If you look around — in the right places, that is — you’ll come across an awful lot of Farsi speakers living in the USA.
While the relationship between America and Farsi’s homeland (Iran) is often intense, there has been a great deal of interplay between the two cultures for a very long time.
Well over half a million Americans can claim Iranian heritage. Different groups estimate different numbers. Even so, it’s a safe bet that the actual number is easily over 500,000. The largest group of Iranians living outside of Iran can be found in the Iranian-Americans who now call America home.
If you look at the data of recent immigrants in the US, people from Iran tend to be fairly well educated. One of the reasons often sited for this is the fact that many of the Iranian immigrants arriving on American shores were already highly educated. This tradition of education has continued in Iranian communities, which of course means there’s a fairly large potential supply of university-educated, bilingual Farsi translators (after being properly trained, of course) living in North America.
The Culture Behind Farsi Translation
California — and Los Angeles in particular — has the biggest Iranian-American population in America. The Iranian-American community is a vibrant part of the Los Angeles scene. Certain parts of the city, especially the Westwood area, are often referred to by their slang names (appropriate or not), such as “Tehrangeles” or “Little Persia.” In these neighborhoods, there’s a good chance you’ll overhear a lot of spoken Farsi while you’re out and about and see visual examples of Farsi language translation.
With so many speakers of Farsi living in the United Sates, and with Iran being such a key player abroad, the need for Farsi language translation is likely to continue for quite some time.