Category: Big Adventures
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Why My Blog’s Been Quiet Recently (Photographic Evidence Provided)
As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, my goal for 2013 is to become fluent in Farsi (Persian) by the end of the year. A big part of this attempt, I previously wrote, would be done by totally immersing myself in the language on trips to Iran, a country to which this footloose Brit now has strong personal ties (watch the film to find out exactly how this happened). I’m now coming to the end of my first journey in Iran, and there’ll be plenty of stories appearing on this blog over the next few weeks, as well some… Continue reading →
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Farsi Friday Week 9: Overcoming childhood fears
I leave for Iran next week. This is frightening. I am afraid. Last summer I spent an enjoyable afternoon wandering around London’s South Bank, stopping random passers-by and asking politely if they wouldn’t mind sharing their impression of Iran with my video camera. I was shooting some vox pops for a film about my journey in Iran. I expected responses along the lines of ‘dangerous nuclear-fixated fundamentalists’, thus setting the stakes for a film which would prove them wrong. But I’d underestimated the nuances of people’s views. Continue reading →
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Farsi Friday Week 6: Trashy TV Shows & Other Learning Aids
You might have noticed that Week 4 and 5 of my series on learning Persian did not appear. You might also have noticed that this corresponded with my first big book launch. Unsurprisingly, there is a connection here! Continue reading →
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Farsi Friday Week 3: Free language resources that work, and the theory of learning
I know, I know, it’s a Sunday. On Friday I was at the London Bike Show, where I did my first ever public talk about my travels (a first tiny step towards curing my phobia of public speaking). And because the UK’s train drivers treat a flurry of snow as a reason to stay in bed for the day, the nice four-hour train journey home — on which I’d planned to write the update — did not happen. Enough with the excuses. Onto the week’s developments… Continue reading →
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Farsi Friday Week 2: Some Language Learning Techniques They Don’t Teach At School
Since last week I’ve been having a daily dialogue session with Tenny, and at the same time figuring out a learning system to suit me. I know from previous attempts to learn languages that my biggest stumbling block when I arrive in Iran will be vocabulary, so I’ve decided to make that the focus of the next few weeks. Delving into the world of self-taught language learning has been fascinating because it departs from my school-based learning on so many levels. The biggest difference, of course, is that I actually give a toss. (I haven’t plucked Persian out of thin air.… Continue reading →
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Farsi Friday Week 1: Why Persian? And Where To Begin?
There are a few reasons I’ve chosen Persian (also known as Farsi / فارسی) as my focus for 2013, and as the first foreign language that I have ever committed to learning ‘properly’. Continue reading →
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My 2013 New Year’s Resolution, or قصد سال جدید من
I, Thomas Richard Allen, hereby pledge to become fluent in Persian by the end of 2013 by means of total immersion in the language. Continue reading →
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Uncertainty vs So-Called Predictability: Which Would You Choose?
Entirely unbeknownst to me, a friend of a friend snapped this fantastic image in early 2008. To me, it represents a fascinating collision between the concerns of a wandering cycle-traveller, consulting a street-map to find the right road out of the city, and a grim moment in a nation’s history — the aftermath of an anti-government demonstration gone sour. Continue reading →
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Angeles Lost — The End Of The Road In The United States
Despite all the horror stories, Delta Airlines chose not to destroy my bicycle, and only charged $150 for the carriage of the big cardboard box I’d picked up from a bike shop in Pasadena. The sales assistant had been rude and grumpy — perhaps he’d had a bad night’s sleep. Or perhaps life as a bicycle salesman was beginning to wear thin; maybe (like almost everyone I’d met in the 8 days I’d been in L.A.) he’d arrived in the city nurturing dreams of fame and fortune in Hollywood, still introducing himself on social occasions in a well-practiced way as an… Continue reading →
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Cycling the Lost Coast — Riding the King Range Road and Usal Road
With curiosity we steered off the asphalt at the top of a long climb on the road south of Honeydew. The track plunged down through dense forest, rocks and loose gravel shaking our bikes and bones, disc brakes squealing round sketchy hairpins, as the King Range Road wound its way down to the gushing creek in the depths of the valley, where an old concrete bridge had once been plonked. Continue reading →