伊朗入門掃盲

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提起伊朗，你會想到什么呢？婦女的黑色長袍？不近人情的教規？還是核武器？你覺得自己對它有多少了解呢？來吧，一起來了解一下伊朗吧，你會有不少新發現哦。

Like most Americans， I know almost nothing about Iran. For me， this is a journey of discovery. What are my hopes？ To enjoy a rich and fascinating culture， to get to know a nation that’s a leader in its corner of the world， and has been for 2，500 years， and to better understand the 70 million people who call this place home.

Iran， twice the size of France， sits in an increasingly important corner of Asia， surrounded by Turkey， Iraq， Pakistan and Afghanistan. Of Iran’s 70 million people， well over half are under the age of 30. While there are plenty of minorities， the Persian population dominates. The local ethnicity reflects the 1）turmoil of this country’s long history. You’ll find people with Greek， Arab， Turk， Mongol， Kurdish， and Azerbaijani heritage. Iranians are not Arabs， and they don’t speak Arabic.

This is an important issue with the people of Iran. They are Persians and they speak Farsi.

Young， educated people are Internet 2）savvy and wellinformed about the West. They generally spoke some English. Anywhere foreigners went， signs were bilingual—Farsi for locals and English for everyone else. The script looks Arabic to me， but I learned， like the language， it’s Farsi. The numbers， however， are the same as those used in the Arab world. Another communication challenge， people here have to deal with different calendars—Persian and Muslim for local affairs， Western for dealing with the outside world. What year is it？ Well， it depends， after Muhammad， about 1390 years ago—after Christ， two thousand and some years ago. And all this complexity is the result of a long and 3）tumultuous history.

我和大多數美國人一樣，對伊朗知之甚少。因此對我來說，這是一趟發現之旅。我對此行有什么期待呢？我希望可以感受伊朗深厚迷人的文化，了解這個2500年來一直在它所處區域充當領頭羊的國度，以及更好地認識以此為家的7000萬人民。

伊朗的國土面積是法國的兩倍，位于亞洲重要性日益提高的地區，周邊國家有土耳其、伊拉克、巴基斯坦和阿富汗。在伊朗的7000萬人中，過半數是不到30歲的年輕人。伊朗雖然有許多少數民族，但占主導地位的是波斯人。少數民族的多樣性折射出這個國家長期動蕩的歷史背景。這里有希臘人、阿拉伯人、土耳其人、蒙古人、庫爾德人，以及阿塞拜疆人的后裔。伊朗人不是阿拉伯人，他們不講阿拉伯

語。這對伊朗人來說是件大事。他們是波斯人，他們講波斯語。

受過教育的年輕人都是網絡高手，對西方有充分的了解，他們一般都會說一點英語。外國人所到之處，標示牌都是雙語的。當地人看波斯文，外國人看英文。那些文字在我看來像是阿拉伯文，不過我后來知道了，與口頭語言一樣，那是波斯文。但是，他們使用的數字與其他阿拉伯國家是一樣的。與當地人交流還有另一個困難。這里的人必須與不同的歷法打交道。波斯和穆斯林歷法用于處理當地事務，與外界交往則用公歷。……