Welcome to the Easy Persian second birthday party!
Many thanks to all of you for your kind messages, support, suggestions and companionship without which this site could not be successful.
Tens of thousands of students from some 100 countries are gathered on this site every month with more or less similar motives and enthusiasm. I feel deeply happy to have built such a big community as one family from across the world, whose hearts are connected through these online pages even if they have not met each other until now. This online course has given me a big lesson and I want to share it with you: Peoples of the world have interests, pain, and love in common yet they are either not aware of it or do not understand each other’s words. Such misunderstanding, sometimes, put them against each other. They have the potential to gather and to be unified in words and beliefs if they are given the opportunity.
Rumi, a great Iranian transcendentalist, has one deep and well – narrated story in his everlasting Masnavi about peoples who stand against each other due to lack of understanding each other’s words.
He says:
Once, a man gave one dollar to four people of different languages.
The person who was from Iran said, “I want to buy some Angour with this money.”
The person who came from a Turkish background said, “Just forget it! I want to spend this money on Uzum!”
The third person who was Arab said, “No way! I am dying for Enab! We must spend this money on Enab.”
Finally, the person who was from Greece, (or Rome maybe) said, “What are you talking about? Stop arguing! We should buy some Estafeel with this money, which I love very much!”
Then, there was big strife since they could not reach a unity. At this point, Rumi says, “Their problem could be solved if there were a wise and multilingual person among them. Such a wise and multilingual person could bring peace to them by taking that money from them and buying some grapes for them, since all of them had wanted to buy one thing and that was grapes, but they could not understand each other!
The same is true with nowadays world. People of different nations are looking for more or less the same thing, yet in their own ways, beliefs, and languages. Let us do our best to be their link to bring peace and friendship to all of them.
With deepest love to all of you, and may the One bless you all. Amen.
Love,
Hassan.
SI LA PIERRE DISAIT… (Sent by: Christinech – Switzerland)
Si la pierre disait :
Ce n’est pas une pierre qui peut monter un mur…
Il n’y aurait pas de maisons.
Si la goutte d’eau disait :
Ce n’est pas une goutte d’eau qui peut faire une rivière…
Il n’y aurait pas d’océan.
Si le grain de blé disait :
Ce n’est pas un grain de blé qui peut ensemencer un champ…
Il n’y aurait pas de moisson.
Si l’homme disait :
Ce n’est pas un geste d’amour qui peut sauver l’humanité…
Il n’y aurait jamais d’amitié et de paix sur la terre des hommes.
Comme la maison a besoin de chaque pierre,
Comme l’océan a besoin de chaque goutte d’eau,
Comme la moisson a besoin de chaque grain de blé,
La Paix a besoin de toi, unique,
Et irremplaçable.
(Anonyme)
The English translation: (BY: Hassan H.)
If the stone had said …
If the stone had said, ” It is not the stone that assembles walls ”
There would be no houses.
If the water drop had said, ” It is not the water drop that makes rivers ”
There would be no oceans.
If the corn grain had said, ” It is not the grain that sows the fields ”
There would be no harvest.
If the man had said, ” It is not the gesture of love that can save humanity ”
There would never be friendship and peace in the land of man.
As houses need single stones,
As oceans need single drops of water,
As harvests need single grains,
Peace needs you,
Unique,
And irreplaceable !
Anonymous
La pierre – BY: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – (Sent by : Christinech – Switzerland)
La pierre n’a point d’espoir d’être autre chose que pierre.
Mais, de collaborer,
Elle s’assemble et devient Temple.
The English translation: (BY: Hassan H.)
The stone – BY: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The stone has no hope to be but stone.
Yet, in collaboration,
It assembles and makes Temple.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Pour Hassan – BY: Christinech (Switzerland)
L’amour du persan
Cette langue qui chante
Pleine de douleur
D’espérance et de douceur
M’a conduit vers votre site
Renfermant tant de trésors
Grâce à vous j’ai pu faire
Mes premiers pas en persan
Votre savoir à notre service
Est un don merveilleux
Au fil des leçons
On découvre votre sensibilité
Plein d’amour pour votre patrie
Dieu et votre prochain
En plus des leçons merveilleuses
Vous êtes devenu un ami
Chaque leçon et chaque message
Sont des bouquets de roses
D’excellente odeur
Réchauffant le cœur
Vous m’avez aussi fait découvrir
Votre pays et sa musique
Que de fois vos chansons
M’ont aidée quand ça ne va pas
Ce que vous vivez est difficile
Et pour vous aider
Je ne peux que vous offrir
Mes pensées
J’aimerais vous encourager
Même dans la nuit la plus noire
Dieu met une lumière
Pour nous diriger
Elle est quelquefois très loin
Mais nous montre le chemin
Qu’Il vous bénisse et vous garde
Quant à moi je ne peux
Que vous dire de tout cœur
MERCI
Christine, le 23.08.03.
Dear Hassan,
My name is Liu Xu.I’m a middle school graduate from China.I’ve learned the easypersian lessons for weeks and I love it very much.But tomorrow,I must move to another city to accept my colledge edution,then I can’t attend your lessons freely.I feel very sad about it.But what could I do.
I don’t think this is the last time I come to this site,but for months I cann’t be with you,I cann’t be with our beautiful Farsi sentences.
I know the anniversary is coming,so,let me say
/tævælodet moba:ræk/!
I will also say
/du:set da:ræm/ to you.
I hope easypersian will be better and better.
Yours sincerely
Liu Xu
Dear Hassan,
I just wanted to let you know that I recently came across your website and it is absolutely amazing!!! Thank you so much for making this information available to all of us who are interested in learning the language. I am originally of Greek origin and living in Canada and have been dating an Iranian man for a long long long time. He’s tried to teach me the language several times in the past but our approach hasn’t worked at all. :)
I learned more from you in the first 2 lessons than i have over the past 10 years! So anyway, I really wanted you to know how grateful I am for your efforts, your instructions are very easy to follow and very informative!!
Best wishes, Maria
Dear Hassan,
I just had to write and say that this has to be the most amazing website, in terms of being usefull and complete and user-friendly, etc, etc, that I have ever seen!! Thank you for all your time and hard work. I can tell that you put a lot of love into this site, because I am a language teacher and love language just like you do!! One of my best friends is from Esfahan, and we practice Farsi together, and as a surprise, I am teaching myself some new expressions to use when I speak to her. Your site is such a help!!
Anyway, thank you very, very much!!!!!
Sincerely,
Barbara Castrovillo
United States
Hi Hassan,
First of all thank you for this great site. I started with Farsi just a couple of monts ago and I’m only at lesson 32, so you’ll probably hear of me more whenever I get to catch up. Though the main purpose of this email is to say hello, I’ll give you some feedback about easypersian.com :-)
Here is a short tale that I translated from an Italian tale compilation to share with everybody for the anniversary party. The original neme is “La camicia dell’uomo contento” or “The Happy Man’s Shirt”. It’s cool stuff.
There was a king in a very remote country, whose son, the prince, was always unhappy. He could have anything he wanted,
and the king, his father, had tried everything to satisfy him: theatre, games, hunting days and every sort of entertainment that a young man could dream of. But the prince was always unhappy and nobody knew why.’Are you in love?’ Asked the king once ‘Tell me what girl you like and, if she is the daughter of the most powerful king or the poorest peasant, I’ll arrange the weddings’.
‘No father… I’m not in love’ And he sighed sadly.The prince started to loose the colour in his face and the king was then very worried, since he appreciated his son much and suffered seeing him in such a poor state. He decided then to call for all the sorcerers and wizards of the country to find a cure for the prince. The magicians, after consulting the stars, the books and the worms in the soil of the garden, decided: ‘we know the cure for your son, oh, highness. It is very simple.’The king was anxious and his eyes shone full of hope. ‘Tell me right now!”You have to find a man that is truly and completely happy, and then change his shirt with your son’s. The prince will then be healed’ The king, pushed by the enthusiasm of the good news sent his ambassadors all around the kingdom in search of a happy man. The task was not easy, because most of the people were unhappy in the best of the possible worlds, and the ambassadors had to cover hundreds of miles to visit every single town, every single village.Several weeks later, a priest came to the palace.’Your ambassadors sent me to you, my king. What can I humbly do for you?’ ‘You are then a happy man, aren’t you?’ ‘Yes, my lord, I am happy serving God’s will and I am very proud to do so’. ‘Then you would certainly accept being my bishop!’ ‘Who could reject such an offer, my king’ The king looked at the priest disappointed and replied: ‘Go! Go away! I am looking for a man that is happy as he is and desires no change in his life!’ And he turned and disappeared in his room with sad despair while his son was ill in his bed.His ambassadors had found no other happy man and were in their way back to the palace when they heard of a neighbour king that was the most fortunate person ever, according to a traveller beggar. They met the king and explained them their problem. ‘Certainly I am a fortunate person’ the king told them. ‘I have all the richness of a powerful king, a charming wife and three beautiful daughters. My kingdom has been in peace for years and all my servants are faithful. But the simple thought of death and of losing all my properties with it worries me so much that I can hardly sleep at night’. The ambassadors thought that he was not the man their were looking for and came back to the palace with empty hands.The king sighed when he learnt of their failure and, full of sorrow, went for a walk in the country to take some air. When he was some miles away from the palace he heard a cheerful tune.’A man singing like this cannot but be happy’, he thought. And he followed on. A bit further he saw a lad collecting grapes from a vine.’G’day, my king! So early and already for a walk?’ ‘Yes, my boy. I heard your tune and came along to see who was singing so joyfully’. ‘The sun is shining, the birds woke me up this morning and the sole fact of seeing all the beautiful things around me makes me feel like singing’, and he smiled. ‘You are a brave lad’ The king said, ‘Do you want to be my servant?’
‘Thank you, my king, but I am well here and that is enough for a humble peasant like me’.
The king, mad of joy with tears in the eyes, embraced the lad: ‘Oh, finally a happy person! I have something to ask to you, not a big deal’. And he had already started to undo the boy’s jacket buttons when the boy fell on his knees and started crying.
The happy man had no shirt!
Regards
Andrés – Spain
Hassan,
Congratulations with the 2nd anniversary of your nice site!
Or, as we say in Dutch: Hartelijk gefeliciteerd!
I am following the lessons since 2 or 3 months and learned a lot. Thank you!
Nafisa – e-mail: [email protected]
Dear Hassan, Salam!
I am writing because of your wonderful website. I am from Las Vegas, 20 years old and am taking a Persian 113 class in my college. Whew I didn’t know what i was getting myself into! I am of Mexican descent no exposure to Farsi whatsoever and half our class is fluent in it. But thanks to your site I am no longer struggling in it and the teacher has said I am doing better than a lot of other students. Thank you so much for putting up this site it has GREATLY helped me in developing the Farsi language.
Vanessa Benavidez
Dear Easy Persian
I’m afraid I don’t know your name. I really love the Persian script, and related scripts such as the Arabic script. These are truly beautiful ways of writing, and along with the bonus of learning this, you have put together a wonderful course. Many congratulations. This is one of the finest language courses I have seen anywhere on the web – I know this because I am always looking for good language courses, since language is one of my main interests.
With best wishes
John Olsson, Linguist
www.thetext.co.uk
Dear Hassan
You are a star!! I had been looking (for the past 5 years) for a comprehensive & fun way for my children (young adults now!!!) to learn farsi…and now many of their English and American friends are using your site.. They are all competing to see which one learns faster. Vaghan barikala, even more than sad afarin!!!!
and Happy Birthday for the 19th
Best regards
Shary Rais
Hi Hassan!
I have stumbled upon your site, and truly, it is like a God send, cause this is a really wonderful resourse! I really like the way you teach. It is difficult to learn a foreign language, especially on the internet, yet I find it very easy for me! This is great. I am really anxious to learn Farsi, as well as other languages, because I have a love for it, and enjoy it so much. Just wanted to tell you that all your work (and I see how much of it there is!) is making some people very happy, so much so that I look forward to the time when I can log on and learn some new words or even how to write them! I never thought I’d be able to do this, and I am actually doing it now! :)
So thankful,
Yanina.
P.S. You wanted to know where we users are from: I’m Russian living in the states for about ten years now. I speak Spanish and Russian fluently, some French, little German and learning Arabic and now Farsi. I really love the Middle Eastern cultures, including Arab and Persian, as well as all the ohter cultures of the world! You could say I’m an internationalist and this is my life’s passion. I know you will not have time to reply, but I am a very open person and would like to know about you and how come you are so good at teaching! Tell me about yourself, but not in a proffessional way, in a friendly way! My e-mail address is always active and so any time I get a message from you, I will remember. Even if it takes a year! :) Good luck with all your endeavors and by all means if you need or want anything from me, I’d be happy to help. I will look into things that might interest you and your teaching venture. Thanks again.