How to teach Farsi to your kids when you live outside Iran

Children keep a heritage language when they hear it from people they love, every day, in a routine — not from screens or drills. The most reliable home routine is a nightly Persian story. Azizan makes that easy even when family is far away: grandparents and relatives record themselves reading Persian children's stories on video, and the child replays them at bedtime.

Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.

Seven things that actually work

1. One language, one person. Let at least one parent speak only Farsi with the child.
2. A nightly Persian story. Ten minutes, same time, every day. Routine beats intensity.
3. Bring in the grandparents. Children work hardest to understand the people they love most.
4. Conversational Farsi first. Spoken, everyday Persian (mikham, not mikhaham) before the formal written register.
5. Stories from their own culture. Shahnameh heroes, Nowruz and Yalda give the language meaning.
6. Repetition is a feature. Hearing the same story twenty times is how vocabulary sticks.
7. Reading comes later. From around five, show the Persian text alongside the voice.

Where Azizan fits

Azizan provides the stories (Persian folklore, Shahnameh and festival tales, each checked against three or more sources, with child-safe endings) and the recording flow, so any relative can become part of the child's nightly Farsi — from Tehran, Los Angeles, Toronto, Hamburg or anywhere else.

Questions

At what age should I start teaching my child Farsi?

From birth. Stories for ages 2–4 use short, rhythmic sentences; ages 5–8 add longer Shahnameh and folklore tales.

My child answers in English. Is that a problem?

It is very common. Keep speaking Farsi and keep the daily story routine; understanding comes first, speaking follows.

Can I use Azizan if my own Farsi is weak?

Yes. Invite a grandparent, aunt or uncle to record the stories, and listen together with your child.

Open Azizan — record a story for your child

Updated: 2026-10-05 · By Aida Fard