Persian Lesson 146 – The Little Black Fish – Page 2

The Little Black Fish – Mahi siah e koochooloo – Samad Behrangi – Page 2

Hello again and welcome back.

First let me thank you for your comments; now I know which way to go! My especial thanks go to Marlon who ‘represented the thousands of students learning from this website to say a big kheili mamnunam from all of them and that the new lessons are very inspiring and wonderful!’

Thank you, Marlon.

Before we start today, I would like to ask you a question. To answer, please follow the steps below:

1. Do not answer hastily.
2. Find some examples – Ex: I am used to speaking aloud – I have inherited such and such idea or faith from my parents – I have always hated such particular food, person, colour ….
3. Observe yourself from a third person’s point of view. You may do this by telling a story about yourself, a particular thing about you, but in your sentences, replace ‘I’ with another person’s name. Ex: I think I am always right => Ali / Mary thinks he / she is always right.
4. Do not prejudge (when talking about somebody or something, do not say, ‘in my opinion’ – forget about your opinion and describe things in the way they are)
5. Find a reason for what you are doing. Ex: Why do I think this way? Why am I learning Persian?

Hassan sounds a little strange today!! But do not prejudge me please!

I am talking this much because of a comment I received recently. Actually, that comment was a question: “Hassan, how do you know the little black fish is a boy and not a girl?”

In her comment, she says, “In the Persian text, the little black fish is referred to as ‘bach.cheh’, which means ‘child’. Child could be either a boy or a girl.”

Well, it is a difficult question. The next is how I came to the conclusion that our little black fish is a boy.

1. When I first read this book during my primary school years, I had the impression that only boys are brave enough to take such adventurous journeys!
2. I grew up with the idea that man was superior to woman.
3. I never doubted myself on this particular issue simply because my idea was never challenged.
4. After becoming mature enough to marry and, after finding myself in the kitchen, I came to realize that men and women are equal!! However, since many of my previous ideas were never challenged, like that of the poor little fish, I am still suffering from many of ‘my old views’.

So, here is the question for you:

In what ways are you suffering from your old views, faiths and ideas? To answer this question, please follow the steps mentioned above.

As you notice, your comments do bring a lot of changes; please continue giving and receiving comments!!

Ok, as for the little fish, whether it is a boy or a girl, let me add two more sentences:

1. Since I read this story long time ago, please give me some time to read it afresh to see if I can find some facts upon which I can defend boys against girls!!
2. Even if we accept this fish as a girl, the problem will still exist because of the English grammar (it is always easier to blame others!!). English, like many other languages, has separated ‘man’ from ‘woman’ by using ‘he’ and ‘she’. I wish we could create a new pronoun in English such as ‘hish’ or something similar to this to show our respect to both sexes equally!

To my knowledge, Persian is the only language, or at least one of the languages, that has only one pronoun for both ‘man’ and ‘woman’: /u:/. That’s why we say, ‘Farsi shekar ast’!!

All right, I didn’t mean to talk this much, but I did! Please forgive my talkative nature.

Since I have already spoken a lot, I am not going to talk about the author of the little black fish in this session. Hopefully, I will do this next week.

Sorry again and wish you a ‘great and meaningful revolution’!

Please right-click on the link below and choose ‘Save Target As’ to download the lesson.

Please watch the clip a couple times, and then go to the Useful Drills page for the new words.

See you next week,

Hassan

The Little Black Fish Page 2 – Lesson 146:

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• Useful Drills 146