There are about 40 Farsi courses on Udemy right now. I bought five of them during a sale. total cost: $47. and completed the first module of each. The quality range is staggering. One course had a native Tehrani teacher with professional video and structured exercises. Another was a guy reading a PDF of vocabulary lists into a webcam microphone for 3 hours.
The problem with Udemy for Farsi isn’t that good courses don’t exist. It’s that they’re buried under a pile of low-effort content, and Udemy’s rating system doesn’t help you tell the difference. A 4.5-star course with 12 reviews could be excellent or could be someone’s family padding the numbers.
Level: A1-B1 | Time: 30-60 min/day | Cost: Budget ($10-20 on sale) | Best for: Grammar, Vocabulary
The Verdict: 4.5/10
| Criterion | Score |
|---|---|
| Persian Specificity | 5/10 |
| Real-World Usefulness | 4/10 |
| Value for Money | 6/10 |
| Elyar’s Verdict | 4/10 |
How Udemy Works for Farsi
Udemy is a marketplace. anyone can publish a course. Prices range from $10-$100, but everything goes on sale for $10-15 regularly (never buy at full price). Courses are pre-recorded video with optional quizzes and downloadable resources. No live interaction, no tutor feedback, no community. You watch, you practice alone, you hope you’re doing it right.
The Best Udemy Farsi Courses I Found
“Complete Persian/Farsi Course” by Reza Nazari
The best of the bunch. Nazari is a math teacher who happens to be great at explaining Persian grammar. His course covers the alphabet, basic grammar, conversational phrases, and reading practice in about 15 hours of video. The production quality is decent (clear audio, good slides), and he actually addresses the formal/colloquial split. a rarity on Udemy.
Weakness: it moves slowly through the alphabet (3 hours on 32 letters is too much) and the speaking practice is just “repeat after me.” No correction, no feedback. Still, at $12 on sale, it’s hard to complain.
“Persian for Beginners” by Sholeh Shahrokhi
A native speaker with teaching experience, Shahrokhi focuses on practical conversation skills. Her course is shorter (8 hours) but more focused on phrases you’d use in real life. She teaches some colloquial forms alongside formal, which puts her ahead of most competitors. Audio quality is inconsistent. some lessons sound like they were recorded in a kitchen.
The Worst Udemy Farsi Courses (Avoid These)
Without naming names: any course that’s just vocabulary lists without context, any course under 3 hours total, any course where the instructor reads from a script with no native pronunciation. I encountered all three. The 30-day refund policy is your friend.
What Udemy Gets Right for Farsi Learners
Price. At $10-15 on sale, you’re paying less than one hour with a tutor for 8-15 hours of structured content. The best courses have downloadable PDFs, vocabulary lists, and quizzes that create a textbook-like structure. Lifetime access means you can revisit lessons months later. Udemy’s 30-day refund policy makes low-risk experimentation possible.
What Udemy Gets Wrong
No quality control for Farsi
Anyone can upload a course. I found courses with factual errors in transliteration, incorrect vowel markings, and one course that confused Afghan Dari with Iranian Farsi without telling students. Udemy doesn’t verify content accuracy for niche languages.
No interaction
Pre-recorded video is a one-way street. You can’t ask questions, get pronunciation feedback, or practice conversation. For a language where speaking is the hardest skill to develop, this is a fundamental limitation. The Q&A sections on most courses are ghost towns.
Formal register dominance
Most instructors teach formal written Persian, either because that’s what they learned in academia or because they’re targeting test-prep students. Colloquial Tehrani. what you’ll actually need. appears in maybe 2 of the 40 courses available.
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor Credentials | 5/10 | Ranges from excellent to unqualified. no vetting |
| Curriculum Design | 4/10 | Best courses are structured; worst are random vocabulary dumps |
| Production Quality | 4/10 | Wildly inconsistent across courses |
| Student Support | 2/10 | Q&A sections mostly dead, no live interaction |
| Completion Value | 3/10 | Certificate means nothing; what you learn varies hugely |
Udemy vs Other Ways to Learn Farsi
| Feature | Udemy | ZabanYar (App) | Textbook | Tutor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $10-15 | Free | $25-50 | $10-30/hr |
| Interaction | None | AI tutor | None | Full |
| Structured curriculum | Variable | Yes (alphabet, SRS) | Yes | Depends on tutor |
| Speaking practice | No | AI conversation | No | Yes |
| Colloquial Farsi | Rarely | Yes | Rarely | Yes (good tutor) |
Who Should Use Udemy for Farsi
Supplementary learners who want structured video alongside their main study method (app + textbook). Visual learners who prefer watching to reading. Bargain hunters during Udemy sales. People who want to preview Farsi before committing to a textbook or tutor.
Not your primary learning tool. Not a replacement for conversation practice. Not a reliable source of accurate Persian without cross-checking.
The Verdict
Udemy’s best Farsi courses are decent supplementary resources at sale prices. Its worst are a waste of the $10. The platform’s lack of quality control means you’re gambling. use reviews, check instructor credentials, and keep that 30-day refund policy in mind.
For the same price or less, ZabanYar gives you structured alphabet learning, adaptive SRS vocabulary, and an AI tutor. all free, all built specifically for Persian. A textbook like Persian of Iran Today gives you better grammar instruction. A weekly italki lesson gives you actual speaking practice. Udemy fills gaps but shouldn’t be your foundation.
See all options: Complete Farsi Learning Resources Guide
For the complete picture, see our guide to all Farsi learning resources where we rank every option.