In the continuing worldwide pursuit of unusual LJ friends...

[insomnia]

I recently did a bit of searching on LiveJournal and stumbled upon livinginiran, a journal by Narges, a 21-year-old Iranian computer science student who loves Harry Potter and playing keyboard.

"I opened this journal to talk about Iran, and Islam like a *real* quiet female moslem can, and not like you hear every day in your TVs . I want to show all the facts

Comments

[wurmwyd]

Hi There!

I hate to sound like a cynic, but ....

Do we know if she's genuine?

[insomnia]

Did we know whether Iraqi webloggers were genuine at first? Apparently, we had to go there to find out for sure.

I see no evidence to suspect that she is not genuine, and I see quite a bit to support that she is... especially her use of language. Also, it should be pointed out that weblogs are not an uncommon thing in Iran. Infact there is an internet cafe in Tehran that hosts a major weblog service. Unfortunately, most Iranian weblogs aren't in English, though there are several exceptions

[solri]

Putting my linguist hat on, if this is a fake, it is a fake written by a shit-hot socio-linguist. As you said, the language points to the journal's being genuine, and not just because of the slightly awkward English; the whole style is typical of how someone in that position would write.

[wurmwyd]

Hi There!

Oh, I know. I was just being overly cynical. I'd like to pretend that there aren't a lot of weirdoes out there that would get off on pretending to be a sweet innocent little Muslim girl in Iraq, but I get the feeling that it's been known to happen.

However, after reading her journal, you're absolutely right. If she were a fake, it would totally be: "H0tt s3xxy 1r4n14n ch1xx0rz lo0k1n 4 l0v3!!!111!!".

What can I say, I have no faith in people. :D She seems like a very nice girl, though, and I've already added her to my friends list.

[solri]

No sooner said than done. After all, globally speaking, we're neighbours.

[livinginiran]

wow! i'm in your dept now! i know my journal is full of mistakes and lot but thanks for mentioning me! i promise you here now ,that i'll not dissapoint you! well now i must find out how to add friends.. let me look around a bit...
yours,
narges. :)

[insomnia]

Everything you need to know is probably in the LiveJournal FAQ.

What you will probably want to know first is how to add friends and how to join communities.

If you have any questions about how to use LiveJournal, just post the question to your journal. Either I or someone else will answer it for you, most likely.

[d4b]

Don't worry about mistakes!

The irony of those who learn English as a second language is that many seem concerned about perfection, and yet, generally speak/write the language much better than we Americans! There's an expression: "Don't worry; be happy!"