Testimonial by Nadine Lützelschwab

I attended the three-week ASPIRANTUM Persian Summer School – which took place via Zoom due to the extraordinary circumstances caused by COVID19. I enjoyed this well structured and equally well taught course very much. 

In spite of the physical distance, I immediately felt welcome in the virtual classroom and among my fellow students. Mr. Voskanian’s knowledge of the Persian language and culture is extensive and makes his lessons very profitable and enjoyable for his students. The classes were taught in Persian 80% of the time. While this was difficult for me in the beginning, I grew to appreciate it because I realized that I was usually able to follow well, which was an encouraging experience. 

A wide range of topics was addressed during the three weeks: Iranian politics, Iranian culture (cinema, kitchen, humour), classical and modern Persian literature as well as the peculiarities of colloquial Persian (mainly Tehrani dialect). I personally liked the political and cultural classes best because they were best suited to my area of research, but I also hugely enjoyed Mr. Voskanian’s etymological explanations because they were so illuminating. 

In conclusion, I greatly benefited from this course and my level of Persian improved rapidly. I would definitely recommend this course and I hope to attend next year’s Persian Summer School in Yerevan in person!