Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Persian Revised 4th Edition

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First and foremost, understand what this book is. It would most properly be termed a graded grammar. It is not a book to teach you to memorize how to ask the location of nearest bathroom. The focus is on the written modern language, with some discussion of classical Persian as well.

Now, because it *is* a grammar, it uses actual grammatic terminology. Some reviewers are apparently shocked by this. So, if you're not familiar with that terminology, you may actually have to use an English dictionary to look up some words. It's pretty difficult to learn a language on your own without understanding some grammar. There are very expensive and time-consuming courses in some languages that will drill you through all the various grammatical forms without explaining what they are, or using any hard English words (but nothing like this is available in Persian, anyway.) So, get over it, and use a dictionary.

I'm using this book to learn how to read Persian. It's pretty good for that, and quite thorough. It would be useful as an adjunct resource if you want to learn to speak Persian, but not as your primary resource. It doesn't have the appropriate sort of drills and tapes for learning to speak. The drills are of the more traditional two-way translation variety.

The major weakness of the book, as others have pointed out, is the lack of keys to exercises. For me, it's not a big problem, because if you're learning to read a language, you can usually tell when you've figured out the right translation, because things will just "click". If you wanted to learn to write to your Persian friend in Persian, this would be a major problem, as you really need a key to the exercises, because you'll make little grammatical errors that you won't catch without a key.

A minor weakness is the presentation of the alphabet. Everything you need to know about the Persian script is presented in the introduction to this book. However, it's presented in a very concise format, so what you'll have to do is use this information to make up your own drills with flash cards, etc., so you have a good handle on the alphabet before you start. That's what I did, and it worked fine.

You may also want to either get the tapes associated with the book, or get another course where the focus is on speaking. I say this only because I've had real trouble in the past learning to read languages where I didn't have a firm grasp on what the language sounded like. For some reason, I can teach myself to read much better if I can hear the words in my head. The tapes with the book are fine for that, with good, clear, slow pronunciation, but they're not good for learning to speak, because, again, they don't have the appropriate sort of drills.

So, in summary, it's quite good for learning to read, so-so for learning to write, and useful only as a secondary resource for learning to speak.

For those who want to be able to read and write Persian, Thackston is essential. Wheeler M. Thackston has a masterful array of English grammatical terms at his disposal and he uses them wisely to give a precise understanding of Persian grammar. Each grammatical point is lavishly illustrated by several examples. The exercises at the end of each chapter sensibly use the vocabulary, and rigorously re-inforce the grammar, introduced in the same chapter.

The technical language and grammatical approach may be off-putting for a beginner, but I managed to teach myself chapters 1 to 18 (out of a total of twenty-five)in about four months of constant study (a couple of hours most days)which allowed me to enter and subsequently complete a second year Persian course as part of an undergraduate degree. However, I was already familiar with the Arabic script and I did need a little English grammar book to explain the meaning of terms such as "predicate" and "copula".

The tapes should help you to pronounce words correctly but I did not use them when I was teaching myself. The book does not feature many conversations to emulate and useful phrases appear in grammatical, but not necessarily subject, order. There are some useful thematic vocabulary sections such as food and clothing.

If your primary objective is to speak Persian, look elsewhere. Completing this book will provide a platform from which the grammar necessary to read newspapers and simple literature is second nature. In addition, it should allow the spoken language to be rapidly acquired in a Persian speaking environment.

The reviews below make clear that different people have different reactions to this book. Having used a number of beginning textbooks of Persian over the years, here is another commentary that will hopefully put this book into perspective:

It is a very complete and sophisticated handbook to the grammar of Persian, arranged in progressive lessons, but it does in many places demand a knowledge of English grammar (and grammatical terminology) that excees what most readers have these days. Frankly, I think that this book, and particularly the grammatical descriptions/explanations in it, would be very heavy going for a true beginner at Persian, especially someone working on his/her own without a teacher or class.

For the true beginner, or the independent learner, I think the tried and true "Teach Yourself Modern Persian" by John Mace, (and NOT the new book by the same title written by Narguess Farzad) offers the easiest way to become aquainted with the Persian alphabet and language in easy stages in such a way that, even working on one's own, you can make good progress and get a good feel for the structure of the language.

In my view, the Thackston book is a good follow-on book for someone who has already picked up the basics from Mace. Thackston's particular strength, in my opinion, is the way he has analyzed virtually all the aspects of the language and provided very clear-cut sample sentences, always in both Persian and English, to illustrate even the finest nuances of meaning. In this regard, it is outstanding, and the sentence-examples and their translations make the points sink in well even if the explanations are a bit abstruse in terms of grammatical teminology. But unless you already have a basic grasp of the fundamentals of Persian, you may not be able to benefit so much from Thackston.

In short, I think Thackston's book is marvellous as a "follow-on" textbook for people who have already picked up a basic understanding of the way the language works, but is probably a bit heavy for those just starting out. I thus recommend it as your SECOND Persian book, and I think that if you approach it in this way you will value it very highly for the way it clarifies and solidifies what you have learned from Mace.

This book is an excellent introduction, and I found that, after studying it for about 2 hours a day, I was able to acquire basic conversational ability by the end of the book. He has a very accessible way of presenting elements of the language. Moreover, Thackston's appendices provide a useful and clear introduction to the particulars of Classical and colloquial usages, alongside texts from both Classical and modern authors. However, the book is only an introduction. What the Persian language gains in grammatical simplicity, it loses in stylistic complexity. If the learner wants to tackle the florid and roundabout prose of an Iranian newspaper editorial, Lambton is still the better option. While Lambton's grammar is not as user-friendly or conversational in its approach, its completion does guarrantee that the reader will be able to handle even the most baroque piece of Persian prose. Still, I would say Thackston is the best intorduction to spoken Persian availible.

Out of about 6 books (one with tapes) teaching Persian, this ranks as the top. Thackston demonstrates an incredibly in-depth knowledge of the language and culture, and gives the detail needed for a student to "get the feel" necessary to utilize the power of Farsi/Persian. It is most-exquisitely approached from a foreign speaker's perspective - giving comfortable basics and progressing naturally through even the most intricate details.

Really a great primer for just starting out in studying Persian. I'm not sure if this is o.k. to include, but this is the only text that the Middle Eastern Studies Department at U.C. Berkeley uses in their introductory level Persian language courses. What could be a better recommendation than that?

This book does not pretend to be a guide to the spoken language and so if that is what you want you'll need to find another book to supplement this one. For those of us seeking to master the written language, this is the best introduction on the market. After months of wading through Elwell-Sutton and drowning in Lambton, Thackston convinced me that learning Persian is not only possible but actually enjoyable. The one drawback for the independent student is the lack of a key to the excercises, however the material is so well presented, as compared to its well-known copetitors, I hardly felt I needed one.

Thackston applies a logical and systematic approach to teaching Persian. For those wanting to learn the language for letter writing and for reading newspapers, this is a great starting point. Although, as stated previously, a key to exercises would be more than helpful. Also, a broader introduction into the Persian alphabet would be useful to those learning to write as well. Thackston is correct in introducing the alphabet page one - as it is an essential hurdle to clear before learning the language-, however an appendix explaining different writing techniques would have been a big help.

There are a number of Persian children's books which are available at Persian bookstores which give a solid introduction to the script, which I found useful to supplement my studies. I also have the Elwell-Sutton book, which does offer an appendix on Persian writing scripts and it's exercises do have an answer key. Still I prefer Thackston, as it offers a more logical approach to learning the grammar, and the vocabulary introduced is more practical. There are also fewer errors.

With its limitations stated, Thackston is a great meat and potatoes system that will teach you the language if you approach the language with diligence. I did not buy the tapes, so I cannot rate them, but I do recommend that for those learning Persian without access to native speakers should invest in a good set of tapes. It is important to pick up on the pronunciation of the language, which can only effectively be learned by ear.

This is a good introduction for written Persian language used in present-day Iran, but for a beginning student it can also seem a bit daunting (excessive use of grammatical terms often makes it more useful to look at Thackston's examples than read his explanations, for example). Also his habit of introducing bits and pieces of the same grammatical point in various parts of the book hampers its usefulness as a reference book. Lack of a key to the exercises has already been mentioned, but another frustrating point is Thackston's somewhat vague dictionary in the end of the book - many common words have not been included since you are supposed to be familiar with them, but this is a hindrance if you just want to check out the correct spelling of an already familiar term. I learned my Persian from this book and was reading texts by the middle of my fourth month of study, so the book *is* effective in teaching you the grammar, but by the time I finished it I was thoroughly tired of it and its minor but all-too-frustrating faults. Personally I would recommend Elwell-Sutton for a beginner - especially since it has a gentler approach to introducing the script.

I've been living in Afghanistan for the last 3 years and I've been trying to learn Farsi with all methods I could find. After 3 years I still speak very basic Persian and I was wondering if I could ever learn this language by myself.
Here we go! I am learning very fast thanks to Thackston's book. It is clear and easy to use. I am just a little disappointed by the kind of vocabulary he uses: very boring sentences only...

I read many critics saying the grammar is too complicated. Well, it is perfect for French, German, and any other non-native English speaker who learned grammar at school during 12 years...Thackston is also of much higher quality than all French books teaching Persian I've found so far.

I have to admit I would have had difficulties pronouncing the words and writing if I hadn't had some basic in Persian already. This is thus perfect for those living in a country where Persian is spoken.