PersianParadise

They love Americans with a passion. Watch Anthony Bordain's special, it'll become clear. They chant death to America but on the signs they hold up it says down with the USA. That's the thing, they really, really, REALLY dislike the foreign policy of the United States. Unlike other countries, however, we don't blame the citizens of America for this. Most Iranians believe American citizens are powerless in their foreign affairs. They also know that Iraq had America's go ahead to use chemical weapons against Iran... as well as the fact that America shot down an Iranian passenger plane, which killed hundreds. They will never fully forgive the American government for this, yet against the American people they hold no grudge. Iranians are also the most hospitable people in the world. No American I know has been able to get through Iran without being invited to someone's house for dinner or has had anything negative to say about the country.

The reason they do this is they believe that showing you the hospitality and goodness in their hearts might change the way you think about Iran. No matter how poor or how rich they are, it is amazing the lengths they will go to in order to make sure you have a wonderful time in their country.

Here's a link to the preview of the special: https://youtu.be/pzqHf9oR5Rs

Oh and there is a divide. Almost everyone who learns English wants to live in America one day, and that requires a mindset about the US government that is slightly more... positive than the rest of the population, to say the least.

In the US most high schools give you a choice of foreign languages. Here you get a choice of English, French, or German. You have to take Arabic and Farsi as well, those are mandatory.

The English teachers here are garbage could be better. I mean most students that I teach took English in school, and their levels of fluency rival that of illegal immigrants in America. Because I'm fluent, and was raised in the good old US of A Great Satan I'm very popular. Most people choose me because I have a neutral North American accent, which can be understood everywhere in the United States and Canada.

As a career, fewer than 1% study English. As a hobby, I'd say maybe all middle class people, not sure what % that would be. They want to learn English because they dream of going to America, even though on the surface they may appear to hate it.

The poor of course don't have time for things like this, they prefer European languages of countries that are easy to immigrate to like Norwegian, Spanish, Greek etc etc... most learn Azeri and Arabic if they are not interested in leaving the country

The same way the BMW's do. We have plenty of apple stores here, we even have "geniuses" wearing the same uniforms. People want a phone that makes them seem classy, which is why they want Iphones. We also have plenty of Chanel and other designer brands. All these items cost much more than their non smuggled counterparts, although the sanction circumvention trade is massive and isn't really considered smuggling based on the scale on which it operates.

American goods like iPhones are revered as being extremely high quality. Black and Decker is seen as the gold standard for power tools, for example. Also American Muscle cars are very expensive, and almost every middle aged person's first car was a Jeep, and Jeeps are still very popular despite the sanctions. Land Rover/Range Rover are seen as the ideal car today, people here like big, American cars. They last a long time, fewer people are willing to cut off a large car (and cause an accident), and not everyone can afford to buy more than 1 car in their lifetime. At least 1 in 5 cars here in the downtown area are of the Large, American variety.

People are willing to pay through the roof for these goods, sometimes even triple the western rates (and it's far harder to earn money here than there) simply because they are American. German goods also follow this trend, but not as much as American ones.

Everyone where I live (Tehran) has electricity access. Of course there are places outside the big cities that have limited electricity, but these locations are becoming increasingly rare (you'd have to go near the iraq/afghan border to see most of those villages).

As for internet, the story is completely different. It costs about 5000 toman (at my favorite internet "cafe") for internet access per hour. That's roughly 1.2 USD (exchange rates here are far different from those listed online). Internet cafe's are usually just the size of maybe 4 American cubicles filled with computers in a 4x4 configuration, with some fans included. For 5000, I get the filter lifted because I know the guy so I can visit blocked sites like facebook and twitter (in addition to, of course, Reddit). You have to pay extra for downloading videos as bandwidth costs money, unless you are using the internet between certain hours.

Most people here use internet cafes when they need to access from a laptop. Only the very rich can afford tolerable home internet access (no restrictions, 10mbps+, unfiltered, and no need for a VPN that can slow your connection to a crawl). One of my close friends (who is the director of a hospital) has internet speeds more than that of an internet cafe but other than that everyone here uses cafe's when they need to do something online. Also, most middle class citizens have iphones anyways so internet use in cafes and homes is declining.

Yes, we have Armenian churches, and many others. But Armenians get away with so much in this country, they are so lucky fortunate. They can drink booze, eat pork, and are exempt from religious duties (like fasting during ramadan, which is mandatory and enforced). Not only this, but they also get permanent seats in the country's legislature.

Edit: To err... make my post seem less like I promote alcohol and eating pork. Just in case.