Testimonial by Matti Veldhuis

I spent five weeks studying Persian at ASPIRANTUM. While in Armenia, I was met with the opportunity to focus solely on my language studies rather than attempting to juggle both Persian and other academic work. Learning a new language takes an incredible amount of time, and ASPIRANTUM is a great way to increase the necessary number of hours to further one’s mileage down the road—whether that road is Persian, Russian, or Armenian. 

Our instructor, Mahboobeh, is a skilled teacher whose course emphasizes speaking and reading, leading to increased comprehension and conversational skills among myself and my classmates. My classmates and I arrived in Yerevan with different, sometimes disparate language experiences but found ourselves able to work together, converse, and progress. Mahboobeh pushed us to discuss new topics in Persian and thus to expand both our vocabularies and our abilities to express complex thoughts. Alongside this academic work, I experienced Armenian culture, both through time spent living in Yerevan and through trips and events organized by ASPIRANTUM. The latter involved visiting monasteries, churches, other historical sites, natural areas, and even Yezidi shepherds with my Persian classmates and with other students learning Russian and Armenian. As ASPIRANTUM students have classes either in the morning or the afternoon, I think there is a healthy balance between work and free time.