Hello, I’m Mandeep. Welcome to my Watch and Learn English substack. My aim is to teach “real-life” English using videos and topics that are in the news.
This week’s post is inspired by Persepolis, the award-winning graphic novel and animated film based on the early life of Marjane Satrapi.
The story follows Marjane as she grows up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, lives through war and strict social rules, and later leaves the country as a teenager. Through one life, we see how political decisions enter everyday spaces like schools, homes, friendships and shape the choices people are allowed to make.
As protests and political pressure continue in Iran today, Persepolis helps us understand how these situations are lived, not just reported.
It also gives us a strong language focus.
Because Marjane’s story moves across years, places, and experiences using narrative tenses to show what happened, what was happening at the same time, and what had already happened before.
This week we have:
Video of the week – a film trailer for Persepolis
Language focus – narrative tenses for life stories
Let’s get started
The trailer moves quickly through different moments in Marjane’s life:
childhood in Iran
teenage years in Austria
return to Iran as a young adult
As you watch think about how the story moves through time?
You can click here to watch the video for free with clear, accurate captions (not auto-generated) and even slow the playback to catch every word.
If you’d like to go deeper, click on any word in the subtitles. With unlimited access (€1.99/month), you’ll get:
Words and phrases explained in context
Comprehension exercises
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When we tell someone’s life story in English, we usually combine past tenses.
Each tense has a different role.
The most common narrative tenses are:
past simple
past continuous
past perfect
We use the past simple for finished actions that move the story forward.
The revolution began.
Her parents sent her to Austria.
She returned to Iran.
These sentences tell us what happened.They are the key moments in the story.
We use the past continuous to describe:
longer actions
background situations
what was happening around a main event
People were living in fear.
Bombs were falling on the city.
She was trying to fit in at school.
This tense helps us understand how life felt, not just what happened.
These two tenses are often used in the same sentence.
Bombs were falling when her parents made the decision.
She was listening to music when the police stopped her.
The past continuous sets the scene.The past simple shows the important action.
We use the past perfect to talk about something that happened before another moment in the past.
Religious leaders had taken power.
She had lost her uncle.
She realised she had changed.
The past perfect helps the listener understand the order of events clearly.
A useful question to ask is: Did this happen before that moment? If the answer is yes, the past perfect is often needed.
These time expressions are very common in life stories:
by the time
while
when
as she got older
after that
in the end
Examples:
By the time she arrived in Austria, she had left her family behind.
As she got older, she became more confident.
Read or listen to this short story. Notice how the past tenses work together.
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Marjane grew up in Iran during a time of major political change. When she was nine years old, the Islamic Revolution began, and daily life started to change.
While many people were hoping for freedom, strict religious leaders had taken control. Women were forced to wear the veil, and families were living with fear every day.
As Marjane got older, she became more confident and outspoken. She listened to music that was not allowed and asked difficult questions. After her uncle was executed and bombs were falling on Tehran, her parents made a hard decision.
By the time Marjane arrived in Austria, she had left everything familiar behind. She felt lonely, and many people judged her because of where she came from.
Years later, she returned to Iran because she had missed her family deeply. But she soon understood that she could not live freely there. In the end, she decided to leave Iran again.
(To leave your country because it is no longer safe is called exile.)
Narrative tenses help us tell human stories clearly.
They allow us to show how events connect across time and how history shapes individual lives.
At the same time, stories like Persepolis remind us that behind language and grammar are real people living through real events.
In Iran today, protests have spread across many cities and regions as people call for change and greater rights. Independent groups report thousands of deaths and many more arrests amid a harsh government crackdown.
To learners in Iran who are studying English while living through these events: your courage and resilience are seen and respected. Many people around the world are trying to understand what is happening and stand in solidarity with calls for dignity and basic freedoms.
If you want to learn more about the situation or find trusted sources of information and ways to support human rights, here are a few organisations that are documenting what is happening:
Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) — independent reporting and firsthand accounts from inside Iran
Amnesty International — campaigning for accountability and safety for protesters
Human Rights Watch – Iran country page — ongoing analysis of rights issues in Iran
These organisations provide daily updates, context, and ways to follow developments carefully and responsibly.
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