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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5775 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 9 of 29 01 May 2011 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
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Hey, my aunt has a PhD in Buddhist philosophy and has studied Sanskrit, Pali, Classical
Chinese and Tibetan. She is the head of the department of philosophy at the University of Pune. Just in case you need any help at some point of time. All the best with your studies! I am definitely going to follow your progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4934 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 11 of 29 23 June 2011 at 3:11am | IP Logged |
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David, you may be so busy that you haven't even looked at a computer recently, but where are you in your studies now?
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| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5534 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 12 of 29 02 July 2011 at 12:45am | IP Logged |
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Actually, I think I've had perhaps the busiest week of my life this week! I'm in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia doing their intensive summer language program. I've done intensive language courses before, but this is really something else. There are seven and a half hours of classes a day, plus at least a couple of hours of homework, so I've been doing little else than eating, sleeping and studying...
It's been particularly intense because I arrived two weeks into an eight week course. I couldn't get away from my job earlier, and I thought that if I went through the material from the first two weeks beforehand on my own and in private lessons it would work out fine. It has worked out OK, but it was a much harder landing than I'd expected. I knew most of the grammatical structures and vocabulary the other students had learned during the first two weeks, but I wasn't able to produce it orally very well, and I wasn't able to follow a lot of the teaching (which is almost exclusively in Tibetan). It's gotten much better as the week's gone on, but the first three days were pretty stressful and frustrating. I'm feeling a bit more on top of things now, and I'm starting to relax and enjoy the course. I'm happy there's a three day weekend in the US this weekend so I can go through everything we've done so far and absorb it a bit better. I feel like I'm learning a huge amount, and I'm sure I'll be updating my Tibetan to "Basic Fluency" in my profile by the end of July. The main textbook we're using is "Colloquial Tibetan", which was written by the main instructor on the course, Tsetan Chonjore. We've already covered most of the material in the book, and as the course goes on we'll be looking more at literary texts I think. There's a real emphasis on oral production, and the students on the course have just taken a pledge only to speak Tibetan to each other in and between classes and in the house where most of us are staying. So all in all I'm very happy with the course, and feel that it will definitely help me to reach my goal of being able to read Buddhist texts in Tibetan by the end of the summer. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4934 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 13 of 29 02 July 2011 at 2:47am | IP Logged |
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Wow, you really jumped into the deep end! Congratulations and best wishes with this phase of your study career. This kind of commitment is precisely what it takes to do what you set out to do. I'm sure that many who read this forum have been inspired by your example.
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| DanWorld Groupie Thailand Joined 4906 days ago 40 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Spanish, Russian | Message 14 of 29 03 July 2011 at 11:07am | IP Logged |
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I'll be watching your log, I think what you're doing is very commendable. I could see myself doing what you're doing
in a different life (not to be ironic regarding Buddhism). I lived in Thailand for some time and studied Buddhism and Eastern Philosophy fairly seriously. I'm currently studying Russian quite seriously, and from my perspective, what you're doing is more challenging. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5534 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 15 of 29 04 August 2011 at 10:27pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I've just finished my final exams for the Tibetan summer program in Virginia. It's been quite an experience. I feel like I've learned a huge amount in a very short space of time. Six weeks ago I could have a simple conversation about how old I was, where I live, what my job is etc. Today I gave a ten minute presentation on the history of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, comparing the ways Tibetans traditionally practice Buddhism with the ways Westerners practice.
I would highly recommend the UVa Summer Program to anyone who's interested in getting to grips with the basics of Tibetan fast. Charlottesville's a lovely place to live and study, and the teachers are really excellent. I'm heading to New York this weekend for a very well earned week's holiday, before heading back to Norway. Classes at Oslo University start on August 22nd, and I'll be taking the second year of Sanskrit, the first year of Chinese (plus an introduction to Classical Chinese), a couple of Religious Studies courses and a few courses on Indian and Chinese history. I'll be taking a couple of courses in Tibetan language and literature in the autumn next year, so I hope I'll be able to work on my Tibetan a little bit in the meantime - at least to maintain what I've learned this summer. I'm going to be pretty busy though... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| audiophile Groupie United States Joined 5121 days ago 44 posts - 81 votes Studies: French | Message 16 of 29 10 August 2011 at 12:25am | IP Logged |
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Good luck to your study. The comparative Buddhist study should be a fascinating area.
Recently I just discovered Pali language. I have been kicking myself why I haven't found it earlier. This is a very beautiful language, with the liquidity of a living language. I would imagine that it was very close to the way Thai is being spoken, full of softness and grace. But most importantly, it is the language closest to Buddha's. When I read the text, I feel that I am almost sitting there in front of Buddha, listening to his own speech. So I am glad that I've discovered Pali in this life. And it has so much material to read. Best of all, the text style is very repetitive, as if Buddha had prepared this material just for us - to learn Pali as a foreign language. Also, it helps me understand what Indo-Euroupean family means. I use AK Warder's textbook (focused on Digha Nikaya), and John Kelly's answer key. John prepared it in such a way, it almost looks like a bilingual book by itself. After finishing Warder, I am going to read the Long Discourse (Digha Nikaya) using the English/Pali texts side to side. If I can only pick up one foreign language in addition to English, it would be Pali. The Buddhist text in Chinese is very difficult to understand even for me as a native Chinese. Hope that I can learn Pali well enough to understand those precious suttas. Edited by audiophile on 10 August 2011 at 12:43am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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