Persian

For more than a thousand years, Persian has been one of the most important languages of Asia, and it is a major language in the Middle East today. It is the official language of Iran and Tajikistan, and one of two official languages in Afghanistan. With nearly 100 million native speakers around the world, Persian is the language of poetry, literature, the sciences, philosophy and mysticism. The
Persian language is of an Indo-European origin and has one of the simplest sound systems with just six vowels. Its grammar is very similar to that of English, with no grammatical gender. Persian is written from right to left using a variant of the Arabic script with some pronunciation differences and four additional symbols.

The main goal of the Persian language program at USC Dornsife is to develop communicative proficiency and cultural awareness in Persian. Our language learners are immersed from the very beginning and do real-life language tasks while developing basic literacy skills. In Advanced Persian, students develop critical thinking skills by doing dynamic activities and are introduced to Persian literature, history and arts, and explore the social, economic and political life of Persian speakers.