Curriculum of Language Courses Taught at ASPIRANTUM
Curriculum of Persian, Armenian and Russian language courses
Find the Curriculum of Armenian, Russian and Persian courses
Intermediate Persian Syllabus
Each day’s lesson is a combination of grammar, reading, listening, conversation, drills and exercises. Reading includes various types of materials, from standard and media texts to modern and classical literature, poetry and prose. As a requirement of an intensive course, students are highly recommended to prepare ahead for each coming lesson—review the grammar, read the material(s) for the following lesson and do the homework: composition, listening to the audios, watching the videos and some exercises to optimize their contribution in the class and speed up their pace of learning.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Persian through the Shahname Syllabus
The course is about two tightly related things, Shahnameh, the epic book of Firdawsi, and the Persian language. It is designed to serve as an introduction to the rich linguistic, historical, mythological and cultural background of this bulky masterpiece of classical Persian literature. The main goal of the course consists in serving as a means for advancing and improving the participants' knowledge of Persian (classical and modern), as the conversations and discussions will be conducted in Persian and students' use of the Persian language will be encouraged. Each day’s lesson will include intense readings in Shahnameh, accompanied with grammatical, lexical, stylistic and etymological explanations of the difficult passages and words. Every day students will be given new assignments and will participate in discussions of various homework articles about the Shahnameh.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Persian through Rumi's Masnavi Syllabus
The course is about one of Rumi’s Masterpieces, the Masnavi Ma’navi. The aim of this course is to advance and improve participants’ knowledge of the Persian language through studying the mostly colloquial language style of the work as is still practiced by Persian speakers. The conversation and discussion units of each teaching day will provide the participants with a chance for more interactive immersion experiences. The aim is that by the end of the course the participants are expected to be able to recognize the widely used verses of the Masnavi as proverbs and metaphors in everyday language. Each day will focus on intense readings of the Masnavi, explanations of difficult words, lexical variations and verse semantics, as well as the individual words and their function within the tales and stories.
View Detailed CurriculumClassical Armenian (Grabar) Syllabus
This is an intensive Classical Armenian (Grabar) course that aims at giving students experience in reading and interpreting a wide range of Classical Armenian texts. After an initial introduction to the grammar and syntax of Grabar, students will read a variety of texts including biblical texts; liturgical texts (Pataragamatuyts, Zhamagirk, Sharaknots); hagiographic texts; historical literature of the 5th-9th centuries; historical literature of the 10th-14th centuries; religious and secular verse.
View Detailed CurriculumMiddle Persian (Pahlavi) Syllabus
This three-week intensive Middle Persian (Pahlavi) language course is intended to introduce the Middle Persian (aka Pahlavi) language. The method accepted for this introductory course is the "practical approach". It means that students will learn Middle Persian grammar not by memorizing long theoretical rules of grammar with their numerous exceptions, but by dealing individually and practically with almost all grammatical features and points of importance of Middle Persian while reading the text itself. Thus, students will be reading and understanding essential and well-known Middle Persian literature texts during this three-week course.
View Detailed CurriculumOld Persian Online Course Syllabus
This three-week intensive course is an introduction to the Old Persian language. Students will learn the language by studying several Achaemenid Persian royal inscriptions, including the famous Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great and the mysterious Daiva text of Xerxes. Thus, this course will give students not only a familiarity with the grammar of Old Persian but also with the corpus of Achaemenid royal inscriptions.
View Detailed CurriculumIntroduction to the Iranian Languages Syllabus
Below you will find the syllabus of the course “Introduction to the Iranian language”․ During the two weeks (10 days) students will acquire a solid foundation in Iranian linguistics, get familiar with separate Iranian languages (e.g. Persian, Tajiki, Dari, Kurdish, Pashto, Balochi, Talyshi), and the politics around them. The first week will serve as a general introduction to the Iranian subbranch of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. The internal divisions of the Iranian languages, their particular characteristics, and the chronological divisions of these languages will be discussed. In the second week, separate languages will be studied each day. These include Persian (along with Dari and Tajiki), Kurdish, Pashto, Talyshi and Zazaki (Dimli)․
View Detailed CurriculumSumerian Language Online Course Syllabus
This three-week intensive course is an introduction to the Sumerian language. Students will learn the language by studying several Sumerian royal inscriptions and administrative texts, including those of famous city-state rulers and kings such as Eannatum, Lugalzagesi, and Gudea. Some bilingual texts (in Akkadian and Sumerian) of kings like Sargon and Hammurabi will also be discussed. Thus, this course will give students not only a command of the grammar of Sumerian but also of a large part of the Sumerian corpus and general Ancient Near Eastern text genres. Since this is an intensive introductory course, we will be covering texts from the Old Sumerian to Neo-Sumerian (Ur III) and Old Babylonian periods in order to properly analyze and put in context the development of the language and cuneiform writing system.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Persian through Saadi’s Golestan Syllabus
This course is about one of the greatest masterpieces of classical Persian literature, the Golestan of Saadi. The program pursues two primary goals. The first is to give students the necessary tools for their independent readings and studies of the Golestan through accurate and detailed readings of several meaningful and engaging stories from this book. The lessons will be accompanied by explanations of words and expressions, translations of the Arabic verses, etymological glimpses into the history of essential phrases, and cultural comments. The second goal is to get familiar with the Classical Persian language and its grammatical and phonological subtleties. As classical Persian has a significant number of grammatical points different from modern standard Persian, this introduction will serve as a good point of departure for further studies of the language of classical Persian literature.
View Detailed CurriculumOld Slavonic Online Course Syllabus
This three-week intensive course is an introduction to the Old Slavonic language. Students will complete fragments of different Old Slavonic manuscripts: Savva’s book, The Codex Suprasliensis, The Enina Apostle, Hilandar Fragments, Zograph fragments, Undolski fragments, Novgorod Codex, Ostromir Gospels, Evangelium Dobromiri, Miroslav Gospel and some others old texts. Thus, this course will give students not only a familiarity with the grammar of Old Slavonic but also with the corpus of Old Slavonic texts primarily from the X-XI centuries.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Persian through Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat Syllabus
This 3-week course is dedicated to one of the most prominent figures of Persian poetry, Omar ibn Ibrahim Khayyami of Neyshabur (1048-1131 AD). The aim of this course is to familiarize the poetry written by this great Iranian scholar and their language to those who are interested in Persian literature and culture. Thus aside from the literary aspect of the quatrains, we will also pay much attention to their linguistic structure, cultural background, and philosophical relevance. As this course is designed for a learner with at least an intermediate level of Persian, attention will be paid to enhancing the students' speaking skills via conversations and discussions in Persian. Hence, part of our time will be allocated to discussing the meaning of Khayyam’s quatrains in Persian.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Persian through Early Classical Persian Prose Syllabus
The course is designed to serve as a general introduction to the Classical Persian language and literature. It will provide tools for reading and analyzing the extensive corpus of the Early Classical Persian prose texts. The method adopted for the current course envisions an in-depth familiarity with the grammatical, lexical, phraseological, stylistic, and literary aspects of the Early Classical Persian language and literature after its completion. During each class, the participants will read, analyze and interpret extensive sections from a selection of significant (Early) Classical Persian texts while discussing questions pertinent to their fields of interest and research. Besides the readings, attention will be paid to various aspects of Classical Persian studies. Thus, a specific topic will be explained in detail almost every day and discussed with the participants. In addition, during some of the classes, the participants will read some of the oldest Persian manuscripts.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Russian through the Constitution of the Soviet Union Syllabus
Constitution was the supreme law of the USSR. It sets out the fundamental principles by which the state is governed. The language type used in Constitution is called official style (официально-деловой стиль). It has its vocabulary, constructions, phraseology, and syntax. Learning Russian through the USSR Constitution can help you better understand the politics and political context of this time. The course will be interesting to those who want to immerse themselves in a more detailed study of Russian and regional history's linguistic and political context.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Persian through the Qabus-Nameh
The "Qābus-nāme," authored by Keykāvus b. Eskandar b. Qābus b. Vošmgir, is a renowned Mirror for Princes, and is considered as one of the masterpieces of Classical Persian wisdom literature. Keykāvus, born around 412/1021, was a prince of the Ziarid dynasty, which ruled the Caspian coastland of Ṭabarestān. During this ASPIRANTUM course, we will study this unique text, read significant portions from it, and endeavor to understand its grammatical, stylistic, and lexical peculiarities. The readings will take place every day over the course of two weeks, with each session lasting 4 hours and including discussions of the text.
View Detailed CurriculumIntermediate Russian Syllabus
Each of our daily lessons is a comprehensive blend of listening, reading, grammar, conversation, and exercises. We place significant emphasis on listening, as understanding unadapted live speech is a crucial skill in foreign language learning. Equally, we prioritize speaking to ensure active language use. Our lessons utilize original materials, which are meticulously analyzed for vocabulary, grammar, and communicative situations. To facilitate comprehension, students are provided with preparatory materials for each class. Studying these resources in advance enables more active and effective participation during the lessons.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Russian through the Soviet and Russian Movies Syllabus
Online course “Learn Russian through the Modern Russian Movies” aims to boost the mastery of the Russian language by delving into the captivating realm of contemporary Russian cinema. Visual and auditory depth of the film helps to immerse students in genuine language usage, cultural settings and a variety of linguistic expressions common in modern Russian society. In this course students will watch six Russian movies and participate in tasks tailored to improve their listening, writing, speaking and reading skills. These tasks provide a holistic language learning experience, applying theoretical knowledge in a practical context. The purpose of the course: introduce the students to modern Russian culture and language via modern movies and thereby form relevant linguistic and cultural competence of students.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Armenian through the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia Syllabus
The Constitution of Armenia serves as the paramount legal document governing the nation, outlining its fundamental principles and structures of governance. The language utilized within the Armenian Constitution adheres to an official style, characterized by specific vocabulary, constructions, phraseology, and syntax. Studying Armenian through the lens of its Constitution can provide valuable insights into the political landscape and historical context of the nation. This course appeals to individuals interested in delving deeper into Armenian language and history, offering a unique perspective on linguistic and political developments within the region.
View Detailed CurriculumUpper Elementary Russian Syllabus
Each of our daily lessons is a comprehensive blend of listening, reading, grammar, conversation, and exercises. We place significant emphasis on listening, as understanding unadapted live speech is a crucial skill in foreign language learning. Equally, we prioritize speaking to ensure active language use. Our lessons utilize original materials, which are meticulously analyzed for vocabulary, grammar, and communicative situations. To facilitate comprehension, students are provided with preparatory materials for each class. Studying these resources in advance enables more active and effective participation during the lessons.
View Detailed CurriculumUpper Elementary Persian Syllabus
This upper elementary Persian course is designed to strengthen and expand participants’ language skills through engaging discussions on daily topics. Each lesson immerses students in interactive conversations, reading exercises, listening activities, and vocabulary-building sessions centered around the day’s theme. To further enhance proficiency, dedicated grammar sections will provide a deeper understanding of key structures. As this is an intensive course, students are highly encouraged to prepare ahead for each lesson by reviewing grammar, reading assigned materials, and completing homework. By the end of the program, participants will have developed the skills and confidence to engage in conversations on a wide range of topics, from everyday interactions to more complex discussions.
View Detailed CurriculumLearn Russian through the Songs Syllabus
Each day’s lesson combines grammar instruction, listening practice, reading lyrics, vocabulary work, and engaging discussion. From Soviet classics to post-2010 pop, rock, and rap, students will dive into the sounds that shaped generations. You'll study real-life language as it appears in music - colloquialisms, idioms, and expressive grammar - all while gaining insight into the culture behind the lyrics. Daily prep and focused homework will help reinforce learning and boost confidence. By the end of the course, you’ll not only speak more fluently - you’ll feel the rhythm of modern Russian.
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