Testimonial by Sydney Ward

ASPIRANTUM’s 3 week-long Old Persian online course is fast-paced, thorough, and enjoyable. The course was adopted in accordance with our levels and different interests/purposes for learning Old Persian. The accompanying textbook by Skjærvø was straightforward and highly thorough. It will serve as an excellent resource moving forward. Additionally, the instructor was enthusiastic. Furthermore, the learning environment was friendly and upbeat. 

The design of the course exceeded my expectations. The order in which we read specific Old Persian texts was perfectly tailored to match the progression of our knowledge/level of Old Persian and perfectly coordinated with the Skjaervo textbook. We received a concise grammar lesson followed by many readings of texts that specifically employed the new grammar properties. In this way, my skill and confidence steadily built--and built-in optimal time. I truly felt that we learned as much as possible during the given period of time. 

Lastly, the instructor, Nshan Kesecker, was incredible. He readily provided us with supplemental materials that connected Old Persian to our own research interests. As an accompaniment to the texts we learned to translate, he also provided us with insightful analysis from his own studies and knowledge of neighboring Ancient languages such as Elamite and Akkadian. This put the texts in context, bringing them to life, and encouraged us to engage with the texts more critically. Thus, I left the course not only with a working grasp of Old Persian but also with a heightened awareness of aspects such as the royal ideology, religious, and geopolitical context around the time of the writing of these inscriptions in the Achaemenid Empire.