Farsi Speaking Mums ?

[Katty68]

I am the Iranian Mum of a 5-month old baby boy in Finchley, North London. My husband and I speak to him in Farsi only as we would like him to become bilingual (Farsi/English).
Are there any other Farsi-speaking parents out there who are doing the same ? Please contact me as I would like to set up an informal Farsi playgroup.

[carla]

Katty I'm being nagged mercilessly to play snakes at ladders at the mo but if you search Farsi in either active or archived conversations I'm sure someone's asked this question before. HTH X

[Katty68]

Carla thanks so much. I did see a message from a lady in Ealing some time ago...perhaps that's the one you mean ? Thanks, I will look it up again.

[justtheone]

Hi,
I'm the lady in Ealing and I had no success at finding a Farsi-speaking playgroup for my DS who is now 3.5 years. My situation is slightly different, I am Irish and my DH is Iranian. We both are totally committed to ensuring that DS speaks Farsi but his current exposure is quite limited (DH and occasionally his grandma). The Iranian Library in Acton holds Farsi classes but I think the minimum age is 5. I would still like DS to be part of a group of his peers who speak Farsi, so if you are starting something and welcome non-Farsi speaking mothers then I would be very interested.

[Katty68]

Hello justheone - of course I will keep in touch. Please keep reading this thread. So far I have had no response. I have no Iranian friends who have kids either your DS's age or mine, which makes it a little bit difficult. Obviously my DS is nowhere near speaking age, so not much good to your DS at the moment! I am definitely going to put lots of effort into getting a group together for pre-nursery kids. If in the process I meet mothers of older children, I will let you know so they can contact you. I wasn't aware of the public library classes in Ealing. Thanks for letting me know. I am going to get in touch with Barnet Council incase they can help. There is an Afghan group on Saturdays I think in Harrow (again I think for 5 above) - which would be good too - as you know many Afghans speak Farsi and there is quite a large community here in London. Of course it doesn't matter that you are an English-speaker ! Are you taking Farsi lessons yourself ? That way you could also start to speak Farsi to your DS.

[justtheone]

Hello again. West London has quite a large Iranian community and it is possible that there are informal playgroups but as I do not speak Farsi, my research capabilities are quite limited. My DS is now at Montessori and of course he is getting more and more English input, so he is starting to answer only in English unless he is reminded that he should speak Farsi. I am genuinely interested in finding a group of Farsi speakers.

The library details are Library For Iranian Studies, Crown Street, London W3 8SA. Tel: (020 8993 6384).

I tried learning Farsi about 10 years ago, but as I did not have enough exposure to the language outside the classes, I eventually gave up! I can understand most things that DH says to DS but I'm not sure how long this will continue, as the Farsi gets more complicated.

I have an Iranian friend with a 10 week old baby and she may be interested in a playgroup at a later date. I will let her know about your idea.

I will keep an eye on this thread to see if anything comes of your search. Good luck.

[Katty68]

Many thanks for the interesting info. justtheone. Yes, it must be quite difficult learning Farsi in England as an adult. I have known several non-Iranian mums who had Iranian DH's, but they had lived in Iran before the Revolution and had been able to learn the language in its natural environment. Of course the most difficult thing is the script. Actually I left Iran when I was 10 years old, so my writing/reading ability in Farsi is slow. I speak Farsi like a native and that is because my older brother used to insist that we only speak Farsi at home. I am glad he did, otherwise my spoken Farsi would not be as good as it is now. My DH left Iran when he was an adult so he will be the one teaching DS the script at the weekends . I have several interesting books on how to raise a bilingual child and they all emphasise that the child should not just speak the language to his family members, or from watching TV, etc...He should learn it from his peers also. Yes, I would be pleased to talk to your friend with the 10 week old baby - it's never too early to plan to learn a language !

[fari23]

Hi katty68,
did you know there is iranian school called Rostam, in finchely, you get real good iranian speaking comminuty there, even thought it starts at 5, maybe you can chat with the princeple that if she has spare room, you can use it as your own mothers & toddlers group, so the waiting mothers with their young children can join the group hopefully, you get to know other mums, i am way too far away from you, otherwise you could have joined the mothers & toddlers group that I work at, its not for farsi speaking children it's really for lonely native speakers mum(english folks).