Thanks for all who provided all the insightful details about Iranian culture/social system(s).
As a non-Parsi speaker (Chinese Mandarin is my native tongue), I find the language very soothing to the ears. Comparatively or not I find Mandarin to be harsh, I may just be biased and just can't tell as I speak it but with English as a second language, I guess my ear is tuning the difference with a reference. But with a language that doesn't "spell", it is like bullets; out of the chamber one by one as oppose to spilling it out like water. ;) (Though dialects like Cantonese is technically more "flowy" as it has more tones than Mandarin, but for all "intent and purpose" it is pretty much foreign language to me. I understand 5% what they say at best.)
And with regard to the urban/suburb way of life, I think most non-Western countries are similar if not very much so. The city life is the epicenter of people's pursue as it can be a “great” way if not the only way to a better life. This obviously is a very different picture to the West where it is exactly the opposite. I don't know at what time did the West started the shift but I think it is safe to assume if not assert that that is not the case in the past. I would guess the Industrial Revolution but I can't be sure. I won't speak for any other civilization as that would tend to produce more generalizations and errors/assumptions than one would warrant. But in Chinese culture, the fortified city has always been seen as the center of civilization as historically that's where the son of heaven (emperor) lived, albeit in the capital but that's still a city. All the wealth are contained within and it is safer when foreigners invade, so it must be good right? ;) The position of farmers and Agrarian elements of society degraded more and more as time goes by even though they were seen as more valuable and more esteemed than merchants. In modern times, it is especially so that they are looked down upon and even down trodden.
Interesting to see that there isn't too much a dialect distinction over social classes in Iran but in Chinese society, it is much more so. Take for example, modern day Mandarin, it is the official language and it is one that is almost taken for granted to be known and spoken by all. A bit of accent is not much of a problem but if you have a heavy accent in a place where Mandarin is the de facto speech, people would tend to think you are someone from a lower social class, like a farmer which is not much of a good image to be evoked when everybody is trying to get into the city life. In Hong Kong and Shanghai it might be abit different as there are much more regional dialect speakers but in formal occasions, it is Mandarin and with so many people from other parts coming in by the truck load, the national language is enforced consciously and subconsciously.(Don’t know exactly the percentage and occasions of utterance of local speech but anyone in the city "should" and would be speaking Mandarin one time or another. And again just to point out, both dialects are not mutually distinguishable with any variety of Mandarin based dialects. A few words perhaps but not much.)
(My North-east hometown's regional accent is pretty vulgar to most Mandarin speakers as there are alot of weird and funny sounding slangs and accents on words that it is a famous dialect for skits and comedy. So in this case, anyone from where I am from would (very likely)refrain from using it as aforementioned, so mentally linked to the imagery of country people and farmers that it is better to speak in more of a Beijing dialect which is basically Mandarin proper for anything formal and public.)
Anyway, that's enough about China. Back to Iran! Back to topic! Sorry I kinda hijacked the thread. Honestly I am not trying to display any sort of pride over my native culture, I just wanted to get discussion going by offering one cultural perspective which I know much more about than others in the formulation of cultural exchange and comparative analysis and understanding. If anyone feel this post is excessive or being too impudent, please say so and I will remove.
I just wanted to say something and this film is a great one, one I haven't chanced upon for a while.
Oh and one question: Does it mention anywhere the story is in Tehran? Is it? If it is, did Parsi speakers just knew it by the way they spoke?
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