Moderator: coldharvest
buffybot_in_beirut wrote:For top-quality regional studies of Africa or Asia there is probably no better place than the good old SOAS in London. Neither Iran nor Tajikistan (let alone Afghanistan) are known for top marks in university rankings...
To me Farsi in Iran always sounded the best, but since I don't speak it it's maybe only a subjective ranking - as in sounded "beautiful" or "pleasant". I know well-educated Iranians who had no problems using their Farsi in both Afghanistan and Tajikistan in sophisticated and professional work settings. Apparently the Tajik vocabulary is a bit weird - the equivalent of apartment in the US vs. flat in Britain and so on.
Tajikistan is a cool place to spend some time and Dushanbe is said to be the most pleasant capital of Central Asia. Compared with Tashkent and Asghabad (the only other two towns I know) that is certainly true. When I was in Dushanbe almost a decade ago it was an extremely isolated, at-the-end-of-the-world capital, but in a good way. Nothing terribly bothersome except the lack of consumer goods and international flights. I would reckon things have improved by now. The town is as pretty as all of Tajikistan is stunning. Once your paperwork is sorted out nobody will bother you much. It is safer than Afghanistan and more liberal than Iran. As already mentioned, the one big problem with Tajik is its cyrillic script. You will be able to speak and understand the language, but won't be able to read or write a word in Iran and Afghanistan, which are arguably more important countries (politically, economically, job opportunities, involvement of international community). Many foreigners I knew in Dushanbe did not "waste" their time learning that exotic language of Tajik, but studied Russian instead...
Even though some places in Afghanistan are surviveable (Herat, Mazar), the only location that is really safe is Bamyan. It is not exactly a metropolis though and about as common a destination for tertiary education as Agadez, Kampot or Gbadolite.
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