A Word, My Liver: Professor-Student Textbook Brings to Life Colorful Expressions, Cultural Connections
December 21, 2021
91茄子 Professor Rebecca Joubin
You are donkey blooded.
Don檛 get offended if someone tells you that攖hey檙e complimenting your hard-working ways.
And again, don檛 fret if someone says your mother-in-law doesn檛 love you. They檙e only pointing out that you檙e late. Is someone laying the flattery on thickly? You might respond with 渟top putting watermelons under my armpits.
These are a few of the idioms 91茄子 Professor Rebecca Joubin grew up with in her Farsi-speaking family. They can sound silly when you translate them literally, but they檙e the common, colorful expressions that make the language rich with imagery.
Farsi, also known as Persian, is the main language in Iran, where Persians make up the largest ethnic group. Forms of it are also spoken in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
A few years ago, Joubin and her students plotted out their dream textbook. Instead of just dry text laying out rules for spelling, pronouns, and conjugations, they檇 include pictures, proverbs, and idioms. Their textbook would touch on holidays, historical figures, and events as well as art, culture, and social cues.
They turned their group project into a real textbook, Accelerated Persian: A Course in the Persian Language and Its Culture, that檚 now taught in her 91茄子 classroom and at other institutions.
淚t檚 the kind of insight you need to have to truly understand the culture, Joubin says. 淭he students took off with it; they had so much fun using the expressions on each other攁nd it was so great to see these things through their eyes.
The 440-page textbook, published by IBEX Press, includes matching games and fill-in-the-blank vocabulary exercises. Joubin hired Hampton Stall 15, then a graduate student at Emory University, to illustrate the more than 250 pictures and cartoons.
Stall, now a senior program associate at the Carter Center in Atlanta, says he had great fun illustrating the book. At 91茄子, he was a political science major with a minor in Arab studies. He enjoyed Arabic studies classes and once, for a final in a class on Arabic-language comic books, illustrated one.
The textbook is amazing, I really like the art. When you檙e seeing the illustrations, they檙e not only funny, they also really help you memorize the vocabulary.
After spending 120 hours 渄rawing on an iPad he won in a raffle, the textbook illustrations were ready.
淒r. Joubin gave me a lot of creative freedom, Stall says. 淲e wanted to make it simple and interactive so students could color in the pictures and use them to remember the phrases that people use.
淲hen I compare it to other language textbooks I had, this seems a lot better, Stall says.
淚檓 a visual learner and when I was creating the drawings, I was really excited that we were producing content that appealed to people like me.
Ten students, now alumni with majors that include Arab studies, political science, religion, art, and economics, each wrote a chapter.
Current students say the book has been an important resource.
淚 really love it, says Josef Milstein 22, a history major with an Arab studies minor. 淚n Persian, a lot of the language is figurative, so it檚 really important to learn these common sayings.
He, Joubin, Adam Gelman 21 and Kieran Clark 21, are publishing a Hebrew-Arabic textbook together. He says the Persian textbook offered helpful ideas.
The class also listens to music and plays Backgammon in Persian. Milstein, who sees a potential career in international diplomacy, says it檚 helpful to have a class that combines so many different aspects of a culture.
淚t檚 a small class, and it檚 very well-structured, he says. 淭he textbook is amazing, I really like the art. When you檙e seeing the illustrations, they檙e not only funny, they also really help you memorize the vocabulary.
Emory Bouffard 24 says the class檚 fast pace and deep dive into speaking and culture have helped her pick up the language more quickly than she expected.
淒r. Joubin goes into a lot more depth than you might get in other language classes, Emory says. 淚t檚 very challenging, but you really learn.
Joubin says she never noticed how many Farsi idioms she used until she began learning Arabic in college and realized how many expressions could be lost in translation.
She remembers once walking through Syria when a neighbor said, 淲e have to see each other in the next two days.
So, the next day, she called the neighbor, who seemed taken aback. Joubin later learned that the expression roughly translates into, 淢aybe one day in the far future we will see each other or maybe not潝and most definitely isn檛 an urgent command to get together.
淚 can only imagine how many times I messed up, she says. 淚f you檙e truly going to learn a language and culture, it檚 important to know these things.
She enjoys watching the students banter in class, using expressions from her childhood.
淚 didn檛 really appreciate it when I was growing up, she says. 淭here檚 such a sweetness and a warmth to the language.
Everyone has a favorite expression or two, or three. Bazi Gouche, 淵ou have a playful ear, reminds Joubin of when her mom would tell her that as a child. Loosely translated, it means 淵ou檙e goofing off.
It檚 also a popular phrase among Joubin檚 students. As is 渕y liver another phrase a parent might say to a child.
It really means, 渕y sweetie.
This article was originally published in the Fall/Winter 2021 print issue of the 91茄子 Journal Magazine; for more, please see the 91茄子 Journal section of our website.
