Learning Farsi, where to start?
Salam!
My father is from Iran and came to the US during the Islamic revolution. I was born in the US. My mom, interestingly enough is from Mexico and came to the US around the same time. Long story short, they both had to learn English as older teenagers and are not native speakers to English. My sister is older than me and had many speech issues growing up. Doctors and speech therapists told my parents that they were confusing her with different languages and ultimately they had to make the decision to speak only English. Then I came along and well, here I am. I have Mexican and Iranian heritage but can only speak English and it breaks my heart lol. When I was younger I didn't care. But now I do. I'm now 36 and my father's health is declining. I want to learn Farsi and speak his native tongue with him in his lifetime. Currently I have Pimsleur that I used for Spanish and have had some decent success with. The Farsi on Pimsleur, while immersive, does not have good reading or writing plans.
Do I learn to read and write now or wait until later?
What are the best programs to utilize in my studies?
How do you all go about learning? I tried immersing myself in music and shows but I don't understand anything so I'm not sure if it's helpful.
How much studying is too much studying? Will it negatively impact retention? With a family and job I find myself rarely having time for anything. But I have a daily hour long commute as well as lunch breaks at work that I can easily utilize.
I do plan on calling my dad and telling him I want to learn and that I'd love for him to be part of this journey.
Merci! Khodafez :)