Persian is the official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Persian has three major dialects: Farsi (spoken in Iran), Dari (spoken in Afghanistan), and Tajik (spoken in Tajikistan). Pimsleur's Farsi teaches Persian as spoken in Iran.<P>This <B>Comprehensive </B>course includes 30 lessons of essential grammar and vocabulary -- 16 hours of real-life spoken practice sessions -- plus an introduction to reading. Upon completion of this program, you will have functional spoken proficiency with the most-frequently-used vocabulary and grammatical structures. <P><UL><LI>In the first 10 lessons, you'll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. You'll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with nearnative pronunciation skills. <LI>In the next 10 lessons, you'll build on what you've learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. You'll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident. <LI>In the final 10 lessons, you'll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. You'll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future. </LI></UL><P>Reading Lessons are included at the end of Unit 30 to provide you with an introduction to reading the Farsi alphabet. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format.