Learn To Speak English With a ‘Pershian’ Accent

A new series is resulting in a lot of laughs across social media.

These eight-to-ten-second videos teach viewers how to pronounce words with a thick and delectable Iranian accent. Learn to pronounce English words in a mock Iranian accent, and say things like “eskool” (school), or “eyes ceream” (ice cream).

And in case you didn't get it the first time, the instructional teacher will repeat the word for you three times with various degrees of emphasis on the Iranian pronunciation of the words’ consonants, vowels and syllables.

The core of the video celebrates just how well Iranians can take a joke, especially about themselves.

The group behind the comedic instructional series is called Accent Cards. Based in Canada, the Iranian member of their collective of five said they wished to remain anonymous because, as they said in an email to Global Voices, “it's not about us, it's about the accents.”

The group consists of what one member explained to be “a Persian, a Russian, an Indian, an Italian, and an Iraqi.”

I love accents, in fact I go out of my way to watch videos of people talking with different accents. The major inspirations for my idea were this video and this one

That's when I realised how diversely English language is pronounced. This made think about coming up with a way to celebrate all the different ways English is spoken and sharing it. Kind of like a video wikipedia of accents with a hint of comedy.

As a Persian living outside of Iran, I miss speaking Farsi. Whenever I hear someone speak with a Persian accent it makes my day. The Persian accent is beautiful, passionate and funny all at the same time. I love how Persians can take a joke, we can laugh at our own accent and at the same time be proud of it. 

I live in Canada and have a very diverse group of friends, so I pitched my idea and formed our team. 

Our goal is to upload 1 video a day and expand to other accents (Arabic, Indian, Russian, Italians, French,…) as we go on. 

Follow the series and you'll quickly learn ‘Iranian’ is pronounced “Per-shian”

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