Learn Persian through Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat
3 weeks, from Oct 09, 2023 to Oct 27, 2023

Armenian School of Languages and Cultures - ASPIRANTUM invites you to apply to the “Learn Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” online course. The entire course will last for three weeks, but students may choose to participate in the 2-weeks course. This online course will start on October 10, 2022, and last till October 28, 2022.

“Learn Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” is designed for students with intermediate/advanced knowledge of Persian. Thus, students who want to participate in the course must have at least intermediate skills in Persian reading comprehension. 

The testimonials of ASPIRANTUM Persian language summer, winter, and online school alumni are available here: https://aspirantum.com/testimonials.

The “Learn Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam'' online course will help the participants to master skills in Persian, particularly in reading and interpreting Persian classical poetry, deepen their knowledge of the Classical Persian grammar and learn the etymologies and various meanings of Persian words. Besides focusing on the literary aspects of Khayyam's poetry, we will also have extensive discussions on his quatrains' philosophical and literary elements. The talks will mainly be carried out in Persian, which will help students to improve their conversational skills and enrich their knowledge of Persian literature.

The 3-week “Learn Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” online course offers 48 hours of intensive Persian language classes, from Monday till Thursday each week, during 12 days of teaching. Each day the participants will receive Persian language instruction by reading, interpreting, and discussing the quatrains of Omar Khayyam for 4 hours. In addition to reading and discussing Khayyam’s Rubaiyat daily, the students will also read an article in Persian about a unique aspect of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. These readings are available in our syllabus. Every day the class will start with a discussion of the homework and the mentioned article. Following this, the class will read, interpret and discuss ten authentic quatrains by Omar Khayyam. Each day's class will end with discussion and questions. In total, students will read 120 (or more) quatrains by Omar Khayyam. 

During the 3-weeks of this course, students will focus on reading most of the authentic quatrains most probably written by Omar Khayyam himself, as there are many more, the authenticity of which is a matter of high doubt. Each day we will start by discussing questions related to the quatrains read in the previous class, then we will read quatrains and explain their language and meaning. This will be followed by a small discussion in Persian, mainly on the philosophical, geographical, and cultural aspects of Persian literature in general and Khayyam’s poetry in particular. After the talk, we will continue reading the quatrains.

The syllabus of the first week of the “Learn Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” online course is available here: https://aspirantum.com/curriculum/learn-persian-through-omar-khayyam-rubaiyat-syllabus The syllabus of next two weeks will be added later.

We are planning to start the online classes at 9 PM Yerevan time. This time is mainly comfortable for the students from European and American countries. So depending on the geography of the applicants, the time may be changed, and all applicants will be informed about the time changes before the course. 

The four hours class each day will be divided into the following sections:

Discussion and Homework (20 min.)
Reading the quatrains (1 hour)
Break (20 min.)
Discussion in Persian (20 min.)
Reading the quatrains (1 hour)
Break (15 min.)
Reading the quatrains and discussion (45 min.)

During the “Learn Persian through Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” classes, the following components will be covered every day to foster the Persian language knowledge of participants:

Grammar: Everyday class will cover the main grammatical concepts of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with parallels to modern Persian, Middle Persian, and Old Persian.
Vocabulary: During the three weeks course, it is anticipated that the participants will learn more than 300 Persian words that will facilitate their further study of classical Persian literature.
Listening: The classes are scheduled so that participants will listen to audio recordings of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam each day.
Speaking: Every day, the classes will push the students to exercise their speaking abilities through discussions, conversations, and analyses of the quatrains of Omar Khayyam.
Writing: Each day, the participants will have assignments and homework to complete for the next day.
Reading: Everyday students will read and discuss the text of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The corpus of texts to be read and discussed during the classes will include all the authentic quatrains of Omar Khayyam.

This Persian language school is designed for participants who want to make well-grounded progress in their knowledge of the Persian language and deepen their understanding of Persian grammar, literary language, and classical poetry through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

The “Learning Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” online course will have 1 group of up to 8 participants. The participants must have at least an intermediate level of Persian language knowledge before starting this course with ASPIRANTUM.

ASPIRANTUM’s Persian language schools are organized so that undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and professors, as well as anyone interested in learning Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, benefit most. So everyone with an intermediate level of Persian is welcome to apply and participate in ASPIRANTUM’s “Learning Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” course online from October 9, 2023, till October 27, 2023.

Instructor: The "Learn Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" online course will be taught by Mr. Ruben Nikoghosyan.

Deadline

The deadline to apply to the 2 or 3 weeks “Learn Persian through the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” online course is September 21, 2023.

To apply, please fill in the application form below.

Participation fee

The participation fee is 900 USD if you only participate in the two weeks of the course. The participation fee for the three weeks entire course will be 1390 USD.

Discount

Need-based discounts will be available. Please email [email protected] describing your situation, and we will consider your case individually. 

(Each participant of this online school may find sources of financial aid from their own University/School/Community or other relevant foundations).

Letter of Invitation

If necessary, ASPIRANTUM will provide applicants with an official letter to support scholarship applications.

Maximum capacity in the group: 8 students

Communication medium: The online course will be organized through Zoom. 

To apply, please fill in the application form below.

Registered participants should send 100% of the participation fee online before September 25, 2023, via a Visa or Mastercard.

For questions and inquiries, please contact [email protected] or Whatsapp Dr. Khachik Gevorgyan (linkedin.com/in/khachikgevorgyan) +374-91-557978

To apply, please fill in the application form below.