Persian Verb Tenses Exercise
I have always been very impressed by Persian's verb system. All of a verb's tenses can be generated by knowing only its infinitive and present tense stem. To me this system seems modular–a few prefixes and suffixes are added in combinations to the verb stem to make all the tenses. While it saves a lot of memorization, the modular verb structure makes identifying the tenses for a new student somewhat difficult since many of them look alike.
Persian Alphabet Exercises
Every Persian textbook I own gives short shrift to teaching the alphabet. For new students unfamiliar with the Arabic/Persian alphabet, reading the characters is a daunting obstacle. Reading quickly and accurately however is an essential skill for students beginning their studies. The following exercises are meant to compliment Lesson 2 of Dr. Purnamdarian's text Persian Lessons for Foreigners by adding exercises for character identification and sound identification.
Combination Exercise
This exercise is mostly for reading practice, it is provided free for all to use and modify. In it students combine sentences with the same subject to clarify a question. In English the exercises would go something like, 1: The man has two brothers. 2: The man likes his dog. Q: Which man has two brothers? A: The man who likes his dog has two brothers.
Exercise Sheets, Verb Conjugation and Sentence Completion
Some of my students have difficulty reading sentences quickly or conjugating verbs quickly. These are two exercise sheets I made for Persian language students to practice verb conjugations and reading comprehension. These exercise sheets are provided free for anyone to use or modify.
Mornings
I TA a Persian language class and work with a few students who have completed all the course offerings but want to continue learning Persian. There are few good learning materials for English speakers and my professor and I must be creative in making our own. This semester my students asked to learn more words useful for their daily lives. I am designing lessons where words are presented around a single subject so that students learn to describe a situation well, such as shopping for groceries or visiting the doctor.
Consequences of Iran’s March Elections: A Study of Political Change in the Islamic Republic
Preface
In March of 2008 Iran held parliamentary level elections. The Majles (Iran's legislature) elections were heavily vetted in the weeks before the election. Once vetted however, they appear to have run fair, unlike the June 2009 presidential elections. I wrote "Consequences of Iran's March Elections" in the Spring of 2008, beginning research the month before the election and finishing writing two months after the election. Before the election I identified factions competing within the political establishment and explored the history of factionalism in the Islamic Republic. The common portrayal of Iranian politics being a struggle between reformists and hardliners is too simplistic and causes the observer to overlook real disagreements within the political elite. After the election I interpreted the results and made predictions about the direction Iranian politics would take in the following year.
Inequitable Mediation: The International Community’s Response to The Iran Iraq War
I wrote "Inequitable Mediation" in November 2009 for a course about conflict resolution. It examines how the weak international response to Saddam Hussein's aggression against Iran in September 1980 and the bias in subsequent mediation efforts prolonged what became the longest interstate war of the 20th century. I was drawn to study this conflict because, despite the wealth of scholarly work about the Iranian Revolution, very little has been written about the war. The duration of the war is frequently attributed to religious fanaticism, the will of maniacal dictators, or ancient animosities. Naturally, irrational causes seem appropriate explanations for such a senseless and destruction war in which the casus belli, the Shatt al-Arab, was quickly rendered unusable by either side and both countries were left shattered. However, these appeals do little to explain how such a war occurred in the post-Second World War international order designed to prevent and contain interstate wars. This paper is an attempt to make sense of the international community's failure in handling the war.
Oil Dependence and Economic Development: Development Challenges to the Islamic Republic of Iran
Preface
"Oil Dependence and Economic Development" was originally written April 27, 2009 for an international political economy course at California State University - Sacramento. It analyzes Iran's growing dependence on oil revenues since the 1979 Revolution and why the regime has been unable to implement sufficient economic reform. In it I explore Iran's quasi-governmental, heavily subsidized state run industries as a cause for Iranian industry's inability to compete internationally. The subsidies are not given to make the industries more competitive, like is done elsewhere, but to create jobs given to regime supporters. While it seems the government of Iran is aware that their system of patronage is economically debilitating, they dare not dismantle the system lest they alienate their supporters.
The Latest from @dalexgray
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