Speak / Lesson 40
A Review Dialogue with Leyla, Matt and Ladan
In this dialogue, we ask Matt and Ladan what they've been up to the past few months. We get to hear how Matt's been doing in med school, and we also hear some really exciting information that Ladan reveals.
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Download lesson MP3GREETINGS:
hello
سَلام
how are you?
چِطوری؟
Note: In Persian, as in many other languages, there is a formal and an informal way of speaking. We will be covering this in more detail in later lessons. For now, however, chetor-ee is the informal way of asking someone how they are, so it should only be used with people that you are familiar with. hālé shomā chetor-é is the formal expression for ‘how are you.’
Spelling note: In written Persian, words are not capitalized. For this reason, we do not capitalize Persian words written in phonetic English in the guides.
ANSWERS:
I’m well
خوبَم
Pronunciation tip: kh is one of two unique sounds in the Persian language that is not used in the English language. It should be repeated daily until mastered, as it is essential to successfully speak Persian. Listen to the podcast for more information on how to make the sound.
| Persian | English |
|---|---|
| salām | hello |
| chetor-ee | how are you? |
| khoobam | I’m well |
| merci | thank you |
| khayli | very |
| khayli khoobam | I’m very well |
| khoob neestam | I’m not well |
| man | me/I |
| bad neestam | I’m not bad |
| ālee | great |
| chetor-een? | how are you? (formal) |
| hālé shomā chetor-é? | how are you? (formal) |
| hālet chetor-é? | how are you? (informal) |
| khoob-ee? | are you well? (informal) |
| mamnoonam | thank you |
| chetor peesh meeré? | how’s it going? |
| ché khabar? | what’s the news? (what’s up?) |
| testeeeee |
Leyla: Hello and welcome to Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation! This is a very, very special episode because Matt’s wife, Ladan, is here with us joining us for a conversation!
Ladan: Hello!
Leyla: Ladan, we’ve heard you speak before in a very short dialogue on the Valentine’s episode of Chai and Conversation, and you’ve also made a cameo on the tārof video, but this is the first time the listeners will be hearing from you in a longer conversation. I do want to ask, how is Matt coming along with his Persian?
Ladan: I have to say, I’m constantly impressed! He’s able to have conversations with my family members and picks up more and more all the time. They’re really happy that he’s shown an active interest in learning as well.
Leyla: Well great! So, because this is the last lesson in Unit 4, we’re going to do something a bit different. We’re going to listen to the entire conversation first in Persian, and then listen to the entire conversation in English. We’ll leave it up to you to fill in the gaps and won’t go over it line by line like we have in other conversations. We’ll end the lesson by listening to the entire Persian dialogue one last time, and hopefully the second time around, it’ll be easier to understand.
Matt: Hopefully you will be able to use context clues to understand the majority of the conversation.
Leyla: And of course, check out the bonus materials of the lesson where we’ll have the transcript of the dialogue and have all the vocabulary words you need to know in case you get stuck. But enough talking, Matt, Ladan, are you ready to begin the conversation?
Matt: Ready!
Leyla: Okay, then let’s begin to learn Persian with Chai and Conversation.
Leyla: So, before we begin the dialogue, if you remember the first lesson of this unit, Matt just revealed that he was going to start med school. So now, he’s just completed his first semester of med school, and I ask him how he’s doing. Also, I want to say that Matt and Ladan reveal some big news in this conversation. They told me this info before, so if it seems like I’m not that excited when they tell me in this dialogue, it’s only because I’m not a great actress, not because I’m not excited. So that’s my disclaimer; let’s start the conversation:
ché khoob, emrooz lādan ham bā māst. khosh āmadee lādan jān!
khayli mamnoon!
man o lādan khoshhāleem ké meebeeneemet.
man ham hameentor! khayli vaghté ké hamdeega-rō nadeedeem!
khayli vaghté! khob, mā khayli mashghool boodeem.
khob, matt, aval begoo dāneshgāh chetoré? dars-hā khoob peesh meeran?
khob, khayli khayli sakhté, vali khoob peesh meeré.
dars zeeyād daree?
aré, khayli!
deegé ché khabar?
khob, hālā man dar dāllās zendegee meekonam, barāyé eenké dāneshgāh dar dāllās-é.
va yek khabaré khayli bozorgtar ham dāreen.
dorosté. khabar een-é ké man hāmelé hastam, va dar decembre bacheyé avalemoon bé donyā meeyād.
khayli khayli mobārak bāshé! dokhtaré yā pesar?
dokhtar!
khob, bé salāmati! khayli mamnoon ké bā man emrooz sohbat kardeen, va az didanetoon khayli khoshhāl shodam.
mā ham khayli khoshhāl shodeem!
So then that was the whole conversation in Persian; let's listen to it in English:
How great that today Ladan is also with us! Welcome Ladan jan!
Thank you!
Ladan and I are really happy to see you.
Me, too! It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other!
A long time! Well, we’ve been really busy.
So Matt, first, tell us, how’s school? Is it going well?
Well, it’s really, really hard, but it’s going well.
Do you have a lot of schoolwork?
Yes, a lot!
So what else is going on?
Well, now I live in Dallas, because the university is in Dallas.
And you also have some other very big news.
That’s right. The news is that I am pregnant, and in December, our first child will be born.
Many many congratulations! Is it a boy or a girl?
A girl!
Congratulations. Thank you so much for speaking with me today, and for telling me great news, and I’m so happy to see you.
We are very happy, too!
Okay, and one more time in Persian- hopefully this time you will understand even more of the words!
ché khoob, emrooz lādan ham bā māst. khosh āmadee lādan jān!
khayli mamnoon!
man o lādan khoshhāleem ké meebeeneemet.
man ham hameentor! khayli vaghté ké hamdeega-rō nadeedeem!
khayli vaghté! khob, mā khayli mashghool boodeem.
khob, matt, aval begoo dāneshgāh chetoré? dars-hā khoob peesh meeran?
khob, khayli khayli sakhté, vali khoob peesh meeré.
dars zeeyād daree?
aré, khayli!
deegé ché khabar?
khob, hālā man dar dāllās zendegee meekonam, barāyé eenké dāneshgāh dar dāllās-é.
va yek khabaré khayli bozorgtar ham dāreen.
dorosté. khabar een-é ké man hāmelé hastam, va dar decembre bacheyé avalemoon bé donyā meeyād.
khayli khayli mobārak bāshé! dokhtaré yā pesar?
dokhtar!
khob, bé salāmati! khayli mamnoon ké bā man emrooz sohbat kardeen, va az didanetoon khayli khoshhāl shodam.
mā ham khayli khoshhāl shodeem!
And that is the end of the dialogue!
Leyla: So again, if you need help with any of the individual words, check out the bonus materials, where you’ll find a transcript of the dialogue along with a vocabulary list of words you’ll need to know.
Leyla: You can find the bonus materials and a lot more at chaiandconversation.com, with chai spelled C-H-A-I.
Matt: Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you in Unit 5!
Leyla: And until then, tā dafe'yé ba'ad from Leyla!
Ladan: khoshhāl shodam from Ladan!
Matt: And bé omeedé deedār from Matt!