Before diplomatic relations between the US and Iran crashed, Iran sent a lot of students here. I had the pleasure to know a number of students, some of whom came with spouses.
Their English was always very good. The biggest problem they had communicating had to do with the fact that they were taught the British idiom. (Persia, during the 19th century, was partly in the British "sphere of influence" because of British colonial activity in India.) Many points of American usage were lost on them. One student in particular was having a lot of trouble, so the grad students he worked with got him a large American dictionary as a gift.
It would not be unlikely that English would continue to be the second language of choice among educated Iranians. The tradition is over 200 years old. Speakers would not be rare, nor texts.
Current Events » in reply to Please excuse me, but I smell BS.
re: the quality of English
The whole thread (88 posts)
- Beating the drums of war...again!
- Well, are you going to bother replying?
- "War is the extenion of foreign policy by other means." -- von Clausewitz (n/t)
- Bush the Barbarian knows nothing else - if others fight it for him. (n/t)
- You might want to talk with Donald, your fellow Lib.
- re: Beating the drums of war...again!
- George Bush cares about Iranians?
- Would invading Iran without the people and tools to do the job really help the Iranians?
- Oh yeah, and gas at $ 3.00 reaching for $5...........
- re: Would invading Iran without the people and tools to do the job really help the Iranians?
- Ever hear of NATO?
- Yes. I notice most of the member nations are not in Iraq.
- Well then there you go...
- We have bases surrounding Iran, I say we use them.
- re: Well then there you go...
- here you go...
- re: Beating the drums of war...again!