 I don't know. I'm not sure if I swear that. Okay. So I know softish. And then... Shibu! They come from Shota. Okay. How's that? Yeah. One, two, three. Hey everyone! Shota! You're like Shota, I'm like, relax. Hey everyone, I hope you're well. Welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Seppi and today I have two very special guests for this video. The first stop is my beautiful mama. Oh, hello everybody! And my... I didn't know what to say, I was going to say my special sister and I realised like, what am I saying? And my gorgeous sister sign is also here. As you can see from the title of this video, today we are going to be talking about what it's like to be growing up Persian in London or like just generally like Middle Easterners because I feel like when we sit with a lot of our Middle Eastern friends we have so much in common and we can relate to our upbringing so much and I feel like the best way we can go through it is two different age groups like the older kid versus the younger kid. And youngest youngest one. And the parent because basically my parents moved here how many years ago, 20... almost 30 years ago, 27, 28 years ago something like that and Saina was like a toddler when she moved here and I was born here so we have been raised in England but it feels so different even though we come from the same family and the same parents Yeah, but we've been raised in England and specifically we've been raised in London me, my whole life and my parents, my mum and my dad who's not here right now they really made an effort to make sure we had the most Iranian upbringing as possible So before we start this video just a quick disclaimer that when we discuss everything that we say about Persian families we understand that we're generalising but we are speaking about it from our family as a Persian middle eastern in London and we're not talking on behalf of everyone else Some of the things we say might be related to things we hear from our friends but yeah, we can't be talking on behalf of everyone but we hope that you enjoy anyway and take it as some light hearted fun So I've made a list of all the things that we're going to be discussing about and we're just going to go through it with you all just the key things that come up in our upbringing and if any of you guys out there are Middle Eastern or Iranian and can relate please let us know down in the comment section we'd really appreciate it and don't forget to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to me down below So we're going to get started First things first that everyone always asks when they sit with us is, you know, if you're from Iran is Iran the same as Persia? Yeah, that's it The same as Iran The same as Persia So Persia is the old name of the empire and Iran is the new name the Islamic Republic of Iran so Persia is the old name and then once you say yeah the country is called Iran so why do you call yourself Persian? So the truth of it is when I meet people and people ask me where I'm from I say I'm Iranian but it's really annoying for us because our username is on like Instagram it's like Persian Bunny and Persian Honey what people don't know is I don't call myself Persian Bunny because I think I'm Persian not Iranian so what people don't know is I call myself Persian Bunny because Persian sounds nicer than Iranian Bunny in my opinion Iranian Bunny doesn't have like a ring to it Persian and Bunny are both two syllables so that's why I went with it but yeah, we're Iranian I call myself Persian Honey because Sefi initially opened my Instagram account for me and she was like what do you want to be called and I was like what's your name she was like Persian Bunny and I was like okay so I'm going to be Persian Honey not true at all what happened then? I said I'm Persian Bunny and I was like don't pick something boring like your name you should be Persian Honey but some people they call them Venus or Star this does not mean they are from Sky Venus yeah but your name it doesn't mean they are a star oh I get it just because you say you're Persian Honey oh yeah Persian Bunny is just the name the name of the the next big thing that was really so big in our household being raised Iranian in London is I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know when we were growing up we had to speak Farsi at home all the time which I remember growing up it was annoying because sometimes you want to speak English because you could just put your point across a lot easier because obviously we'd always be speaking English outside but now I'm really grateful that I wasn't allowed to speak English at home because now I can speak Iranian and I love it it's definitely something that I'm going to do with my kids I want them to be able to speak for Farsi a lot of people when they came in my house they said if somebody on the street they go to coma and they bring his in your house and after he opened or she opened her eyes and she will think she's in Iran she's not in England because everything, the Croatian we are from Iran so the next thing that we want to discuss that was really big was as Saina already mentioned Iranian school on Saturdays so some of you guys have commented down below because you've seen us there or something but we all went to well not my mom I have another sister we all went to Iranian school on Saturdays and that's how that's how we have a lot of our friends who are Iranian and how we manage to meet other Iranians as Saina said when she was younger there were a lot of Iranians but they were kind of dotted around now we kind of have areas in London specifically that are very very highly densely populated with Iranians so when we were younger the best way to meet other Iranians was in Iranian school so we would go to Iranian school every Saturday from one to five we would study Farsi as it was supposed to be as a second language but for us at home when we were speaking it was our first language to be honest all my friends as well in Iranian school they spoke Farsi really well the only ones that they didn't speak Farsi as good as us were the ones who came from families where they were mixed so the parents were not Iranian but even them they still spoke amazing Farsi and the parents really made the effort to put them in Iranian I remember one of my friends we won't say their name but their mum would come to Iranian school and learn to speak fluent Farsi she speaks amazing Farsi and she's like completely British like no accent so that was really cool but going to Iranian school so far we managed to meet and it was so fun to life long friends and it was so fun to translate Iranian words to English and vice versa in Iranian if someone is cute you're like jigarator but in English that means you live somethings don't make sense but when you're in your little community where you all have this little thing in common it was really fun that's the Dan Aikona that's the Dan Aikona means thank you so much but it means I hope your hands don't hurt your hand doesn't hurt so next thing we're going to talk about is traditions so the biggest tradition that we celebrate every single year and it's a big deal in every Iranian household every all across the world and we're going to start prepping for it next week is noruz and let me just say that noruz is Iranian New Year and it never falls it's not like dead on midnight so it could be at 3 in the morning or 4 in the morning it's to do with the start of the spring solstice so if you go on like Instagram or Snapchat if you go on Instagram or Snapchat you'll see like all the Iranians that you know at 3 in the morning or 4 45 am and for noruz you have to be wearing new clothes and you have to look on point because it means that the whole year that's going to be your year so you're going to see people and you see all your friends they're like on Instagram or Snapchat at 4 in the morning in a suit or in dresses like full on makeup dressed up like they're going to go out clubbing or something but they're literally just standing around the table for noruz and then everyone goes to bed after it so what's the first tradition that we have in noruz? AD it's cash £10, £1 or £50 anything you give it to anyone younger another tradition another tradition where it's basically you put 7 things that start with S, we've seen on the table S, S, S S, S, S, S S, S, S yeah you put 7 things that start with S so have to mean 7 and seen means S and we have to have like a fish there and goldfish that the poor thing never survives after 2 weeks I don't know what does anyone else's goldfish survive we feed it we take care of it but these noruz goldfish never survive we had one that survived 3 years we had one for 3 years and bands back married his name was Harry and then my auntie had a matching one called William wasn't it George George that was it so we had matching royal family goldfish another tradition is I had all of them in my head yeah oh yeah, sabzi polo mahi yeah, sabzi polo mahi so it's basically Persian fish cooked with rice you know how you have Christmas lunch you have basically this but this is the sabzi polo mahi it's the Iranian version so it's basically rice that's got dill and garlic you want garlic or not and then you have it with fish any type of fish and if you guys go to any Iranian restaurant if you're from London or most major cities around the world go to an Iranian restaurant in March and ask for sabzi polo mahi for sure next tradition is and this is the last one we're going to talk about how can you not think of it no, the only such sabzi polo mahi so what we're going to say is so the last thing we're going to talk about is plenty of traditions that we're just going over first you have to go to everyone's house normally the youngest goes to the eldest's house out of respect and when you go over there they give you like Iranian sweets so Iranian like pastries and stuff this means at least you have to see your family and your elders it basically is kind of the tradition is made so people forced to each see each other at least once a year so the next thing that we're going to talk about is growing up as Iranian kids with Iranian parents you guys got a half like you have to tell us if you can relate to this and that is you cannot go out after 10 o'clock at night 10 o'clock you have to be home as soon as school was finished for one I can underscore we weren't allowed to I was never allowed to go out after not even after dark you have to be home a certain time and then me when I was like 16 when I was 18 I wasn't allowed to leave the house after 10 o'clock and can I just add another thing to this day I'm allowed to stay at my friend's house my friends have to sleep here I'm allowed to sleep at my friend's house and I'm allowed to go and hold everybody else's house if I say no about me like not now but when I was younger I'm joking right now but when I was younger if I want to stay at my friend's house no way it's like I don't know why because I don't know I don't know I don't know this is a culture we trust our children but we don't know out of the world what happened so what about other people they let their kids come to you exactly she's thinking hard about this one I accept this is not the right mentality but it's a bit too late I wish you accepted it what I was growing up but I was careful to be honest I think I would probably be the same parenting is a tough one as my mum was just saying now what's another thing that all of your daughters weren't allowed to do until they were 19 they wasn't allowed to plug the iPhone yeah we weren't allowed to I wasn't even allowed to wear makeup no makeup I started wearing makeup when I was 16 but like 16 the end of it so when I started sick form but we weren't allowed to plug our eyebrows or our mustache but we hadn't any hair in your face we're lucky we didn't have mono brows but we have cousins and friends who had mono brows and it's kind of a tradition it's less common for people outside of Iran and even in like more even in Iran now in Iran in a small village they wasn't like that but like I know other Iranians who are also strict on it and we weren't allowed to plug our eyebrows because my dad and my mum believed that when you plug your eyebrows it takes away like your innocent look even if you were me it takes away your innocent young looks which I agree with it does take away your innocent young looks but yeah my kids can plug their eyebrows you know whatever age sorry if we've moved a bit I ran out of memory oh yeah okay so the next thing that is so big growing up Persian is education so if you guys see any memes about Middle Eastern kids and Iranian kids the number one thing you'll always see is are you a doctor or lawyer or engineer so this lovely lady has you have one dentist doctor doctors and no one actually pushed me to want to do medicine which is very weird no like Saina really wanted me to be a dentist yeah even though I went into medicine myself and my mum really wanted me to be a dentist my dad wanted me to do whatever I want and he knew I was passionate about history so he always wanted me to study history at Oxford which is a random one and I think it's all fashion now if you want to be a doctor my mum now says that she kind of wished she pushed us into more arts and fun stuff so that like we're there for more joyous occasions than for like sad like difficult times of people's lives but what she doesn't understand is that like it actually brings us so much joy to be able to help people in exactly throughout this and the amount of prayers and good energy you receive from people when you manage to help them through a difficult situation is incomparable to being there for someone good times like yeah of course you have like sad moments but yeah that's that's just a balance most important for me was that my daughters be the same level the same level level of education so like as in she doesn't mean like all of them doctors she means that she give all of them the same opportunity so everyone went to university for example that's what she said if not that probably later on other ones say that it's educated I think one thing that we take for granted when we make these jokes about Iranian parents or Middle Eastern parents saying we want you to be a doctor or a lawyer or engineer is how much they care for your future yeah and also just that how many sacrifices your parents made to get you to where you are today like me personally like I know how hard my parents work and have worked to put me through all of my education and all of my extracurricular you speak to your friends as well and you just know everyone can relate to each other in that sense I think it's easy to not do anything like for your kids and be like oh they'll figure it out along the way it's harder to look out for them without being pushy so I think that in that sense you guys did a great job oh thank you very much one of the things that you guys will probably know about me because a lot of you have discovered me through my Tehran vlog is another really important thing about growing up Iranian or Persian is going back home to Iran every single summer exactly and thank you very much I love it, I never knew you were gonna say that basically I think growing up 99% of my friends as well as me our summer was always going not to the south of France but you would go to all these places but first you had to go to Iran after you've made your Iran trip then you can go anywhere else in the world and it would be like when is your Iran air flight are you on the 27th of July are you on the 28th? not 27th, fully booked man but she does travel so that can't I'm not sure man but she does travel so that can't I'm joined out of the stand and then here's your other travel everyone, all the Iranians have had back in the day when there was no online booking we all had the same travel I can't my mom's were all the third booking this summer flight and like literally my mom would talk to her like my father and be like are you like man and your travel agents will tell you as well but your sister is in this book and I don't want to bother you I'm so sorry but after New Year everybody they look for booking for some summer holidays and a lot of people they say to me thank you very much you sure to ask how beautiful night I love Mashhad so my mom is Mashhad and my dad is Aroki my dad is Aroki A-R-A-K so it's a city in the north of Iran and I don't know where I don't know where it is on a mountain and then we have a lot of family in Tehran as well but my mom's original roots are Birjand which is a small city in Iran they're my family in Birjand so we go to Tehran, Mashhad and Birjand when we visit Iran and we have the best time ever honestly so much fun so much fun Shomal which is the north of Iran where everyone goes to the seaside and they have beach houses or they rent beach houses or stay in condominiums and then they can go to the beach with their families it is so much fun and we love going back and we're going to end this vlog on is boys Iranian families their daughters talking to boys my dad my dad has changed so much when it comes to us and when it was sepi I remember when I used to walk down the street I used to look down just to make sure a boy would then look at me to say hello because I would have a heart attack because I'd have to explain to my dad how I know this boy I'd be like he had a bad bad form he didn't have nothing but I would just be so scared I'd be like oh my god oh my god there's that Anthony oh my god let me look away he's going to recognize me so that's insane but then when I found out that was young once you grow up with soul and sign I think my dad was more strict with boys but with me he's really cool with all of my guy friends and I don't have a boyfriend but I feel like if I did find someone that I like he'd be able to say to my dad there's someone that I like in the past there was someone that I liked and I told my dad oh dad I like this person and my dad gave me like a full blown like he met the person and was like you know I like this aspect about him but this aspect I don't think you were a match and I was like jeez he's right so in that sense my dad but then he lets you make your own choice but you weren't ever like I can't speak for all Iranian families when I say this by the way in anything that I've spoken about we can't speak on behalf of all Iranian families this is just our family this is our family growing up Iranian in London but we would never be able to like I know my friends growing up if they had a boyfriend have a boy sleep round like dad isn't in this day because for us time is freezing from 35 years ago for my mum and them she's like at times where you'd never have boys sleeping round is like a complete no you or like take a boy up to your bedroom like she's making me laugh just in that sense but like even if I had like you know separate bedrooms or whatever it's just it would never happen but I could make a whole video on Iranians and boys if you guys are interested we can give you a part too but we are gonna end this video right here thank you guys so much for watching if you liked it then please give us a thumbs up and subscribe to me down below for more family fun and don't forget to check out my socials they're always linked in the description but my Instagram is Persian Bunny and my snap is Sepi Samoy Sina's Instagram is Persian Honey don't forget to check her out I love you all so so much thank you very much everybody thank you for supporting us