Tehrangeles

 
 
 

Vocabulary

guy	what’s up	intersection
carpet	diversity	whole lot of
lovely	influence	come/came/come
sunny	square (3)	stand/stood/stood (3)
decide	as a whole	revolution (2)
argue	tongue (2)	concentration
sight	recognize	drink/drank/drunk
ancient	pretty (2)	neighborhood
valley	of course	see/saw/seen
wish	going on	comfortable
bunch	head (3)	speak/spoke/spoken
enjoy	amazing	entrepreneur
create	celebrate	show/showed/shown
sibling	stand out	come/came/come
follow	hold on to	hold/held/held (2)
percent	grow up (2)	grow/grew/grown
Farsi	authentic	my pleasure
saffron	cool (2)	date back to
roll up	step (2)	leave/left/left
roll (2)	times (2)	feel/felt/felt
crave	pistachio	see/saw/seen
chef	open up (2)	find/found/found
bake	migrate	be/was-were/been/
passion	dissolve	walk around
itch	cube (2)	make my feet itch
		pay/paid/paid

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Local Resident One: “Welcome everyone to Tehrangeles!”
Drew: “Perfect, nice! . . . Alright.”

 

Drew: “What’s up guys. I’m here in sunny Los Angeles, California, which of course has a whole lot of diversity going on.

But one of the strongest influences comes from the lovely country of Iran, one of my favorite places in the world.

 

Right now we are standing at the intersection of Westwood and Wilkins, which is officially known as Persian Square.

Hundreds of thousands of Persians migrated to L.A, after the Revolution in 1979. And Southern California as a whole has the largest concentration of Iranians outside of Iran, with about a million people.

Local Resident One: “You get a sugar cube. You put it on your tongue. And you drink the tea, and it dissolves in your mouth.”
Drew: “The whole sugar cube?”
Local Resident: “The whole sugar cube.”

Even Google Maps recognizes “Tehrangeles” as a neighborhood of the city, which is pretty cool to see. You have Koreatown, Chinatown and Tehrangeles.

Backgammon Player: “San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, the Valley.
Drew: “And do you like living here?
Backgammon Player: “Of course; I love it! Thank God and the USA.
Drew: “I love Iran. I wish I could live there. Very good.”

So I see a bunch of carpets here outside the street. We’re going to head inside of the Persian carpet store.

Simin, Restaurant Owner: “There are some people who are older and they just don’t speak English. And they are very comfortable, they speak Farsi to each other.”
Drew: “And do you celebrate Nowruz here?”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “Of course! It’s the only celebration that I really enjoy and celebrate — it’s amazing!”

 

Studies have shown that Iranians are one of the best educated immigrant groups in the US. And many of them are successful entrepreneurs, like the guy who created eBay.

Local Resident, Woman: “So my dad was from Iran. He came here, and then all of his eight siblings followed.”
Drew: “So how do you hold onto any Persian traditions?”
Local Resident, Woman: “Through cooking. A lot of our traditions come from cooking. I always think of the Persian wedding as something that stands out in my mind.”

 

Drew: “What percentage of your friends here are Persian?

Local Resident, One: “Ninety-nine percent (99%), close to a hundred percent (100%). I grew up with that culture, and I would love to see it authentically, the way my parents grew up.”

Okay, so really here in Westwood, in this area, it’s so Persian — all the shops are in Farsi. You have all the different restaurants. We have Persian ice cream.

Local Resident, One: “Here we have saffron with pistachio. It’s a very ancient ice cream that dates back all the way to ancient Persia.”

When I step in the markets, it feels like I never left Iran.

Drew: “what is that?”
Shop Keeper: “It’s lavashak. It’s like fruit roll up in America. We have lavashak in Iran.

Drew: “I’m seeing the same fruits, the same nuts, the same flatbread, and the same sweets that I saw in Iran. The only difference is that it’s five times the price in LA.

Alright, I’m craving some Persian food, some kebabs for lunch. And I just found a restaurant behind me. So I’m gonna to in there and get some Persian food.

Drew: “Hi.”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “Hi.”
Drew: “How are you?”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “Good. How are you?”
Drew: “Nice to meet you. Salam. I’ve been to Iran. I went there last year. It’s an amazing country . . . Oh, and I really want to get some Persian food.”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “Sure.”

 

Drew: “Wow. Thank you so much!”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “My pleasure.”
Drew: “That looks incredible.”

Simin, Restaurant Owner: “My name is Simin, and welcome to Tehran restaurant.
Drew: “And when did you open up this restaurant?”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “Six years ago.”
Drew: “And have you always been a chef?”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “I always loved cooking and baking. After teaching, I decided to follow my passion to cook.”

The coolest thing about Tehrangeles and the Persian community down here in Southern California is that you feel like you’ve never left Iran. You’re walking around, see all these sights, you go to these communities. And it’s just making my feet itch to go back to Iran!

Drew: “I’m trying to walk out of the restaurant, and Simin is so nice, she won’t let me pay. Can I please pay you?”
Simin, Restaurant Owner: “No, you are very welcome, you are my guest.”
Drew: “We’ve been arguing for ten minutes, because she won’t let me pay.”

 

 

 

Questions

1. Is everyone in Los Angeles, California of European descent?

2. There are various names for different districts, neighborhoods and communities in LA. Is this correct or incorrect?

3. Are most Iranian-Americans descended of immigrants who came in the late 1800s?

4. Do Persian-Americans love living in Los Angeles? Have they maintained many of their culture and traditions?

5. As a whole, Iranian-Americans have achieved success in the United States. Is this entirely true, mostly true, in the middle, yes and no, largely untrue or completely false?

6. What are some popular Persian foods?

7. Simin, restaurant owner, studied culinary arts and used to work in hotels. Is this right or wrong?

 

A. Are there different ethnic communities in your city?

B. Are foreign or ethnic restaurants, food stalls or food popular? Give examples.

C. Have people from your country emigrated or settled in other parts of the world? What are some examples?

D. What foods from your country are popular abroad or globally?

E. What might happen in the future?