Day 1 - Trade

On this day, the students are going to focus on two major topics which one might say govern the modern Iranian economy: trade and embargoes. With the guidance of the instructor, students will try and take an in-depth look at how sanctions have affected Iran’s trade landscape and what solutions have been proposed. This session will help students strengthen their understanding of economic terminology, improve reading and listening comprehension, and begin analyzing and discussing key economic issues in Persian.

  1. Curriculum
  2. Intermediate Persian Syllabus
  3. Week 5 - Economic Persian
  4. Day 1 - Trade  

Reading: In today’s main reading, an article from the Iranian NourNews agency discusses the key challenges and opportunities in Iran’s foreign trade, along with suggested strategies for mitigating the impact of sanctions. 

If time allows, students will also read and discuss a second article from the Tasnim News Agency, which examines how currency fluctuations influence foreign trade and the gross domestic product.

Listening: Video 1: This is an 11-minute short documentary from Voice of America Farsi about the history of the US sanctions on Iran.

Video 2: Another video from an educational-historical YouTube channel called Factorism, explaining the mechanism and discussing the effectiveness of American sanctions on Iran.

Subject of Conversation: The international sanctions on Iran: do they work? (تحریم های بین المللی علیه ایران: آیا آنها موثر هستند؟)

At the end of each lesson, the students are going to discuss with their instructor some topics of interest. This time the topic is going to be the influence of the embargoes on the foreign policy of Iran and its major goals. Attention will also be paid to recent developments, particularly the U.S. government’s approach during the presidency of Joe Biden, as well as the more recent shifts following the beginning of Donald J. Trump’s second term.

Homework: 
- Please carefully read the full text of today’s article(s) and study the vocabulary.
- Watch both of videos about the sanctions on Iran, then choose one of them and write a short summary (around 200 words) outlining its main points. Be sure to use relevant political and economic vocabulary in your writing.
- Prepare for the next day’s discussion.