Meeting New People

Leyla: salām bé hamegee, welcome to Lesson 64 of Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation! I'm joined today by Vijay. salām vijay!

Vijay: salām, leylā! hālet chetor-é?

Leyla: khoob, khaylee mamnoon. shomā chetor-ee?

Vijay: man ham khoob-am, merci.

Leyla: As you can see, I practiced something that we did in Lesson 63, which is, I switched from… I showed the fluidity of formal and informal, so I asked “shomā chetor-ee?” which is different than something we've done before! It’s an advanced technique. I used “shomā,” the formal ‘you’, but then I combined it with the informal conjugation of ‘how are you’, “chetor-ee?” A lot of times, friends will do this. They won't say “tō chetor-ee?” They'll say “shomā chetor-ee?” just to add a little bit of formality in there but to still show that they're friends. That was a little… it showed in the last lesson where she kind of went back and forth between formal and informal. Getting into today's lesson, we actually today have three short dialogues, and we're not going to get into every single little bit of words in this one because a lot of it is vocabulary that you should already know. It's very simple dialogues. Is there anything that you want us to know, Vijay, before we get into these?

Vijay: All of these are basically just people who are meeting up with each other, sometimes people who don't know each other, sometimes people who do. I think some but not all of them involve somebody meeting somebody else who's new, so they're just kind of doing some introductions.

Leyla: Okay, perfect, so it should be pretty simple and straightforward! If there are any words that we haven't covered before, we will go over those, but here we go into the first dialogue:

Atefeh: salām. man doosté marjān, ātefé hastam. shomā bāyad khāharé marjān bāsheed.

Sepideh: balé. az deedāretoon khoshvaghtam.

Atefeh: man ham khaylee khoshvaghtam. bebakhsheed esmetoon?

Sepideh: sepeedé hastam. tavalodé shomā-st?

Atefeh: balé, khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed tashreef āvordeen.

Sepideh: mamnoon ké da'vatam kardeen.

Leyla: Oh, that's a really good one, and hopefully, it makes you feel good because you understand most of the words in there, but let's listen to it bit by bit! First…

Atefeh: salām. man doosté marjān, ātefé hastam. shomā bāyad khāharé marjān bāsheed.

Leyla: Okay, nice! First, she says “salām.”

Vijay: salām.

Leyla: man doosté marjān, ātefé hastam.

Vijay: man doosté marjān, ātefé hastam.

Leyla: This is interesting because she kind of combines two things. She says, “man doosté marjān, ātefé hastam,” 'I am Marjan's friend, Atefeh' is how we would translate it, but she starts off… She could have said, “man ātefé hastam. doosté marjān hastam,” but she combines both and just uses one “hastam,” so 'I am Marjan's friend. I am Atefeh'. man doosté marjān…

Vijay: man doosté marjān…

Leyla: ātefé hastam.

Vijay: ātefé hastam.

Leyla: It'd be like her saying 'I'm Atefeh, Marjan's friend', for example. 'I'm Atefeh, Marjan's friend', so again, man doosté marjān…

Vijay: man doosté marjān…

Leyla: ātefé hastam.

Vijay: ātefé hastam.

Leyla: And Atefeh is her name, if you didn't catch that. Then she says:

Atefeh: shomā bāyad khāharé marjān bāsheed.

Leyla: That was a little fast, but she says, “shomā bāyad khāharé marjān bāsheed.” This is kind of interesting because she goes “shomā bāyad," ‘you must’. shomā bāyad…

Vijay: shomā bāyad…

Leyla: “khāharé marjān,” ‘the sister of Marjan’, khāharé marjān…

Vijay: khāharé marjān…

Leyla: Then “bāsheed,” ‘you must be’. bāsheed.

Vijay: bāsheed.

Leyla: shomā bāyad khāharé marjān bāsheed.

Vijay: shomā bāyad khāharé marjān bāsheed.

Leyla: That's ‘you must be the sister of Marjan’. This is similar to something we’d say in English.

Sepideh: balé. az deedāretoon khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: Okay, she goes “balé.”

Vijay: balé.

Leyla: az deedāretoon khoshvaghtam.

Vijay: az deedāretoon khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: We've taught “khoshvaghtam” in a lesson before. It just means ‘pleased to meet you’. khoshvaghtam.

Vijay: khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: 'I'm pleased to meet you', but here, she has added “az deedāretoon.” “deedār” means ‘to see’, ‘to see someone’, but she says “deedāretoon,” ‘to see you’. “az deedāretoon,” ‘of seeing you, I am very pleased, or I am very grateful’. az deedāretoon khoshvaghtam.

Vijay: az deedāretoon khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: So it's another take on ‘pleased to meet you’.

Atefeh: man ham khaylee khoshvaghtam. bebakhsheed esmetoon?

Leyla: And she goes, “man ham khaylee khoshvaghtam.”

Vijay: man ham khaylee khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: This should be super clear to you. Vijay, do you want to go over each of these words?

Vijay: Yeah, “man” means ‘I’; “ham” means ‘also’; “khaylee,” of course, means ‘very’; and “khoshvaghtam” is, again, ‘pleased to meet you’, so 'I'm also very pleased to meet you'.

Leyla: Amazing! Then she goes, “bebakhsheed esmetoon?”

Vijay: bebakhsheed esmetoon?

Leyla: “bebaksheed” just means 'I'm sorry'. bebakhsheed.

Vijay: bebakhsheed.

Leyla: And then “esmetoon” is ‘your name’. esmetoon.

Vijay: esmetoon.

Leyla: 'I'm sorry, your name?'. bebakhsheed esmetoon?

Vijay: bebakhsheed esmetoon?

Sepideh: sepeedé hastam. tavalodé shomā-st?

Leyla: She goes, “sepeedé hastam.”

Vijay: sepeedé hastam.

Leyla: ‘I am Sepideh’. She could have said ‘my name is’, so “esmé man sepeedé hast…”

Vijay: esmé man sepeedé hast.

Leyla: …but instead, she says “sepeedé hastam.”

Vijay: sepeedé hastam.

Leyla: ‘I am Sepideh’. Just like in English, you can say ‘my name is Sepideh’, or you can say ‘I am Sepideh’. She goes, “tavalodé shomā-st?”

Vijay: tavalodé shomā-st?

Leyla: “tavalod” is the word for ‘birthday’, and “shomā” means ‘you’ in the formal sense, so ‘is it your birthday?’. tavalodé shomā-st?

Vijay: tavalodé shomā-st?

Atefeh: balé, khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed tashreef āvordeen.

Leyla: Okay, this is a more formal tārof phrase. She goes, “balé.”

Vijay: balé.

Leyla: And then “khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed.”

Vijay: khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed.

Leyla: And “tashreef āvordeen.”

Vijay: tashreef āvordeen.

Leyla: Let's listen to this one more time!

Atefeh: balé, khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed tashreef āvordeen.

Leyla: It's not clear to me if she's saying “khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed” or if she's saying the informal phrase! This is one of the things about conversational Persian. She could be switching back and forth between formal and informal. Here, she starts off speaking very formally to this person because they don't know each other, and maybe it's an older sister or something. Either way, she's really showing respect to this person, and then this “tashreef āvordeen” is a very formal phrase. It's more like ‘graced us with your presence’, ‘you arrived’, ‘you came’. “khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed” means ‘you did a really good thing, you did some good work’. khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed.

Vijay: khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed.

Leyla: tashreef āvordeen.

Vijay: tashreef āvordeen.

Leyla: Like I said, I'm not clear. She's using the “āvordeen”; that's very clear. We can hear the “né,” and this is one of those things about spoken Persian versus written Persian. The formal conjugation of spoken Persian has the né sound at the end, but it's always written with the dé sound, so Vijay, you put “kardeed.”

Vijay: Right, that's right. If you… if you look at the transcript for this dialogue, they also have it that way right there.

Leyla: Gotcha, so she's switching before… between very formal and spoken formal!

Vijay: Right, exactly, exactly!

Leyla: Which is interesting, but yeah, that's again the fluidity of the Persian language. “balé, khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed tashreef āvordeen.” If you… you wouldn't use “tashreef āvordeen” with someone you're just like… you would say “āmadeen,” like “khaylee khoob, khoob kardeed āmadee.” That's how you'd say it if you're speaking very informally, but “tashreef āvardeed” is ‘you have…’

Vijay: ‘…brought honor’!

Leyla: Yes, ‘brought honor’, exactly, exactly, yes. Yeah, it's taken from Arabic. That's literally what it translates to.

Vijay: Yeah, we have the same phrase in Urdu, too. We have, exactly, we say tashreef, too, and we say ‘to bring’ tashreef.

Leyla: Wow! Okay, 'you've brought honor', yes, so 'you've graced us with your presence'. Again, the full phrase is balé, khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed…

Vijay: balé, khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed…

Leyla: tashreef āvordeen.

Vijay: tashreef āvordeen.

Leyla: ‘You did a great thing to bring us honor’. Then finally, she responds…

Sepideh: mamnoon ké da'vatam kardeen.

Leyla: She says, “mamnoon ké da'vatam kardeen.”

Vijay: mamnoon ké da'vatam kardeen.

Leyla: ‘Thank you for inviting me’. “mamnoon” means ‘thank you’; “ké,” ‘that’; “da'vatam,” and that means, “da'vatam kardeen,” that's a compound verb meaning ‘you invited me’, “da'vatam kardeen.”

Vijay: da'vatam kardeen.

Leyla: Perfect. mamnoon ké da'vatam kardeen.

Vijay: mamnoon ké da'vatam kardeen.

Leyla: Great! Any other observations about this dialogue?

Vijay: I don't think so. I mean, basically we have another little bit of tārof in this dialogue, but otherwise it's pretty straightforward. It's just 'who are you? Oh, I'm this person. Oh okay. Is it your birthday? Yeah, it is'.

Leyla: Yeah. ‘Thanks for inviting me!’. I mean, it's weird that she didn't know that it's her birthday when she's been invited, but that's fine. It's the sister. In Iranian culture, you invite the sisters, the brothers, the in-laws, everyone! All right, okay, next dialogue:

Mr. Samavati: man samāvāti hastam. khaylee khoshvaghtam.

Farzaneh: rezāi hastam, farzāné. man ham khoshvaghtam. maghsadetoon kojā-st?

Mr. Samavati: barāyé yek safaré kāree meeram torkeeyé. shomā chetor?

Farzaneh: āh! pas hamsafar-eem. man ham meeram torkeeyé.

Leyla: Okay, some subtext going on here; we can talk about that later, about what's going on! Let’s listen from the beginning:

Mr. Samavati: man samāvāti hastam. khaylee khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: Okay, very simple! “man samāvāti hastam."

Vijay: man samāvāti hastam.

Leyla: khaylee khoshvaghtam.

Vijay: khaylee khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: I'm not even going to translate this, because if you've gotten to lesson 64, you should really know that very easily!

Vijay: Absolutely!

Farzaneh: rezāi hastam, farzāné. man ham khoshvaghtam. maghsadetoon kojā-st?

Leyla: Okay, “rezāi hastam, farzāné.”

Vijay: rezāi hastam, farzāné.

Leyla: ‘I am Rezai, Farzaneh’, so she's saying her last name first and then her first name, Farzaneh. rezāi hastam, farzāné.

Vijay: rezāi hastam, farzāné.

Leyla: And then she goes, “man ham khoshvaghtam.”

Vijay: man ham khoshvaghtam.

Leyla: Easy-peasy, and then she says, “maghsadetoon kojā-st?”

Vijay: maghsadetoon kojā-st?

Leyla: “maghsad” means ‘destination'; “maghsadetoon,” ‘your destination’. maghsadetoon.

Vijay: maghsadetoon.

Leyla: kojā-st?

Vijay: kojā-st?

Leyla: “kojā” is the word for ‘where’, so “kojā-st??” ‘Where is it? Where is your destination?’ and then he replies:

Mr. Samavati: barāyé yek safaré kāree meeram torkeeyé. shomā chetor?

Leyla: Okay, “barāyé yek safaré kāree meeram torkeeyé.” “safar” means a ‘trip’, a ‘journey’, and so “safaré kāree” means a ‘work journey'. “barāyé yek safaré kāree,” ‘for a work trip’, “meeram torkeeyé,” 'I'm going to Turkey'. barāyé yek safaré kāree…

Vijay: barāyé yek safaré kāree…

Leyla: meeram torkeeyé.

Vijay: meeram torkeeyé.

Leyla: And then he asks, “shomā chetor?”

Vijay: shomā chetor?

Leyla: Speaking formally; they don't know each other, and she goes…

Farzaneh: āh! pas hamsafar-eem. man ham meeram torkeeyé.

Leyla: She sounds super excited! She goes, “āh! pas hamsafar-eem.” āh!

Vijay: āh!

Leyla: pas hamsafar-eem.

Vijay: pas hamsafar-eem.

Leyla: She said it just like that! An interesting thing, “hamsafar,” this word “ham” we talked about before means ‘same’ or ‘equal’, but you can use it to mean so many different things. I love this word; I love pointing it out! You can say “hamzaboon” means ‘same tongue’, but it means ‘someone you speak the same language as’. hamzaboon.

Vijay: hamzaboon.

Leyla: You can say “hamsāyé.” “sāyé” means a ‘shade’ or a ‘shadow’, and that means your ‘neighbor’. Someone you share a shade with is your neighbor. hamsāyé.

Vijay: hamsāyé.

Leyla: You can say hamdam. dam means a breath, but someone that is your companion or someone who, like, shares, you know, some journey with you, you call hamdam.

Vijay: hamdam

Leyla: So similarly, this word hamsafar, safar is a journey. So it literally means a person you're journeying with, your travel companion, hamsafar.

Vijay: hamsafar

Leyla: However, Googoosh has a really beautiful song called hamsafar, which goes āy hamsafaré man. So my journey, my travel companion. But in that context, it means my soulmate. So someone who is on an equal journey with you, your life companion, your travel mate, so who knows what she means here? I mean, she is literally getting on a plane with this person, but maybe she thinks that she's met a soulmate. So pas hamsafar-eem.

Vijay: pas hamsafar-eem.

Leyla: Did you pick up on that when you first listened to it, Vijay?

Vijay: I did not, I did not think of that. I mean, I just thought she did sound very enthusiastic. I didn't think of it that way though.

Leyla: She was so excited. āh! Okay, so she goes, man ham meeram torkeeyé.

Vijay: man ham meeram torkeeyé.

Leyla: So, ham, again, we have there also. So man ham meeram torkeeyé. I'm also going to Turkey. So, I don't know, maybe she's talking literally, but maybe she means something more. pas hamsafar-eem

Vijay: pas hamsafar-eem

Leyla: All right. Any other insight into this dialogue?

Vijay: I don't think so. This is another, I mean, I felt like this is pretty simple, right? Like, you know, they meet up there. Oh, they happened to both be going to Turkey. Where are you going? Oh, that's where I'm going too.

Leyla: You’re going to Turkey and straight to the wedding chapel. Who knows? All right.

Vijay: Maybe they'll get married in Turkey.

Vijay: Exactly, exactly.

Leyla: All right. We learn something new every day, right? Okay. Next dialogue.

mard: salām āghā!

āghāyé asgari: bah, salām. shomā ham ta'teelāt oomadee khareed?

mard: āré deegé. chekār konam?

āghāyé asgari: agar tamoom-ee beeyā bereem nāhār.

mard: na bā khānomam hastam beeyā tō-rō behesh mo'arefee konam. eeshoon hamkāram āghāyé asgari hastand.  

āghāyé asgari: az āshnāyeeyetoon khoshvaghtam.  

Leyla: Okay. Interesting. So let's go from the beginning.

mard: salām āghā!

Leyla: salām āghā!

Vijay: salām āghā!

Leyla: Hello sir!

āghāyé asgari: bah, salām. shomā ham ta'teelāt oomadee khareed?

Leyla: bah, salām.

Vijay: bah, salām.

Leyla: And we had that word bah in another dialogue. It just means wow, hello. bah, salām. Oh, it's an expression of delight more. bah, salām.

Vijay: bah, salām.

Leyla: shomā ham

Vijay: shomā ham

Leyla: ta’teelat

Vijay: ta’teelat

Leyla: oomadee khareed?

Vijay: oomadee khareed?

Leyla: So you also. And ta’teelāt means on the holiday. oomadee khareed, you came shopping. So for this holiday you also came shopping? So same as me, you came shopping? shomā ham ta'teelāt oomadee khareed?

Vijay: shomā ham ta'teelāt oomadee khareed?

Leyla: Okay, and then he answers.

mard: āré deegé. chekār konam?

Leyla: Amazing. Okay, this is a really good, good one. āré deegé

Vijay: āré deegé

Leyla: Okay. So deegé, how do you translate deegé? What do you think, Vijay? What do you think of that word?

Vijay: I just, I mean, in this context especially, it's so hard. It's just like, oh man, yeah. Like just really casual.

Leyla: Of course. Yeah. What do you think? Totally. Yeah. It's one of those words that is not easily translatable. aré, is of course, the word yeah. And then deegé. Yeah, of course, you know, but it can mean, it can mean a lot of different things in a lot of different contexts. You often just throw it out in conversation, like if you want to say, I won't do this anymore, you go deegé nemeekonam. I won't do this anymore. So in that case, it means anymore. aré deegé He's saying, yes, of course, man. I don't know. It's so hard to translate.

Vijay: Yeah, absolutely. Maybe I'll take a look at how I actually translated it in this case.

Leyla: He said, well, yeah.

Vijay: Yeah.

Leyla: It's hard. It's one of those words that you have to, it's kind of an emphasis here. aré deegé, yeah, of course.

Vijay: aré deegé

Leyla: Yeah, but it's one of those words that you have to hear in conversation. So it's great that we have it here. And then he goes, chekār konam?

Vijay: chekār konam?

Leyla: What should I do? What else should I do? It's a holiday. Why am I out here shopping? Okay.

āghāyé asgari: agar tamoom-ee beeyā bereem nāhār.

Leyla:  And then he goes, agar tamoom-ee beeyā bereem nāhār.

Vijay: agar tamoom-ee beeyā bereem nāhār

Leyla: Okay, so he goes, agar tamoom-ee If you're done, agar tamoom-ee

Vijay: agar tamoom-ee

Leyla: And agar is a great word. It means if, you see that a lot in conversation too. And then he goes, agar tamoom-ee if you're done, beeyā bereem nāhār.

Vijay: beeyā bereem nāhār

Leyla: So come, let's go to lunch. nāhār is the word for lunch, beeyā bereem Let's go, it's a command. beeyā bereem beeyā bereem nāhār

Vijay: beeyā bereem nāhār

Leyla: Okay. And then he goes.

Mard: na bā khānomam hastam beeyā tō-rō behesh mo'arefee konam eeshoon hamkāram āghāyé asgari hastand

Leyla: Okay. So he goes na bā khānomam hastam

Vijay: na bā khānomam hastam

Leyla: No, I'm with my lady, and that means my wife. No, I'm with my wife. And then beeyā tō-rō behesh mo'arefee konam So beeyā, come, beeyā

Vijay: beeyā

Leyla: tō-rō, you

Vijay: tō-rō

Leyla: behesh mo'arefee konam. So mo'arefee kardan means to introduce. So introduce you to her. behesh, to her  So beeyā tō-rō behesh mo'arefee konam. Come, let me introduce you to her. beeyā

Vijay: beeyā

Leyla: tō-rō

Vijay:  tō-rō

Leyla:  behesh

Vijay: behesh

Leyla: mo'arefee konam

Vijay: mo'arefee konam

Leyla: Okay, so na bā khānomam hastam

Vijay: na bā khānomam hastam

Leyla: beeyā tō-rō

Vijay: beeyā tō-rō

Leyla: behesh mo'arefee konam

Vijay:  behesh mo'arefee konam

mard: eeshoon hamkāram āghāyé asgari hastand

Leyla: Now we find out who it is. So eeshoon hamkāram āghāyé asgari hastand

Vijay: eeshoon hamkāram āghāyé asgari hastand

Leyla: Exactly! So eeshoon, he, so we're speaking in a formal way. So eeshoon, this gentleman, hamkāram. Okay, so we have that ham again. So hamkār. What do you think that means, Vijay?

Vijay: Like a coworker.

Leyla: That’s right, hamkār, so equal work. So we have the same work. So we're coworkers. hamkāram, my coworker. hamkāram

Vijay: hamkāram

Leyla: āghāyé asgari

Vijay: āghāyé asgari

Leyla: hastand

Vijay: hastand

Leyla: So this is my coworker, āghāyé asgari, and it's all in the formal sense. And then āghāyé asgari says

āghāyé asgari: az āshnāyeeyetoon khoshvaghtam

Leyla: He sounds a little upset, but he says, az āshnāyeeyetoon khoshvaghtam

Vijay: az āshnāyeeyetoon khoshvaghtam

Leyla: So, āshnāyee is to become familiar with. So I am, so saying I'm pleased to meet you, but I'm pleased to have made your acquaintance. az āshnāyeeyetoon khoshvaghtam

Vijay: az āshnāyeeyetoon khoshvaghtam

Leyla: And the reason I think he sounds a little cross is he was out shopping and he's like, he's out shopping, trying to get away from his wife. And he's like, hey, dude, let's go get some lunch. Let's go get some lunch. And then he's like, nah I'm with my wife, and he's like ugh. I think that's what's going on here. That's my opinion.

Vijay: I love how you're reading, like, all the subtext into all these dialogues.

Leyla: That's what we're here for, right? We're not just learning. We're learning all these things. It's very important.

Vijay: Amazing.

Leyla: Do you have any other context to add to this, Vijay?

Vijay: Nothing that exciting. But yeah, I just think it's really interesting to see how, like, you know, there are all these different, you know, they’re short conversations, but like, combined, if we combine all of them together, we have a lot of things to learn from them all together. If we took one of them, you know, just by itself, we wouldn't have all that much. But all together, we learned a lot more. So we learned a little bit of tārof here and there, but also, you know, just some other expressions that are really useful, like how to introduce yourself by your last name first and then maybe with your first name as an afterthought, all of these different things.

Leyla: Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. It's kind of like, the name's Bond, James Bond. But that's a really good point. And to that, and I'd love to listen to all three of these dialogues, in succession. And please listen, we're going to listen to them at 0.75x speed, and listen and see if you can catch more of it this time. Here we go.

ātefé: salām. man doosté marjān, ātefé hastam. shomā bāyad khāharé marjān bāsheed.

sepeedé: balé. az deedāretoon khoshvaghtam.

ātefé: man ham khaylee khoshvaghtam. bebakhsheed esmetoon?  

sepeedé: sepeedé hastam. tavalodé shomā-st?

ātefé: balé, khaylee kāré khoobee kardeed tashreef āvardeen.

sepeedé: mamnoon ké da'avatam kardeen.

Leyla: Great! And the next one.

āghāyé samāvāti: man samāvāti hastam. khaylee khoshvaghtam.

farzāné: rezāi hastam, farzāné. man ham khoshvaghtam. maghsadetoon kojā-st?

āghāyé samāvāti: barāyé yek safaré kāree meeram torkeeyé. shomā chetor?

farzāné: āh! pas hamsafar-eem. man ham meeram torkeeyé.

Leyla: Okay, and finally.

mard: salām āghā!

āghāyé asgari: bah, salām. shomā ham ta'teelāt oomadee khareed?

mard: āré deegé. chekār konam?

āghāyé asgari: agar tamoom-ee beeyā bereem nāhār.

mard: na bā khānomam hastam beeyā tō-rō behesh mo'arefee konam. eeshoon hamkāram āghāyé asgari hastand.  

āghāyé asgari: az āshnāyeeyetoon khoshvaghtam.  

Leyla: All right, so that is three dialogues on meeting new people and all the context that comes with it and all the tārof that comes with it. And yeah, that brings us to the end of lesson 64. And again, you can listen to all of these dialogues bit by bit on our website and see the lesson guide that explains all of these words and their context and a lot more exercises and things you can do to practice this vocabulary. And until next time, we're going to come back with new dialogues. So khodāhāfez from Leyla.

Vijay: And bé omeedé deedār from Vijay.