I did not want to focus much on the writing system because I felt that listening and having more oral communication skills would be a better initial foundation. I think about the way infants learn and see that they learn to speak long before they read and write. I know that is for a multitude of reasons, but I'd rather be able to understand a little of what is said than be able to read phonetically, but not be able to understand.
However, Angela and I did go over the alphabet just so that I'd have a sense of the sounds that I'd be learning. The biggest difference is the "kh" sound that is a back of the throat sound not found in English. It rises up from the back of the throat and arcs along the pallet as it comes out. It is used in many words.For example: "Man khub asti" is "I am well." There were a few other letters that sounded very similar, but Angela assured me that I could learn words and sounds and that over time I would start to hear the difference.
The Dari and Farsi alphabet or the Persian alphabet is the same. They share their letters with the Arabic alphabet with the addition of four letters پ , چ, ژ , and گ. The way the letters are written changes based on their location in the word: beginning, middle, end and stand-alone. There are 32 letters in the Persian alphabet.
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