Learning Farsi

My next draft post was entitled "Learning Farsi".  Clearly I thought I needed a thematic post in this spot.  I don't see why not.  Though I have only a couple of point form notes here, I think it is a good one to have here, because to me learning Farsi was very important.  I recognized that learning Amin's language was part of learning about his culture and understanding him better and bonding with him more deeply.  I also love languages, so it was something I was excited about.  

So one day early on, I sat down with him with a piece of paper with a list of phrases that I wanted to know how to say.  I knew already how to wish him good night on chats, but I wanted to start incorporating more small things like that.

I brought him the page with English phrasing, leaving lots of space for him to fill in the Farsi.  He helpfully wrote them for me with the Roman alphabet, because I could not read Persian script.  I had "Hello" and "Goodbye" at the top, which I figured were the most basic.  I should've guessed that "Hello" is "salam".  "Goodbye", he explained, "Khoda hafez" means something like "God protect you".  I really like that.  Then I had how to say "How are you?" and "I'm fine".  I had those introductory phrases too "What is your name?" and "Pleased to meet you", because those are often the first things you say in any beginner's language class.  I also think I had the idea that Amin's Mom might like to say Hi on Skype at some point, so I wanted to be able to see "Khosh-halam ke mibinametoon", which is the formal way of saying it.  I love that when you say that you are pleased to meet someone in Farsi, you are literally saying "I am happy (khosh halam) seeing you".  Next was "Thank you", which I laughed to see is "Merci" borrowed from French (or "mamnoon" if you want to be less French-derived, or more formal).

"Flip it over" I told him.  Amin looked overwhelmed, perhaps because he thought it was a lot for me to take in at once, or perhaps because he had just explained a lot of phrases to me (especially between formal and informal forms).  All of this melted away and was replaced by a smile when he saw that there was only one phrase on the other side: I love you.  This was my little dramatic reveal.  In a way, I had done all of this because I wanted to know how to say "I love you" in Farsi.  I did silly and cute things like that when I was younger.  "Doostat daram" he wrote.  And then I learned why he said "I love you so much" in English.  Like in French, when you say "doostat daram", you can say this to a variety of people like family or friends, just like the verb "aimer".  How can you tell the difference between "like" and "love"?  French does not really have a good answer to this question.  In Farsi, though, they add something to help give context, oftentimes the intensifier "kheili" ("a lot", "so much").  When you say "kheili doostat daram", it is "I like you very much", read "I love you".  From then on, I tried to say "kheili doostat daram" as often as "I love you".