Do I need any prior knowledge of Persian to enroll in the core courses?
You need to be able to read the Persian script. That’s the one prerequisite — and if you don’t have it yet, we teach it.
If you’re new to the script, start with one of our two alphabet courses. Both cover all 32 letters in full, and the first lesson of each is free and open with no signup:
- Listen to the Reed: Learn the Persian Alphabet with Rumi — the letters through 18 verses of Rumi’s Masnavi, across 12 live-recorded sessions. ~3 months at one session a week. For the poetry lover.
- The Persian Alphabet, Decoded: A Complete Course — a staged, fully decodable path: you never meet a word containing a letter you haven’t learned. ~1.5 months at one lesson a week. For the structured learner who values their time.
Either one gets you ready for A1.
Script requirements by level
| Course | Script knowledge |
|---|---|
| Let’s Learn Persian! (A1) | Required. Lesson 1 opens in Persian script with no transliteration. |
| Let’s Learn Persian! (A2) | Required. Builds on the reading fluency developed in A1. |
| Let’s Learn Persian! (B1-1) | Required. Full reading and writing competence expected. |
If you already speak some Persian but aren’t sure which level fits, take our free Placement Test, or book a consultation with Dr. Leila Seyedghasem for a considered assessment.
On transliteration: our courses don’t use Finglish, deliberately. It feels helpful at first but becomes a crutch — your eye goes to the Latin letters every time and script reading stalls. Our blog articles do use full transliteration, since they’re written for a general audience. The courses pull you forward; the blog meets you where you are.