Meet My Parents - Learn Some Farsi

Transcript

Hello? Hey! What's up? Mm-hmm.

I'm so excited. I'm really glad that you get to meet my parents. They've heard me talk about you so much.

Yes, yes, they know we do everything together. What's that? You want to learn some Farsi for when we go to dinner at my parents' house? Oh, that's so sweet.

They'll love that. My parents, my mother will love that even more than you bringing her flowers. Well, you know, of course their English is amazing, but having them living here for so long, right? But I think there's just something that's very special about even learning a few phrases in somebody else's language, you know?

Like, my parents also grew up speaking English, yeah? But there's something about that little bit of extra effort that's. ..

See, this is why it's me and you. You and me. Yeah, okay.

All right. Well, then in that case, if you want, in the case of my mother or my father opening the door, you would say, Salaam. And oh my gosh, the way that we say salaam, right? Like it's salaam.

You might even draw that. So if you say salaam, then you might, my parents, my parents might be like salaam, you know, and really just play it off. They really might.

We can be rather boisterous. Yes, especially in my house, we can be rather boisterous. So you would say salaam.

And then perhaps my mother overestimating the fact that we're doing this on the phone just now. You might hear her say, Chetori. Chetori.

And that's kind of informal, like, oh, how are you? And again, this is another one that could totally go from Chetori to Chetori! Like, right? Like, I miss you.

But we'll work on that later. Like, I have missed you. Right.

Another one that would be good. Oh, please. Lotfan.

Lotfan. So if my mother or if you want a dish, right, you want me to pass you a dish, you might be like, oh, will you pass me that one, lotfan? Right.

And then such lotfan would be please. And then thank you. In Farsi, we have a couple of different thank yous.

And this is because one of them is very, like, heavily influenced by Arabic. And that one is muchakeram. I won't get into Arabic root words with you.

I almost went there. But muchakeram. Just know that that has its roots in Arabic.

And so we will also say mamnoon. Mamnoon. Right.

So I've handed it to you, mamnoon. And then or muchakeram. And then you in response, like I might say, you're welcome.

Right. And so I say, khahesh mikonam. Khahesh mikonam.

So those are just kind of some basics. So what have we done so far? Salaam.

I told you, chitori. So salaam is hello. Chitori, how are you? Please, lotfan.

Thank you. Muchakeram or mamnoon and you're welcome. Khahesh mikonam.

Yes, yes. Try that one again. All right.

So the kheh, it comes from the back of your throat. Yeah, it comes from the back of your throat. Right.

It's not quite as harsh as what you might hear in some Arabic dialects. But khahesh mikonam. Khahesh mikonam.

That's you're welcome. And let's cut that kh sound. That's one of those sounds that y'all don't make in English.

Right. Although I suppose I taught you chitori. So I should teach you the response.

One of the responses that you will most often hear. Because, again, when people ask, how are you, nobody's ever really honest, are they? Like you could be deep in the throes of depression and you will still say that you're fine.

So let's hear what that would be like. I'm good. Right.

I'm good. Oh, dang. There's another kheh right there.

Yeah. I'm good. So somebody goes, oh, chitori, chitori.

And you would go, I'm good. Thank you. Oh, I forgot that one, too, because it's French.

But yes, in Farsi, we will also say merci. In French, we will also say that. So you could say, I'm good.

Thank you. I'm good. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. No, that's what I say in my house.

We just switch. We just switch. So we just use it all.

We just use it all. But, yeah, so that would be and that would be kind of the basics. So let's let's OK, I will go over the list one more time and then I got to get off the phone.

I'm like about to leave my house and get in my car so I can come pick you up and take you to my house. So I'll also when I get in the car, I'll send you a voice note of these words and their meaning. And you can listen to it until I get there.

OK, so salam. Hello. Chitori.

How are you? Khobam. I'm good.

Thank you. You're welcome. Please.

What do you think? OK, I promise once I'm in the car, I will just go ahead and record that voice note before I started up and I'm on my way to your house. You are just going to tickle my parents.

Honestly. Really. You're really living up to to everything that I've said.

Just it's the little things. No, no. Don't diminish it.

Even learning just these. It's effort. It's effort to show.

It's effort to show that you care and that you don't just care about me. But that you care about them. Because of me, maybe.

But but you do care and you want to show them that you care. And this is such an amazing way. Right.

OK. All right. I will see you soon.

Oh, my gosh. I love you. You are so great.

All right. Keep an eye out for my voice note. You can practice and then we can practice in the car before we get there.

And you're just going to blow my parents away. All right. OK.

Adios. Jota Hafez. I guess I should have taught you that one.

We'll go over it in the car. We'll go over to the car. All right.

Bye.