Testimonial by Merel van Gulik

After six weeks of Persian language classes, I am amazed at how much progress I have made thanks to Aspirantum in all four language competencies: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. The Aspirantum course is extremely well structured, with four hours of class every day, each dedicated to one of the competencies. We also did a lot of grammar in the upper elementary course, with creative writing exercises as homework. The Aspirantum philosophy is a lot about active production and learning a language through full immersion, which was ideal for me as I already knew the alphabet, was able to read, and had some very basic vocabulary. The course is taught as much as possible in Persian, which I think is a great way to make a kickstart in any language, and it is a way of language learning that I personally enjoy a lot because it’s fun and engaging. It’s a stimulating method because even though maybe at the beginning you can only say “what is the meaning of…?” in Persian, slowly but surely you can engage more fully in conversations by listening and repeating. The materials were always real videos and texts; nothing was adapted. At the beginning, this might seem overwhelming, but it is always a great challenge, and when you finally understand them with the help of the teacher, the feeling of accomplishment is invaluable. All in all, it’s an intensive course: by revising and doing homework after each class the amount of knowledge that I gained is much more than I could have imagined. Besides the classes, Aspirantum also organizes many extracurricular activities, from cultural trips to political encounters to lots of food. One recommendation: never assume the dinners are just one course! There is always more :)