TEHRAN - Sadi Foundation Director Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel has said that Iranians view the Persian language as a pillar of their national identity.

He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 82nd Persian Language and Literature Refresher Course during a meeting at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University on Tuesday.

Some Iranian officials, academics, literati, foreign diplomats and 240 students of the Persian language from 43 countries attended the ceremony.

Haddad-Adel, who is also the director of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, highly praised the efforts that the students are making to learn a new language, which has led them to discover a new culture as well.

“Learning a new language opens up a new world so I believe a monolingual lives just in one world, and those who are bilingual or trilingual live in two and three worlds,” he explained.

Addressing the overseas Persian language students, he said that acquaintance with the Persian language gains better understanding of the worldwide Islamic civilization.


“It also hands the key to a valuable treasure which leads to the world of rich Persian literature,” he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Haddad-Adel said that the Academy of Persian Language and Literature is working on a large 35-volume dictionary which offers over 50,000 scientific/technical Persian equivalents in other languages.

At the end, he expressed hope that a journey of good memories would be ahead of the students who he hoped would become everlasting friends of Iran.

“During the month-long sojourn in Tehran you will be in direct contact with Iranian people and Islamic culture. You can cultivate an image of Iran and compare it with the tarnished one spread by the Western media,” Haddad-Adel said.

The 82nd Persian Language and Literature Refresher Course offering a comprehensive course for non-native Persian learners has been organized by the Sadi Foundation under the auspices of Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University.

Sebastian Wissdorf, who has learned the Persian language in some short courses at the University of Bonn, is one of the students who are attending the refresher course.

“I hope the course will improve my knowledge about the works by Persian classical poets such as Sadi and Hafez,” he told the Tehran Times

Aliou Jieme, another student from Senegal said that he wants to increase his knowledge of Iranian culture through the course.

He has studied the Persian language at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.

Ma Yue, a student of Islamic Arts at Peking University, sees the course as a bridge to better understanding of Iranian arts and miniature painting.

The Sadi Foundation was established in 2012 to promote Persian language and literature outside the country.

Photo: Sadi Foundation Director Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 82nd Persian Language and Literature Refresher Course at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University on August 4, 2015. (Mehr/Hossein Rezanejad)

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