It’s Offical! First Published Author in the Family
Over the summer, I helped a friend, Mehdi, edit the instructional English book he was writing. I wrote a number of comprehension questions in addition to editing the text. A couple of weeks ago, Mehdi sent the book to my friend Soheil in Tehran, and Soheil sent it to me. Check it out!
Mohsen Namjoo and the Alaei Brothers
On November 19th, I went with my friend Hamid into Cambridge to see Mohsen Namjoo at MIT. Hamid doesn’t actually like Mohsen Namjoo that much, but I thought he was great.
The only problem was that the whole performance was in Persian. He said a couple of things in English, but even the introduction was in Persian. The only thing I understood was “Silence your cell phones.” I enjoyed the music, though, so the trip was worth it.
The best part of the event was that I got to meet Arash Alaei. On Thursday, I’m going to go meet both Arash and his brother Kamiar in Albany. There is an event that is being held in celebration of their release from prison and in honor of the work they’ve done on HIV prevention and treatment.
First letter translated!
I am taking the year off from Hampshire, so I have decided to start blogging again to keep track of what I’ve accomplished in my time off.
One of my uncles introduced me to two HIV doctors from Iran who live in Albany, NY now. I talked to one of them on the phone, and I met the other last night. I went to a concert (Mohsen Namjoo) at MIT, and met him there. We talked about My Persian-Speaking Friends, my pen pal program between Iranian and American students. It was, overall, a very interesting night.
On that note, I received a letter today from the same kid who wrote the first letter of the program last November. His pen pal stopped writing back after a few letters, so I paired him with someone else. They are both 8 or 9 years old. I translated the letter myself, which makes it the first letter I’ve actually translated (instead of sending it to one of our many volunteer translators). I’m pretty proud of myself. I had some trouble reading his handwriting, but someone helped me by typing it so that I could translate it. It was pretty exciting, and I hope that my Persian improves enough that I can slowly work my way up to the older students!
Pretty boring post
As usual, this is probably going to be a pretty short post.
I’ve been working a lot on Doostane Farsi Zabane Man (My Persian-Speaking Friends) lately while ignoring my schoolwork, which is no good. I have barely studied any Persian this break, which is really bad. The pen pal program is going well, though. I’m currently working on three grant applications, one of which is for $10,000, which would be amazing if we got.
Top 3 Things I Did in 2010
(in no particular order)
1) Finished my first year of college.
2) Started teaching English as a Second Language.
3) Started an Iranian-American pen pal program
Does Everyone Get Bullied?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that bullying is getting the attention it deserves, finally. I had a chat with my mom the other day, though, about all of those YouTube videos of LGBT people talking about their lives and how things got better for them. I know that there were a rash of suicide a little while back because of LGBT issues, but why wasn’t a video ever made saying “I was a poor kid, and, you know what, things do get better” or “I wasn’t very attractive when I was younger, but people stopped bullying me” or “I was one of the smart kids in my class and I got bullied a lot for that, but things did get better.” Why all the focus on the LGBT community? I’m not trying to be rude or say that they shouldn’t get attention; I’m honestly curious. I was bullied when I was younger. While I don’t want to say that bullying is just a part of life, because nobody should have to go through that, is it natural? Maybe it is. I don’t know.
Speaking of which, a letter to the editor of the NY Times from a couple of months ago, because Muslims get bullied, too.
My Sorrowful Countries
“Though I’ve lived my bygone years,
In this land, in this land.
I’ll uproot it without tears,
and I’ll change it if I can!
And, no more shall I be, loyal to my sorrowful country.
No more shall I be, loyal to my sorrowful country.”
-”Loyal to My Sorrowful Country”
I was talking to an Iranian man today who said that he loved both Iran and the U.S. I am the same way. I love my own country, the United States, but I love Iran, too. No matter what either country does, I will love it. I will always be loyal to these countries, no matter how sorrowful they become.
Language as the classifying feature of humans?
“Language may be the most appropriate trait by which to classify humans within the order of nature, even more so than rationality (Homo sapiens) or technology (Homo faber) — and not only because language is less honorific than rationality and more intrinsic than technology. In a sense Homo loquens trumps all other terms, since the very act of definition is itself a move within language.”
UCLA/University of Maryland?
I’m thinking of seeing if I can take a summer course at UCLA next year. I want to go to “Tehrangeles” to improve my Persian, but I don’t really like the idea of L.A., though I’ve never been there. If I don’t take one at UCLA, I might take one at the University of Maryland, which has an excellent Persian program. I’m not sure, but I have a lot of time to flesh out the idea. This would probably happen instead of me going abroad for a semester, which is fine with me.
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