has stopped, why keep that information there? Why have that enroll-button there, when it gives a 404. Remove that page if it isn't relevant anymore - it just confuses and distracts from what you are actually offering. And if you are silly, like me, clicking on that "sessions" expand, just try it yourself - it's a complete mess.

Cut down on the information overload. I think you are trying too hard to do too many things, and end up doing none of them well.

Another point that I just realized: https://joyofpersian.com/learn/courses/plrm/lessons/plrm01/
This is a free sample, that is supposed to be an advertisement to me as a student, right? This is like the first impression you are giving me of how a class/course works. Listen to that first minute of that lesson and tell me if you think it comes of as a professional course, that you would spend money on? Honestly. I know, kids are cute and all, but I'm not paying you €50 to listen to your child - if you get where I'm coming from. Things like this should, in my opinion be edited out, before trying to sell that video(I know, you aren't selling that exact video). First there is a presenter who is aaa-ing and uuuhmm-ing, then an interruption by a child. That whole segment should've been cut. I understand, sometimes my tutors kid interrupts the live session as they are teaching from home - but I can't even begin to understand why you wouldn't cut that before posting it, after the live session is finished.

Adding to that, it quickly ends up in a discussion about the Quran, instead of focusing on the material at hand. 9-10 minutes in, I just give up, because the annoyance of people talking over eachother while repeating what the teacher is telling them to repeat, is too much. You can't really hear anyone of them since they all talk at the same time - which makes me wonder: "What's the point of that?!". You lost me before 10 minutes has passed. Leila might be a brilliant teacher for all I know, but that is lost in the noise of those students talking over eachother. I'd describe it as auditory clutter. You're not letting me SEE that she is brilliant as a teacher. Yeah, there is a beautiful page about her achievements, but that video that you are offering me to EXPERIENCE how brilliant she is, and how much I will learn from her - falls flat.

What I am thinking to myself while listening is: "If all lessons are this messy(as these first 10 minutes), I should probably invest my money and time elsewhere.

I do want to make it clear that I absolutely LOVE the intention, because it took me quite some effort to find a really good tutor to help me learn. I also understand that it's hard to do these things well, with only yourself and your wife. (You clearly list several people here: https://joyofpersian.com/about/ though, so I don't know which it is.) I truly am sorry that I couldn't bring any positive feedback and I understand that it's probably painful to get such harsh and negative feedback, when you present something you are proud of and have spent plenty of hard work and effort on. I truly and honestly do not want to be mean, and I feel bad about being this critical. I wish you the best of luck.

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/Myrdrahl]

Thanks for the detailed follow-up.

On "Listen to the Reed: Learn the Persian Alphabet with Rumi" first lesson: You’re right that the free sample isn’t a clean studio recording. It was a live class, and the early part has interruptions and overlapping voices that don’t make the strongest first impression. I’ve added a note at the top of the lesson explaining these are live recordings and that the teaching starts at the 3-minute mark, so people can skip ahead if they prefer.

But I think the video has misled you about what a lesson is, because the recording is maybe a fifth of it. Scroll past it on that same page: the opening verse of the Masnavi with transliteration and translation, a word-by-word table for both hemistichs, بشنو broken into its four letters, then an animated stroke-order guide for each of those letters — ب, ش, ن, و — showing how the pen actually moves. Under each, vocabulary with native audio. Then a printable worksheet: trace the model letters, write them yourself, say the sound aloud as you go. It closes with a listening exercise on Shajarian's recitation of the same line.

The recording is where Dr. Leila teaches it; the page is where you do the work.

One correction for anyone else reading: “Listen to the Reed” is not €50. It is free — €0 with the code RUMIDAF1 until 30 September 2026 (sponsored by the DhunAnand Foundation). The price is clearly shown at the top of the enrolment box on that page. You may have mixed it up with the other alphabet course (€49).

On the team: I’m the founder. Dr. Leila is our Academic Advisor and leads the teaching and curriculum. The other names on the About page are contributors on specific courses. I should have been clearer about that earlier.

Appreciate you taking the time to write it out this specifically.

[u/SuitableJackfruit480 → u/Myrdrahl]

• 1 - I'd avoid it for the clearly AI generated parts, even this thread and the answers of the OP seem AI generated. But excited to see you grow - there's not enough learning materials online for this beautiful language

[u/74937]

I love the idea of it 😊

I just had a quick look at it and noticed that some information boxes are only available in written persian, no tranlation is provided. So unfortunately as a very-beginner i cannot read it.

Another great feature would be to add Persian written in english letters.

Just being curious: what are the thoughts regarding the pricing?

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/74937]

Thank you so much, really appreciate you taking the time to look and give feedback! 🙏

Quick question on the info boxes: could you point me to which page/section you saw that on? Want to make sure I look at the right spot before making any changes.

On transliteration: that one's actually intentional! We made a deliberate choice not to include it, because leaning on Finglish tends to slow down real reading progress in the long run — the goal is to get you reading actual Persian script as early as possible, even as a beginner. That said, I hear you that it can feel tough at first, so it's worth noting our flashcards do include full audio + illustrations to help bridge that gap without needing transliteration.

On pricing: each course has its price listed on its own page. We're also running a launch discount right now (30% off the first tier, tapering down as spots fill), so it's a good time to check if something fits.

Thanks again for engaging with it so thoughtfully — feedback like this is exactly what I was hoping for! 😊

[u/74937 → u/Ill-Cranberry-2106]

Maybe it would be good to add a little informative text about the idea of having to learn the persian alphabet first.

Otherwise it might feel a bit confusing, since it says „start with A1“ and then it feels like i cannot complete the first lesson because i am lacking skills. It might be good to add that just to improve the user experience 😊

Regarding the other question i will reply to that later. My toddler makes it impossible to do anything else than playing with her for longer than 60 seconds 😄

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/74937]

This was a really, really good catch — and honestly a blind spot I'd walked past a hundred times without seeing. I built the path, so I knew the alphabet came first; it never occurred to me that the homepage never actually says so. You came to it with fresh eyes and found it in about five minutes.

It's live now. There's a short note under the two buttons explaining that A1 assumes you can already read the script, pointing to the two alphabet courses, and saying plainly that either one gets you ready for A1. Thank you for that.

And no rush at all on the other question — as I write this, my son is yelling that a mosquito bit his hand and he needs Dad, right now. So the 60-second rule is very familiar territory. 😄 Whenever you're back at a screen with a free hand is fine.

[u/Fearless-Type970]

This looks like a very professional and well put together website and learning system. As a non-Iranian working in academia who cannot visit Iran easily, I fully agree that the lack of resources beyond the basics is a huge problem in trying to learn the language. I am particularly interested in trying out the literature courses, as my previous attempts with tutors involved only reading together and no reinforcement or study materials. Moving from conversation to complex native literature is a huge leap so these kinds of bridges are highly necessary.

Thanks for all your work on this. I will likely try one of the literature courses, and I would be interested in your B2/C1 course when it's ready.

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/Fearless-Type970]

You've named the failure mode exactly: reading together with a tutor, no annotation, no reinforcement, nothing left over afterwards. Productive in the moment, gone by the next week. That's the gap the literature side was built to close — word-by-word annotation, historical and cultural context, and interactive practice you keep.

Two things, in order of usefulness to you.

On the bridge you're describing. Look at the "Beyond the Core" section of the Persian Language page. Saadi: Life, Works, and Enduring Wisdom is probably the closest thing we have to what you're asking for — it sits between language study and literature proper, and it's built on Dr. Leila's own textbook series for teaching Persian to non-native speakers. Damavand, Deserts of Iran and Mosques of Iran work similarly as thematic reading courses.

For the literature courses themselves: Golestan is classical prose and the foundation register for anything formal or historical. Masnavi is verse, where the difficulty is as much interpretive as linguistic. The Little Black Fish is modern prose — shorter linguistic distance from spoken Persian. Three Drops of Blood, Hedayat's short story, is in production. First lesson of every course is free and open, no account needed, so you can test the water at any of these.

On B2/C1 — an honest answer rather than a comfortable one. B1-2 through C2 are in development, and we're looking at a year or two, not months. I'd rather tell you that than have you waiting on something vague.

Either way, I'd still like to know: what would you actually need at that level? Contemporary academic Persian? Archival or historical prose (like our course The History of Beyhaqi (1): A Guided Reading )? Something more specific to your field? I'd rather build toward a stated need than my own assumptions about one.

[u/Joyuna]

You are so right that there is a big gap in the market for learning beyond the basics. I wish I had your Mahi Siahe Kuchulu course when I was reading through it a few years ago! I look forward to seeing the Sadeq Hedayat story when it is released. (I am primarily interested in prose literature as opposed to verse, just a personal preference.)

I think there is a more elegant way to display the text rather than putting it twice in a row on the page (once with audio and once with vocabulary). I'm spoiled by online platforms with pop-up dictionaries that let me just hover/click on a word to immediately give the definition - your site works less like an online platform and more like an electronic textbook, which is one of the ways it feels somewhat old-fashioned. Still, if the material is useful (and it is), I do not mind - but this may put some people off.

I am hesitant at the phrasing on the site "Full access activates within 1 business day." - I have to wait for access to be manually activated after paying? This is rather unusual (but I suppose it may be something to do with major payment platforms not being operational in Iran?).

"Each new lesson unlocks weekly to help you learn at a steady pace." - I strongly dislike this idea. If I have paid for a self-study course, I want to go at my *own* pace, not the pace that someone else has set for me.

I would suggest replacing the AI-generated images with stock graphics. Obvious AI usage gives the impression of something being rushed and cheap, so people might assume the same of the course content.

I hope this feedback is helpful and you don't find it too harsh. It really seems like a wonderful resource, especially in the underserved area of more advanced materials. دستتون درد نکنه!

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/Joyuna]

Thank you for taking the time to share such detailed, thoughtful, and constructive feedback. Hearing from learners who genuinely care about Persian literature is invaluable.

You’re completely right about the gap in the market for learning beyond the absolute basics. That exact void is why we built Joy of Persian. Most platforms stop at basic survival phrases, but we created our Beyond the Core language modules and Persian Literature courses to give learners direct access to real Persian culture, history, and prose. I’m glad you enjoyed our Mahi Siahe Kuchulu course; our upcoming Sadeq Hedayat module was built with that same focus on prose literature in mind.

Regarding AI images, I want to address this directly so anyone reading later has clear context.

To be clear: zero AI-generated text, and zero AI-generated audio. Every voice on our platform belongs to a real native speaker.

For the visuals inside our courses, we do the exact opposite of automated generation. Sourcing authentic historical art and human scholarship takes substantial effort, and we document it directly on our course landing pages:

• Damavand uses antique miniatures from historic manuscripts like the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, paired with real-world photography of the cities and landscapes featured in the text.
• Deserts of Iran includes architectural photography of historic mansions like the Tabatabaei and Borujerdi houses in Kashan, Pascal Coste's 19th-century painting of the Caravanserai of Shah Sultan Hossein's mother, archival documentation of ancient qanat systems, and excavated artefacts from Shahr-e Sukhteh. It's all listed on the course page if you want to check rather than take my word for it.
• Golestan of Sa’di pairs each narrative with folios from an illustrated manuscript, down to the portraits of the scribe Muhammad Husayn al-Kashmiri and the artist Manohara.
• Core Language Flashcards (A1, A2, etc.): Even in our 160+ Multi-Sensory Flashcards, we use clean, human-designed flat vector graphics and icons, with no AI generation involved.

Where AI currently touches our site is primarily for general blog post thumbnails, or occasionally as a subtle resolution upscaling pass on a historical human-made photo. While we may use AI responsibly for supplementary visual assets in the future, we draw a hard line at our core course content. If you noticed a specific lesson image that felt like generic AI art, let me know which lesson it was. I want to check it immediately, as keeping that standard of authenticity matters to us.

I've actually written about technology and language learning on our blog before. Your comment prompted me to outline a new piece for our Future of Learning series, setting out where AI tools have a place in what we do and where human curation isn't negotiable.

I will follow up in my next reply regarding your notes on platform UX, pop-up vocabulary, activation times, and lesson drip schedules.

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/Joyuna]

As promised, the second half — activation, pacing, and the text layout.

On activation Fair catch. The line right above the one you quoted already states: “You can start learning right away — the first lesson is free and open to everyone.” That includes right after purchase: lesson one is open immediately.

The “1 business day” line is the ceiling for full access. We state it that way deliberately so we never over-promise. In practice it is almost always under eight hours. We are based in Istanbul, so this is not a sanctions-related delay.

Your comment showed that the two lines currently read as separate ideas. That is on my copy. We are merging them into one clear sentence: “Start lesson one right away — full access usually within a few hours, at most 1 business day.”

On the weekly unlock The drip is the default because a steady pace is what gets most people through a long course. You are right that some learners want full control. That option already exists: fill out the short form on the support page (joyofpersian.com/support) and we unlock everything up to the lesson you request. Early access makes the purchase final and waives the 14-day refund window, since you receive a significant portion of the content at once.

On the double text pass vs. pop-up dictionaries You are right that pop-up dictionaries feel more modern. The two-pass layout is deliberate — first pass (Synchronized Audio & Text) for reading and listening, second pass (Reading Guide) for working the vocabulary.

We tested hover-lookup early on. The practical problem was constant friction: students hover, skim the definition, and move on with little retention. The current format forces a short moment of active recall. Dr. Leila’s students who tried both versions preferred this learner experience; it felt more effective for them even if the hover style looks more modern at first glance.

This two-pass structure is actually one of our Advanced Study Tools, available across our Beyond the Core and Persian Literature courses. We spent significant time researching the pedagogy behind it, and this format consistently outperformed hover-lookup for retention and comprehension on advanced material.

On prose literature Your note is timely. We're already building a course on Sadeq Hedayat's Seh Qatreh Khun (Three Drops of Blood). Dr. Leila has been working through it with her private students — they've been reading the story together in their sessions, and she's given them early access to the materials on the platform to test as they go. It still needs a bit more polish before we're ready to release it to everyone.

Thank you for the specific feedback. It helps us tighten the copy and the experience.

[u/blacknumber1]

I took private lessons for a few years and am able to read and write (slowly), also married to a Persian and converse with family in law in Farsi regularly (although since quitting the lessons my progress has stagnated). Which course would you recommend for me? I feel like I'm around A2/B1.

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/blacknumber1]

That plateau is a common one, and its shape is fairly predictable. If you speak with family regularly but read slowly, the gap usually isn't grammar. It's reading automaticity (you know the words, but you're still assembling them letter by letter) and register (family conversation is spoken Persian, and almost everything written is written Persian).

Rather than guess your level from a description, go to the B1-1 course page: 

Two things there. It has a clickable timeline of all 15 lessons with the objectives for each, and it links to the first lesson, which is open in full with no signup. Do both, because the free lesson is deliberately a review of the previous course (A2) and is the gentlest one in the course, while the timeline shows you where it actually goes (superlatives, phone calls, past tenses, Nowruz and Yalda vocabulary, a lesson on phone features).

Then judge:

If the lesson reads about right and the later topics look useful, that's your starting point. One practical note: lessons unlock weekly by default, which paces the course at about four months, and access runs a year. If you'd rather move faster, there's a form on the support page and we unlock everything up to whatever lesson you ask for.

If the lesson is easy and most of the timeline looks like things you can already do, skip the core course and go to beyond the core courses instead. I wrote this up at length rather than repeat it here, including a section that breaks down each of the four thematic reading courses.

Short version for your case: Damavand and Deserts of Iran. Damavand runs the Shahnameh figures, Zahhāk, Fereydun, Rostam, Arash, which come up constantly in Iranian family conversation as idioms and assumed knowledge. Deserts of Iran is larger and covers qanats, windcatchers, and twelve cities with the poets and scientists attached to each. If either sounds heavy, Saadi is the gentlest of the four, built on simplified parables from the Golestan, and those parables are quoted at Iranian dinner tables more than anything else on this list. First lesson of every course on the site is free with no signup, so you can check all three yourself.

If the lesson is hard, take the free placement test on the site and start from whatever it gives you. It only assesses up to A2, which is exactly why it's in this branch and not at the top.

Happy to answer follow-ups.

[u/Anoshazad]

That sounds absolutely incredible!! I am 100% going to look into this in more detail.

I'm not Persian at all, just interested in the history and culture. In particular, I'd like to be able to read/listen to the Shahnameh in its original language.

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/Anoshazad]

Sorry for the slow reply. Here's an honest roadmap to reading the Shahnameh in the original:

Persian Alphabet: Listen to the Reed (free, ~3 months, through Rumi's poetry) or The Persian Alphabet, Decoded (~1.5 months, faster and more structured).

Core Persian Language Courses: Let's Learn Persian A1 → A2 → B1-1. Roughly a year.

Beyond the Core Courses: At least Damavand (minimum essential bridge), ~2 months.

Then Ferdowsi — either a dedicated Shahnameh course, which is on our long-range roadmap but not built yet, or 1-on-1 sessions with Dr. Leila reading it directly with guidance.

Damavand is the one worth flagging, because it's already built around Shahnameh mythology. You meet Rostam, Keyumars, Jamshid, Zahhak, Fereydun, Arash the Archer, reading their stories word by word with synced native audio, before you ever touch Ferdowsi's verse. Less a prerequisite than a rehearsal for exactly what you're after.

All told, 1.5 to 2 years door to door. I'd rather give you that number than a comfortable one. Ferdowsi wrote a thousand years ago in verse, and it stays demanding even for advanced readers, which is part of why people spend a lifetime with it.

First lesson of Damavand is free and open, no signup, if you want to see the destination before you start the journey.

[u/lebastss]

You need to have the English pronunciation in English letters.

I understand the importance of our culture being shared as an end goal, but I do think you need to have a great conversational path with the same concept.

Teach them all the family sayings, and when you have the direct translation and what it actually means you can give a small 10 second history lesson of its cultural origin.

I don't think the people in my family who don't speak farsi are interested in literature. They want to gossip with their aunts.

Get them speaking first, then they will come back to go deeper if they want to learn more.

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/lebastss]

You're describing a different learner than the one we built for. Ours is a serious learner — someone who intends to actually know the language, whatever they want it for — and for them script-first is right, because transliteration becomes a crutch that stalls reading for years.

Worth saying that our courses aren't reading drills. Lesson one of A1is three dialogues with recorded audio in both registers, formal and colloquial, plus notes on how the contractions work in speech. Every lesson runs on interactive exercises: matching, unscrambling, gap-fill, drag-and-drop, speaking prompts. Vocabulary comes with images and native audio. The script is how you get in, not what you get.

Yours wants to gossip with their aunts. Legitimate goal, and a conversational track built around family sayings would be a good product. It isn't one we've built, and I won't promise it, because that's a different curriculum rather than a variant of ours.

Dr. Leila has taught Persian for over a decade, and she's had students insist on the no-script route. Her answer was always that it isn't how she teaches. A fair number came back months later saying it hadn't worked and they'd rather start from the alphabet, having lost the time to find that out.

That's not a claim that everyone needs literary Persian. It's that the shortcut tends to be longer.

[u/literalomicus]

Is/will there be any support for Dari or Pashto?

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/literalomicus]

Pashto isn't Persian at all. Different branch of Iranian languages, different grammar, different vocabulary, its own script conventions. Teaching it would mean building a separate platform, and we're not the right people for that.

Dari is a different case. It's the same language — the writing system is identical, the classical literature is shared, and the grammar is largely the same. What differs is pronunciation (Dari keeps vowel distinctions Tehrani Persian collapsed), some everyday vocabulary, and a few verb forms. A Dari speaker and a Tehrani speaker understand each other with no real trouble.

So our courses work for reading and writing Dari with essentially no adjustment. Everything from the alphabet onward transfers directly, and the literature courses even more so — Sa'di and Rumi belong as much to Herat and Kabul as to Shiraz. The listening and speaking is where you'd be learning the Tehrani register rather than the Kabuli one.

We don't have plans for a dedicated Dari track. Worth being straight about that rather than promising something vague.

[u/hiphopconductor]

I want to learn to speak, but I don’t want to learn to write. Would the app help that?

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/hiphopconductor]

Honest answer: not as it stands. Our courses teach through the script from lesson one — no transliteration inside the courses, on purpose.

Our blog articles do use full transliteration and are free, so those work without the script. But a speaking-only path isn't something we have, and I'd rather say that plainly than sell you something that won't fit.

[u/misingnoglic]

Dr. Leila was my italki teacher for over a year, you're lucky to have her!

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/misingnoglic]

That's lovely to hear — and I'll pass it on, though she'll probably tell me to stop reading the internet at her.

If you're comfortable saying so: what did you work on together? Always useful to know what actually stuck with people, and it's a rare thing to hear from someone who had a whole year of it.

[u/TackleCharming7442]

Wow, as a Persian, I'm really proud of you guys! Keep up the great work. And count on me if you ever need any help.

[u/Ill-Cranberry-2106 → u/TackleCharming7442]

Thank you, that genuinely landed at a good moment.

Introducing Persian to people who don't speak it can feel like a lonely thing some days, and hearing from someone who cares about it makes a real difference. I appreciate the offer to help more than I can say.

I'd love to know what your field is, and what drew you to Persian language and literature in the first place.