> Tajikistan is a very different vibe to Iran, though. There's not much cosmopolitan about Dushambe. I actually like Khujand more, it is definitely more multie

> Tajikistan is a very different vibe to Iran, though. There's not much cosmopolitan about Dushambe. I actually like Khujand more, it is definitely more multiethnic than Dushanbe. > Also, if you learn to speak like a Tajik, Iranians will probably think you're dim, or at least sound like it. It depends on what you are learning Persian for. Quite a lot of Westerners who have studied Persian have done it out of Middle Eastern/Central Asian areal studies needs, or because they wanted to learn to read the wealth of Persian literature. In those cases, going to a Persian-speaking country can be helpful because direct immersion can boost one’s vocabulary learning, but in the long term one doesn't intend to actively speak the language so much, and so it doesn't matter much if one initially learns a variety of Persian that some Iranians find distasteful. Note that even if one learns Persian within Iran, inevitably one would be picking up regionalisms that people from other parts of Iran nitpick – Iranians can be such snobs about dialects and accents from within their own country.