:facts & culture « Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation

R.I.P. Legendary Designer Bijan

The legendary Beverly Hills designer known simply as Bijan died today at the age of 67. He owned what was known as ‘the most expensive store in the world’ on Beverly Hills drive, a store open by appointment only. In his many years as a fashion designer in the United States, designed clothes for some [...]

Read the full post on this topic »

Kayhan Kalhor and His Beautiful Compositions

If you listened to lesson six, you heard our exercise of counting from one through ten set to some beautiful rhythmic background music. The background music was composed by none other than Kayhan Kalhor, a world renowned Persian classical musician, specializing in the Persian instrument, kamanche. Two weeks ago on Public Radio Interntional’s program, The [...]

Read the full post on this topic »

Elizabeth Taylor in Iran

Elizabeth Taylor was as much an iconic figure in Iran as she was everywhere else in the world. During the Shah’s time especially, she was revered as the prime example of beauty and elegance. She was also a bold figure unafraid of pushing boundaries and breaking stereotypes. To this end, she went on a spontaneous [...]

Read the full post on this topic »

‘Tarof’ on This American Life

One of the most important traditions in Iranian culture is the tradition of ‘Tarof.’ Tarof can be described as a specific form of Iranian etiquette or politeness, and comes with a very specific set of rules of how to interact with other people. Sometimes it can be extremely frustrating and seem disingenuous, but at other [...]

Read the full post on this topic »

A Delicious Persian New Year Dish

Najmieh Batmanglij made a guest appearance on the Martha Stewart Show to share a recipe for a homemade meal of lamb shanks made with rice and fava beans (baghali polo). Batmanglij has been the most influential voice for Persian cooking (or as the Washington Post put it “the guru of Persian Cuisine”) for the past [...]

Read the full post on this topic »

Happy Norooz to all!

It’s almost time for Norooz, the most important holiday in the Iranian culture. This holiday marks the beginning of the Persian calendar and occurs every year at the exact moment that spring starts. This year, it will occur on March 20, 2011 at exactly 6:21 central time in the United States, and the corresponding times [...]

Read the full post on this topic »

Our Theme Music

So many people have written us asking about our wonderful theme music. It’s a great little piece, an original composition by Fared Shafinury, one of the most talented musicians in the Iranian community. You can check out his music on his webpage. He will be providing more music for the podcast in the future, and [...]

Read the full post on this topic »

Why ‘Persian’, Not ‘Farsi’?

There is an ongoing debate in the Iranian and academic community whether to use “Persian” or “Farsi” to refer to the language. It’s not a simple issue of To-may-to vs. To-mah-to: the reasons for using the term “Persian” when speaking in English are based on history and precedent.

Read the full post on this topic »