new sub catagory i wanted to add something about the persian or farsi controversy but first wanted to consult everyone on this let s talk about both the pros and the cons and keep it impartial there are valuable issues raised by renowned persian scholars i quote from an article on the same subject identity aspect the word persian in the mind of an english speaker consciously or not recalls many other historical and cultural legacies about iran persian is closely associated with persian poetry persian carpets rugs persian cats persian poetry persian pistachios and so on when you refer to this language as persian the audience may associate it with one or more of these relevant ideas on the contrary the word farsi not only voids these historical and cultural associations but it also adds to the recent portrayal of iran as a strange and distant society calling persian as farsi is as incorrect as calling the persian gulf as the farsi gulf moreover the name farsi is obscure and under the best conditions refers only to certain dialects such as the persian of iran as opposed to tajiki the persian of tajikistan or dari the persian of afghanistan or even one may say isfahani the persian of isfahan the use of word farsi in english strikes a discordant tone to the native speaker imagine someone speaking in english about their recent trip to paris saying i went to paris and there i spoke francais instead of saying french to use the word farsi has the same impact and may sound not only pretentious at times but also destructive of english syntax we should therefore avoid the use of the word farsi instead of persian because it not only violates historical fact but also some of the regularities of the language in which we speak i believe that persian is the true and proper name of this language in foreign tongues and international communities and changing it does not benefit the representation of iranian culture