Testimonial by Tabriz Mohsenin

I hadn’t been planning on taking a Persian course this summer when Khachik contacted me to tell me ASPIRANTUM’s program had been moved online. I had participated in the upper elementary course in Armenia the previous summer, and I was delighted to hear that it was possible to join the intermediate course this year, even though I was still working in New York. Although missing the experience of the Armenian capital, culture, and countryside is certainly a loss, the online format has allowed greater accessibility, and our teacher, Professor Voskanian, quickly adapted our lessons to the new platform.

The intermediate course built on the material I had learned last summer and introduced me to more complex vocabulary and the intricacies of spoken Persian. I found the themes of each week especially useful, because it allowed us to practice target vocabulary and discussion topics over several days. Professor Voskanian had also selected news articles and broadcasts for us to practice our reading and listening, and although being faced with an article discussing Iran’s nuclear program was intimidating, we worked through the vocabulary and grammar as a class. I had only practiced Persian with texts taken from language books, and it was exciting to read real-world texts and find that, with some effort, I was able to understand them. In the second week, which was focused on arts and culture, I enjoyed learning useful vocabulary for my own field of Iranian art history. Professor Voskanian’s extensive knowledge of etymology added a historical and cultural context to the language which proved especially helpful when we studied Persian literature. Spanning from classical to modern, the poetry we read was one of the most challenging parts of the course, and I appreciated working through the particularities of Persian verse in a collaborative environment.

After taking this course, I feel much more confident in my ability to read both prose and poetry, and I have the skills to work through a challenging text that I would not previously have even attempted. Discussing topics from Iranian politics to Persian painting with my classmates made excellent use of a socially distanced summer, and I’m excited to apply my much-improved language ability to research in my field.