A two- week Persian Language short -term training program was held at the University of Tehran – Kish International Campus in collaboration with Dehkhoda Lexicon Institute during Sep 18th to Oct 1st.  The participants were all from Germany and they already knew some Persian. During the program the participants were encouraged to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in Farsi inside the class, and they had a chance to practice what they had learned in the real situation outside the class in Farsi-speaking communities on the Island including; shopping centers, historical places, parks, mosques, restaurants, beach,… etc. They also enjoyed taking a tour around the Island visiting; Kariz-e-Kish, Greek Ship, Harireh - Ancient City, Green Tree Complex and cycling on the bike paths.

At the end of the program a certificate of participation was awarded to the participants.

Comments from Participants:

"I had traveled to Iran before, so I knew about the people and the country, but I've never been to an Island like Kish before. People are outgoing and relaxed. I found Farsi important to have a better connection to the people. I found people very nice here, they are friendly and contact very easily. I did not have any bad experience. There is nothing to be afraid of, even in the evening you can go everywhere without hesitation. We had a very relaxing atmosphere in the class and a lot of fun besides learning".

"I like the atmosphere in Kish. It is calm and open. I've got the feeling it's easy to have conversation with people, the weather is beautiful and the nature here is also beautiful. The program was useful because we had classes in the morning and journey in the afternoon. we could practice what we had learned and this was pretty good.  I had good experience talking to different people; taxi drivers, people in the street, on the beach. I will definitely recommend this program to my friends and I hope we can have exchange programs in future to connect people to each other and I hope people here also have the chance to come to Hamburg.

Our instructor was really well prepared, that was a good system to learn new things, to repeat them and practice them outside the class".

"Kish Island is a very interesting place. First when I got informed, that the Persian course would be in Kish, I googled Kish Island and I thought it would be a very small Island. I didn't think Kish would have that much things to do and see.

I really love to learn different languages, like Arabic, Spanish, Farsi... because in my opinion, the different languages are kind of a key to understand the culture and the customs of the people. Because I improved my Farsi-skills a lot in just two weeks, I will definitely recommend this course to others. For me one of the best experience was "Ashoura", a very important mourning ceremony for Shi'i Muslims. It was a really special experience I was able to see in the street. The quality of the facilities is more than what I expected.