TEHRAN – Farsi will be taught on Iran’s Sahar Universal Network (Sahar TV) in the near future, according to Shahrouz Falahatpisheh, the deputy for international affairs at Iran’s Saadi Foundation, an organization which is focused on spreading the Persian language around the world.
Falahatpisheh told IRNA English on the sidelines of the 34th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) that an educational series has been developed by Sahar TV based on MINA books, a series published by the Saadi Foundation to teach Farsi to foreign students.
Regarding the activities of the organization, he said that the Saadi Foundation, an organization set up in 2013, focuses on six missions:
1. Holding online and in-person Persian language classes,
2. Training Farsi teachers (offline classes),
3. Compilation of books for Persian language learners (beginner-advanced),
4. Standardizing and holding Persian language proficiency tests (AMFA),
5. Holding knowledge enhancement courses for those who are already acquainted with Farsi, including short-term and long-term courses,
6. Carrying out research work on Persian language teaching techniques and corpus.
Falahatpisheh said the Saadi Foundation designs and holds Persian language olympiads for foreigners and also grants scholarships to teachers of Persian language from other countries.
Persian is being taught in some 50 language centers out of Iran, he said, adding that over 10,000 foreigners took the courses offered by the Foundation last year.
Falahatpisheh also said Farsi has been included as the second and third core or elective language in official education curriculum in some neighboring countries, including in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia.
The largest group of foreign learners of Farsi language is from more than 100,000 foreign students currently studying at Iranian universities, he pointed out.
Regarding the online courses offered by the Saadi Foundation, he said the Mina Online School is currently viewed as the number one e-learning platform for teaching Persian language, adding that the school offers courses for a variety of students ranging from false beginners to advanced learners.
The Saadi Foundation, he said, has compiled numerous books to help foreigners to master Persian language skills, vocabulary, and grammar, adding that full multimedia versions of the books taught in the Foundation are available for download on its website.
To help beginners to start the language, the foundation has translated a book titled “Gam Avval” (First Step) into 13 languages, Falahatpisheh said, adding that the book covers the alphabet and the 700 basic words of Farsi in 15 lessons.