Learn Farsi in London

Persian Language Courses at LSI Language School in Central London

Persian is spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as by minority groups in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, southern Russia, and other neighbouring countries.  It is derived from the language of the ancient Persian people and is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family.

Persian and its varieties have official-language status in Iran (Persian Farsi dialect), Afghanistan (Persian Dari dialect), and Tajikistan.  There are approximately 62 million native speakers of Persian in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and a similar number who can speak Persian living elsewhere in the world.  UNESCO was asked to select Persian as one of its languages in 2006.

There are many borrowed words in the Persian language, mostly coming from Arabic, but also from English, French, German, and the Turkic languages.  In return Persian has influenced the vocabularies of other languages, especially the Indo-Iranian languages like Hindi and Urdu, Turkic languages like Turkish and Uzbek, and Arabic.  Several languages of south-west Asia have also been influenced, including Armenian and Georgian.  Many Persian words have also found their way into the English language.

Farsi
The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has argued in an official pronouncement that the name "Persian" is more appropriate, as it has the longer tradition in the western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity.  On the other hand, "Farsi" is also encountered frequently in the linguistic literature as a name for the language, used both by Iranian and by foreign authors, and is even preferred by some.

Persian Dari
According to the Encyclopædia Iranica, the Dari dialect of Farsi is the mother tongue of roughly one-third of Afghanistan's population, while Persian is also the most widely-used language of the country, spoken by around 90% of the population.  The other languages spoken in Afghanistan are Turkmen, Uzbek, Nuristani, Pashai, Baluchi, Brahui, Pamiri languages, Hindi and Urdu.

Tajiki
The Tajik language or Tajiki is a variant of Persian.  An Indo-European language of the Iranian language group, Tajiki is the official language of Tajikistan and most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The language has diverged from Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, as a result of political borders, the standardisation process and the influence of Russian and neighbouring Turkic languages.  The standard language is based on the north-western dialects of Tajik, which have been influenced by the neighbouring Uzbek language as a result of geographical proximity.

The vast majority of modern Iranian Persian and Dari text is written in a form of the Arabic alphabet. In recent years the Latin alphabet has been used by some as best suited to modern technological changes. Tajik, which is considered by some linguists to be a Persian dialect influenced by Russian and the Turkic languages of Central Asia, is written with the Cyrillic alphabet in Tajikistan.

Whether you are learning Farsi for business, leisure or academic purpose, at LSI we will ensure that your Farsi language course at our school in Central London is a successful and enjoyable experience.

• Your current level of Farsi and training requirements will be carefully assessed.
• Our Farsi tutors, who are all highly qualified, have many years of experience teaching Farsi at all levels.
• Your course will be tailor-made to meet your specific training needs, ensuring that it is relevant, practical, effective and fun.
• Our tutors use a wide range of up-to-date teaching materials including a variety of books, authentic documents, audio and video recordings.