Recent News

• Chain of foods // October 12 2014

  There’s this guy I know who says, “it’s all good.”

  Is it?

• Bad Words and Cussing Contests // December 01 2013

  Vsauce asks “Why are Bad Words Bad?” And John Astin wins a cussing contest.

• Say qurbAqe - بگو قورباغه // October 22 2013

  My mission in life:  To get everyone I meet to say “frog” in Persian.

• Improvisation:  Say “Yes, and…” بداهه گویی // October 12 2013

  What happens when you’re looking for a word, and you can’t find it?

• You’ve got the Power:  extiAr dArid - اختیار دارید // October 11 2013

  ِYou’ve got the power!  As well as free will.  And choice.  Take your pick.

• qAbel nadAre - قابل ندارد // October 08 2013

  Thank you so much for what you just did!
  You shouldn’t have!
  It’s not worthy of you.
  قابل ندارد

• Creativity // October 07 2013

  Some tips from Shakespeare to navigate the tension between “proper language use” and anarchy.  Leveraging Persian “affixal” qualities to make up new words.

• Subconscious Word Recognition // October 07 2013

  The goal of literacy is subconscious word recognition.  If, while you read, you can recognize words as a whole without having to analyze them, you’ve achieved literacy! How can we make this happen?

• Two Veins // October 04 2013

  Some Iranian terms (a.k.a. slurs) for dual nationality.

• Tu Quoque - You too! - و شما نیز همچنین // June 25 2013

  “Tu Quoque” (pronounced too ko kay) means “you also” in Latin.

• Word Order - SOV // June 24 2013

  Persian word order is different from English in two ways.  First, the modifier comes before the word it modifies (“shoes red”).  Second, the sentences follow a Subject, Object, Verb (SOV) order.  “Sara shoes wore.”

• Persian aka fArsi // June 24 2013

  You say potato, I say sibzamini.

• Let’s get Simorqanized! // June 11 2013

  In which we coin a new word to bring together a mythic tale and community organizing.