How to Talk About School

Leyla: salām bé hamegee, and welcome to lesson 67 of Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation! salām vijay, chetor-ee? 

Vijay: salām leylā, salām bé rooyé māhet! chetor-ee? man khoob-am, merci.

Leyla: khaylee mamnoon, vijay jān, khoshhāl-am ké eenjā-ee. 

Vijay: āré, man ham khoshhāl-am ké eenjā hasteem. 

Leyla: All right, okay, so we're getting right into the tārof here! Today's lesson is covering how to talk about school, so I'm sure we'll see some tārof in here but not directly related to tārof for the first time in a while. Let's go ahead and listen to the dialogue at three-quarter speed, and let's see what we can figure out! 

Principal: baché-hā eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri, hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan. maryam jān! meetoonee kenāré kimiā besheenee.

Kimia: khosh āmadee. az āshnāyeeyet khoshhāl-am.

Maryam: man ham hameentor. madresé mojahazee bé nazar meeyād. eentor neest?

Kimia: dagheeghan! too zangé esterāhat hamé jā-rō behet neshoon meedam.

Maryam: ché ālee! agé meeshé baché-hāyé deega-rō ham behem mo'arefee kon.n 

Kimia: hatman. 

Leyla: Okay, wonderful. Well, hopefully, just like in other lessons right now, it just sounds like gibberish. And by the end, you'll be able to understand all of these words. So with that in mind, let's go over the first part again. 

modeer: baché-hā eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan maryam jān! meetoonee kenāré kimiā besheenee 

Leyla: Okay. So it sounds like we're in a school and the teacher is saying baché-hā eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan. Okay. So first we start off with baché-hā, and baché-hā just means kids. baché-hā 

Vijay: baché-hā

Leyla: And that's how we make things plural in Persian is we add a hā afterwards. So you could say that pesar-hā or dokhtar-hā to say boys and girls. But in this case, she's just said baché-hā 

Vijay: baché-hā 

Leyla: Children. And then she goes eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri, which is interesting because she's talking to kids. But then she goes eeshoon, which is a very formal way of saying ‘this’. So, you know, in Persian, we don't have gender pronouns. So she's just saying this person, this person, eeshoon, but it's very formal. So she says eeshoon. 

Vijay: eeshoon 

Leyla: If she was going to speak in an informal way, she should say een, this. But in this case she said, eeshoon 

Vijay: eeshoon 

Leyla: And then she says, khānomé maryamé bāgheri. So we talked a lot in the past lessons about the concept of ezafé or that é sound and that is how we construct a name. So we, for example, my name would be leylā-é shams and that just means Leyla of the Shams family, for example. So in this case, she's saying maryamé bāgheri. So Maryam from the Bagheri family. So let's repeat that first. maryamé bāgheri 

Vijay: maryamé bāgheri 

Leyla: But she has another adjective in there, and that is khānomé. So khānomé maryamé bāgheri basically means Mrs. Although it's not saying that she's definitely married. It's just, you know, Ms. or Mrs. khānomé maryamé bāgheri, the lady of Maryam of Bagheri house. So khānomé maryamé bāgheri 

Vijay: khānomé maryamé bāgheri 

Leyla: And this is very formal again. So she's not saying een maryamé. She could say that, een maryamé, this is Maryam. But instead, she's saying eeshoon, which is formal, again, eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri. Mrs. Maryam Bagheri. So very, very formal. So again, let's repeat those each one eeshoon 

Vijay: eeshoon 

Leyla: khānomé 

Vijay: khānomé 

Leyla: maryamé 

Vijay: maryamé 

Leyla: bāgheri 

Vijay: bāgheri

Leyla: So with each, she is giving you, each ezāfé, she's giving you a little bit more information. So khānomé. So she's a miss. She's a lady. maryam. Her first name is Maryam and bāgheri, her last name is Bagheri. And they connect it with that ezāfé. So again, let's repeat all that. baché-hā eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri 

Vijay: baché-hā eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri 

Leyla: There's no verb in there. So she's saying this, Mrs. Maryam Bagheri. And then she's going to tell us, give us the verb afterwards, and that is hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan. So hamkelāseeyé is a beautiful word. We've talked about the word ham before. ham means same or equal, but when you combine it with different words, it means different things. So you could think of it as ‘co’. So kelāsee is a mate, mate is what I meant to say. So kelās is a class, and so hamkelās means classmate literally. hamkelās 

Vijay: hamkelās 

Leyla: But then when you say hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon, again, you are connecting it to the next describing word. jadeed means new. jadeed 

Vijay: jadeed 

Leyla: hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon means your new classmate. So ‘toon’ again means ‘you all’. So hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon 

Vijay: hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon 

Leyla: And then she ends it with the formal ‘is’. hastan 

Vijay: hastan 

Leyla: So she's using formal language to refer to this khānomé maryamé bāgheri. So she could have said ‘hast’, and then that would have been informal, which again, I don't, you know, she's a new student, so maybe the teacher is feeling like she needs to be formal with the new student, even though the new student is obviously younger than her and like someone she wouldn't need to use respectful language with necessarily. But it's a more formal culture, like we said before. So hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan 

Vijay: hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan. 

Leyla: So she's saying she is your new classmate. So hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan 

Vijay: hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan 

Leyla: And then she goes, maryam jān 

Vijay: maryam jān 

Leyla: Okay, so then she switches to informal, and she says, Maryam dear, maryam jān 

Vijay: maryam jān 

Leyla: And she's using her first name, which is why I'm saying, she's switching to informal and then she goes meetoonee 

Vijay: meetoonee 

Leyla: kenāré kimiā 

Vijay: kenāré kimiā 

Leyla: besheenee 

Vijay: besheenee 

Leyla: Okay, so now she's switching to informal as she is referring to Maryam. So she goes meetoonee, which means you can, meetoonee 

Vijay: meetoonee 

Leyla: kenāré. kenāré means next to. kenāré.

Vijay: kenāré 

Leyla: kimiā. And that's the name of another student. kimiā 

Vijay: kimiā

Leyla: And then, besheenee. You can sit, besheenee.

Vijay: besheenee 

Leyla: So you can sit next to kimiā. meetoonee kenāré kimiā besheenee 

Vijay: meetoonee kenāré kimiā besheenee 

Leyla: Great. Next part. 

kimiā: khosh āmadee. az āshnāyeeyet  khoshhāl-am 

Leyla: And then this is Kimia, and she goes khosh āmadee 

Vijay: khosh āmadee 

Leyla: This was in our last lesson as well. When the family came to the house, the guy said khosh āmadeen, which means you are welcome. And he was using formal there, but Kimia immediately switches to informal. So she wants to be friends with Maryam. She's becoming familiar with her. She's the same age. She's a kid, so she's saying khosh āmadee 

Vijay: khosh āmadee 

Leyla: You're welcome, yay! Great that you're here. You're welcome here. And then she goes az āshnāyeeyet khoshhāl-am. And ‘az’ means ‘from’. ‘āshnā’ means ‘to be familiar’. So āshnāyeeyet, your familiarity. khoshhāl-am. So I'm pleased to meet you basically. az āshnāyeeyet

Vijay: az āshnāyeeyet 

Leyla: khoshhāl-am 

Vijay: khoshhāl-am 

Leyla: I'm happy, so I'm happy to meet you. So good to meet you. khosh āmadee. az āshnāyeeyet khoshhāl-am So you're welcome here. I am happy to meet you. So she's being really kind. So again, let's repeat these two. khosh āmadee 

Vijay: khosh āmadee 

Leyla: az āshnāyeeyet khoshhāl-am

Vijay: az āshnāyeeyet khoshhāl-am 

Leyla: Great! And then Maryam responds 

maryam: man ham hameentor. madresé mojahazee bé nazar meeyād eentor neest? 

Leyla: Okay. And then she says with her very high voice. man ham hameentor Okay! She goes man ham hameentor 

Vijay: man ham hameentor 

Leyla: man means me, ham again means also, same. hameentor means the same way. hameentor, eentor means this way. And she says me too, the same, the same way. I feel the same way. man ham hameentor 

Vijay: man ham hameentor

Leyla:  khoshhāl-am feel the same way is basically what she's saying. man ham hameentor 

Vijay: man ham hameentor 

Leyla: And then she goes madresé mojahazee bé nazar meeyād. So madresé is the word for school and mojahazee, mojahaz means like well-equipped. So seems like a good school madresé mojahazee 

Vijay: madresé mojahazee

Leyla: And bé nazar meeyād. So bé nazar means to my mind, literally. But it says it seems like. bé nazar meeyād 

Vijay: bé nazar meeyād 

Leyla: So it seems like a good school. Seems like a well-equipped school. And then she goes eentor neest? 

Vijay: eentor neest? 

Leyla: And then that means this way it isn't? Isn't it, isn't it this way? So we had the word eentor hameentor, the same way. And then she goes eentor, this way, neest means is not, so isn't it? Basically. eentor neest? 

Vijay: eentor neest? 

Leyla: And then kimiā answers. 

kimiā: dagheeghan! too zangé esterāhat hamé jā-rō behet neshoon meedam 

Leyla: And she goes, dagheeghan! 

Vijay: dagheeghan! 

Leyla: Which means exactly. She's like, you get it. Dagheeghan!

Vijay: dagheeghan! 

Leyla: And then she goes too zangé esterāhat. So esterāhat means resting, and zang means the ringing the bell. So too in the zangé esterāhat. Resting bell. So when we get to take a break, basically too zangé esterāhat 

Vijay: too zangé esterāhat 

Leyla: hamé jā-rō So again the word jā means a place. We had that in the last lesson. hamé means all, and then rō is a direct object marker. So it's just saying that these particular places, hamé jā-rō, so hamé jā-rō 

Vijay: hamé jā-rō 

Leyla: And then behet, to you informal, behet 

Vijay: behet 

Leyla: neshoon meedam, I will show. neshoon meedam 

Vijay: neshoon meedam 

Leyla: So too zangé esterāhat at the bell of, at the recess bell, basically, hamé jā-rō, all the places, behet, to you, neshoon meedam, I will show. So too zangé esterāhat 

Vijay: too zangé esterāhat

Leyla:hamé jā-rō 

Vijay: hamé jā-rō 

Leyla:behet neshoon meedam 

Vijay: behet neshoon meedam 

Leyla: Nice, so Kimia is saying, exactly, when it's the time to rest, the bell rings, I'll show you everywhere. It's very hospitable. 

maryam: ché ālee! agé meeshé baché-hāyé deega-rō ham behem mo'arefee kon hatman 

Leyla: Okay, so we had two here, but the last one is very short. So she goes ché ālee! 

Vijay: ché ālee! 

Leyla: How great! And then she goes agé meeshé, meeshé is it's possible. So agé meeshé, if it's possible, agé meeshé 

Vijay: agé meeshé 

Leyla: And she goes baché-hāyé deega-rō. So baché-hāyé deega-rō deega means other, so baché-hāyé deega-rō So that means the other kids. And then again, we have that direct object marker, rō, hamé jā-rō baché-hāyé deega-rō. So these particular, hamé jā-rō is saying these particular places, I'll show you all these particular places. And then she's saying these particular other kids. So just show me all the other kids. agé meeshé baché-hāyé deega-rō. So let's repeat agé meeshé 

Vijay: agé meeshé 

Leyla: baché-hāyé deega-rō 

Vijay: baché-hāyé deega-rō 

Leyla: The other kids ham behem mo'arefee kon. So ham means also So ham 

Vijay: ham 

Leyla: And she's saying in addition to the places of the building, the other kids also, behem, to me, behem

Vijay: behem 

Leyla: And then in the last sentence it said behet, to you, and then behem is to me. And then mo'arefee kon. And that means introduce. So mo'arefee kardan is the verb for to introduce. So she says behem mo'arefee kon. So to me introduce. So behem 

Vijay: behem 

Leyla: mo'arefee kon 

Vijay: mo'arefee kon 

Leyla: You introduce, so how wonderful, if it's possible, the other kids also, to me introduce. So she's saying it's cool to see the buildings, but also introduce me to the other kids. She's like I don't like you that much. Let's, let's see the other kids in the school. No, no, no. And Kimia kindly says, hatman. hatman is a really good word to know. And it means definitely. hatman 

Vijay: hatman 

Leyla: So Kimia is super sweet, super nice. And she is down to show Maryam this well-equipped school and the other classmates. So bravo, Kimia. She's the real hero of this story. All right, is there anything that you want to point out with what we've learned before we listen to the whole thing again? 

Vijay: Sure. So, we had the expression bé nazar meeyād, which we have seen before in another lesson. nazar literally means, like, I, basically, you know, sometimes people also use it to there's the nazar as an amulet to ward off the evil eye, but, you know, bé nazar meeyād means like it seems. And then, also, I think of, I guess we already kind of said this, but I think of zangé esterāhat as being basically recess. So, you know, during recess, she's going to show her around, and then she says, oh, you know, that's great. But, if possible, I'd like to meet the other kids too. 

Leyla: Yes. Yeah, that's exactly right. Okay. Wonderful. So now let's listen to the full thing. 

modeer: baché-hā eeshoon khānomé maryamé bāgheri hamkelāseeyé jadeedetoon hastan maryam jān! meetoonee kenāré kimiā besheenee

kimiā: khosh āmadee. az āshnāyeeyet  khoshhāl-am 

maryam: man ham hameentor. madresé mojahazee bé nazar meeyād. eentor neest? 

kimiā: dagheeghan! too zangé esterāhat hamé jā-rō behet neshoon meedam 

maryam: ché ālee! agé meeshé baché-hāyé deega-rō ham behem mo'arefee kon 

kimiā: hatman 

Leyla: All right. Wonderful. And that's the end of that discussion. And we'll be back next week with another wonderful short dialogue from this Persian Conversation series. Vijay, thank you so much for joining me today. And until next time, bé omeedé deedār from Leyla. 

Vijay: And khodāhāfez from Vijay.