Content
Storytime in FarsiChildren's Books being read on video.
This is a great resource for practicing the language, while also being exposed to actual Persian books. The conversion from books to video are carefully and tastefully done. The content varies in terms of difficulty - there are both materials for absolute beginners, as well as somewhat more advanced stories.
Storybooks CanadaChildren's stories in Persian, with pictures and English translations.
Storybooks Canada takes stories from the African Storybook, and publishes translations into Persian (as well as many other languages).
They have everything from simple stories for beginners, to fairly advanced language. And what's really great is that all of the stories come with an audio track, by a native speaker, that can be played section by section.
And if you struggle, there are easily accessible English and French translations to help you along.
If you are a subscriber to farsi.school, you can find all those stories in our books section.
Farsi.SchoolAuthentic Persian Videos with Interactive Subtitles
This is our own project. We happen to think it is pretty neat, but we are biased.
It's like Yabla, or FluentU, but for Farsi. We select interesting Persian-language content, create high-quality subtitles and translations, and then make sure we define the grammar of every single word. This means that whenever you are unsure what something means, we can tell you exactly what the form is, which word it comes from, and what that word means.
In addition, everything is transliterated, so don't worry if you are not comfortable with the Persian script yet.
Persian LyricsYouTube channel with numerous Persian songs with subtitles, transliteration and translation.
Very no-nonsense execution of this idea. Every song has Persian subtitles, the transliteration and an English translation, and there are plenty of artists to choose from, and all the big Persian pop stars make an appearance.
Bahar BooksSmall Publisher of Books for Children and Learners
The Vice Principal by Houshang Moradi-KermaniInteractive book with lookup for each word
This is a fantastic eStory - you can hover over every word, and you'll see the translation. There even used to be audio, allowing you to listen to each word, though that is broken now - the files are missing. The ability to listen to a reading by the author of the whole book still exists.
PodGap PodcastStructured audio classes for all levels, with transcripts
Mohsen and Hanieh are two native speakers who moderate every episode of this podcast. The episodes range from material for beginners to fairly advanced. I like that they focus on immersion: There are generally no long explanations or discussions in English to distract you.
You can support them via their Patreon, and through it you'll get access to the episode transcriptions.
TED TalksTEDx talks that were organized in Iran, rarely with subtitles.
There have been a bunch of different number of TEDx Talks in Iran, and you can watch those videos on YouTube - in rare cases, there will even be Persian-language subtitles.
This is obviously not exactly "easy" content, but can be great for advanced learners who are in need of demanding material.
I am aware of the following Persian-language TED events:
AparatThe Iranian version of YouTube.
A huge amount of videos are available across every possible spectrum and subject.
Beginners searching for easier material might want to have a look at the Kids Section, which features a number of cartoons, including Western properties such as "Boss Baby" with Persian voice actors.
There are live streams of Iranians playing video games, similar to twitch.tv
The company behind the site also produces some of their own content, such as Cafe Aparat.
Persian Language Online
Produced by a charity tasked with promiting Persian language learning, this website offers both apps designed for children, but also a very large set of carefully produced, short animation videos that come with an English translation, a glossary and dialogue sheets. They are ordered by increasing difficulty, and as such they are quite suitable as source material for self-study.
Cafe Denj
A 14-episode video series about a series of friends running a Cafe, specifically designed for language learners, and with good production value. It was produced by the Department for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Austin Texas.
With their agreement, we have made those videos available with interactive subtitles on Farsi.school without the need for a membership.