Voice Post

In My Persian Corner by Pontia, several of her blog posts can be identified with voice while other posts require delving deeper to understand what she is trying to convey to the reader. In the first blog post titled “The Iranian Death Wish,” the blog captures a glimpse of Pontia’s style of voice. The blog relates a Persian show called “Shahgoosh” to the everyday Persian phrases that Pontia uses. Phrases such as “marg!, death!, boro bemir!, go die!, che margeshe?, what's his death?” all capture a similar theme which is death. The last phrase she states, “then the mother phrase of them all came to me: marg bar [Amrika]!, death to [America]! It seems we Iranians have a death wish worse than Charles Bronson”. In her last sentence she makes a similarity with Iranian death wish phrase to Charles Bronson’s Death Wish movie. It’s fascinating that she makes such a comparison to an American actor, whose movie is titled Death Wish. Her voice suggests that she is familiar with American pop culture and that she is not one of those FOBs (fresh of the boat). 

 In another Persian phrase, she states that “ the other day I was feeling frustrated and muttered under my breath, khabare margeshun!, the news of their death!, and chuckled upon realizing what I had said”. In this previous statement, we once again experience Pontia’s voice. “Feeling frustrated and muttered,” she says “the news of their death!” in italics with an explanation point and yet didn’t realize what she had said. This suggests that she would not make that same statement towards a person. It seems that it was at the moment or situation that she felt she had to release her frustration by using Persian phrases like “khabare margeshun!”. When discussing phrases that are referenced to death she says “Suddenly all these phrases related to death started piling up in my head like Jenga”. Then again she makes a similarity with phrases related to the game of Jenga. She is trying to come up with different words that all use death but have different connotations. After making the bold statement death to America, she is not referring to the people but to the government because she says “, the way I see it, Iranians don’t view governments as representative of the people”. Her wording of “the way I see it” implies that she is taking a neutral stance of the way Iranian society doesn’t view government representative of the people. From this wording, we can tell Pontia is not the type of character that is assertive and quick to make absolute claims.

             Going back to death-related phrases, Pontia says that “ You’d think that being the poetic creatures that we are, we’d find a more lyrical way of expressing ourselves, but I guess death is, after all, the ultimate sacrifice. One minute we are willing to die for you, but get on our bad side, and we will just as soon wish for your death” In the previous quote, Pontia reveals a sarcastic/ humoristic side by saying “death is, after all, the ultimate sacrifice” I think what she is trying to reveal is that Iranians can be poetic but it always ends with expressions related to death. Death is not taken literally but can be understood differently in context. As she states, “one minute we are willing to die for you, but we will just as soon wish for your death”.

            In her second blog post titled “The Things That Don't Translate: Persian Idioms Part 1,” Pontia presents different Persian idioms. She says, “Iranians speak in poems. Iranians speak in proverbs. Iranians speak in idioms. It’s no wonder we have so much trouble communicating with the U.S.” In her last sentence, Pontia’s voice expresses humor because what Persians say is interpreted differently for another person listening to the same statement. Lastly, she offers a list of statements and asks readers to interpret what they mean. “For the Persian-learners, try to guess what on earth this phrase could possible mean. Answers below, but no cheating ;)” She puts a smiley face at the end of her sentence to show that maybe cheating is tolerated because those statements are probably only understood by Persians and no one else but those that speak Farsi and are familiar with Persian idioms.

Comparing the two different blog posts that express voice, I definitely see a contrast between the first blog and second blog.  At first her voice is very serious and then becomes subtle and eventually becomes funny.

~Profile A Blog~

Finding a profile blog that is related to Persian culture was not as difficult as it seemed. The name of the blog I discovered is “My Persian Corner” and is written by Pontia, who is an Iranian American. Born and raised in the United States, she grew up with Persian language and culture inside the house and American language and culture outside. If I were to describe this blog in a few words, it would be something along these lines, “Everything you want to know about Persian culture, language, and travel”. The intent of this blog was to give readers an insight into a misunderstood country through its history, food, culture, travel, traditions, and random anecdotes. Reading her blog posts gave a sense of strong national ethnic identity. Her relation to my field is strong because she is a Persian language teacher offering Farsi lessons. She says “being the language teacher that I am, I can’t help but throw in some useful phrases along the way so you can impress your Iranian friends”. I can see that she is really passionate about her culture and where she is coming from. 

            As a blogger, she writes frequently to enrich readers about the culture that remains hidden to the world and describes the country of Iran as if it were like a black hole and people didn’t know anything about Iran’s history. Although she didn’t appear on the technorati website to rate how active her blog appears, two interesting blogs she posted were on the topics of Zoroastrians in the neighborhood of Yazd and the Zoroastrian calendar.  I believe her religious background is Zoroastrian but never explicitly mentions so that she doesn’t narrow her scope of readers. For those who don’t know what Zoroastrianism is, it is an ancient Iranian religion, filled with philosophical principles.

            Of the many blog pages that I have seen that relate to my work, Pontia by far captures all of the aspects of Iranian culture. The reason I say this is because my work is more about the history behind Iranian’s dynasty and how politics and religion are always clashing together. Her content on her blog page consists of academic and scholarly material that students and professors can relate to. Also, she does get detailed with many of her blogs related to religion as it relate to fanatics and all. Thus, making it easier for others to understand something new that is difficult to grasp at first. I think her audience mostly pertains to people of similar origin but does reach out to others that are unfamiliar with Middle Eastern norms. In the blogging world, the society that is relevant to her work is mostly students that are American born but have roots to Iranian culture. Thus, this is really beneficial in feeding my work because I can have a larger community of Iranian Americans giving me different perspective and attitudes on topics that fascinate me. Finally, I would want to follow the same methods and styles that Pontia uses such as weekly updates and keeping an organized routine of what I would blog about.

http://mypersiancorner.blogspot.com/2014/02/zoroastrian-make-up-alleys.html

http://mypersiancorner.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-zoroastrian-calendar.html

My Journey to the Hookah Bar

Over the weekend, I had the chance to go to a local hookah bar in Encino called The Spot. The purpose of this blog is to get a sense of the different Persian cultural aspects of music, dance, food, and of course hookah. On the side note, I am analyzing Persian Americans within their environment that occasionally go to The Spot as a social pastime. The reason I am doing this is for my paper # 2 topic that will discuss the relevance of Iranian immigration/acculturation with traditional/Americanized hookah bars that influence Iranian American’s perception of hookah.  My assumption before going to this place was that there would be a Middle Eastern crowd predominantly Persian because the location is in Encino. The lounge itself is located within a shopping center that is both indoor and outdoor. It has a unique ambiance and decorative style with Persian rugs laid out for those who want to get cozy. Couple of my friends requested to be seated on these comfortable rugs with pillows that looked like they were from the Middle East. Glancing over the dinner menu, we were glad we came with empty stomachs because the food at this hookah lounge looked fantastic. I ordered the beef kebab plate that came with rice and grilled tomatoes and green peppers. The food and service was excellent. After we were all done eating, the waiter brought the hookah menu and started speaking Farsi with us because we looked Persian. With his Persian American accent, he asked what flavor we would like and gave a few recommendations as well as the house special. We ordered Starbuzz Pirate’s Cave and Code-69 with mint. The waiter asked us if we would like a flip head for our hookah that was an additional 10 dollars. Basically, a flip-head doesn’t have charcoals touching the foil but in close proximity. The packed shisha head is in a upside down head that is adjusted by a knob that increases or decreases the height from the charcoals. Although we didn’t get this option on our hookah, we had an amazing hookah that neither burned nor died out quickly. The combination of these three flavors felt like I was smoking green skittles with a hint of mint. The best part of our night at The Spot had to be the Persian Mint tea. I am a big fan of tea and I have to admit the tea was excellent due to the Nane (Mint) that was added to the tea.  The music was a mixture of Persian to Arabic songs that the crowd was familiar with. However, they did play hip-hop music from time to time. If I were to rate this hookah lounge out of a 10 I would give it a score of 7.5. One aspect of the lounge that I did not like was the seating. I felt to close to other people. Other than that I would recommend this place to anyone who wants to drive down to Encino for some hookah.