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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5520 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 25 of 29 27 August 2011 at 8:24am | IP Logged |
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Well, term's officially started now, and I'm getting back into my usual routine of study after the summer. This year, I'll be studying Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan as well as taking some courses in Religious Studies and South Asian Studies. If all goes according to plan, I'll complete a BA in South Asian Studies with Sanskrit, and a BA in the History of Religion in spring next year. (Many of the credits for these two degrees will overlap...)
In Sanskrit, I'm going to start off by doing the last 5 lessons of Maurer's "The Sanskrit Language", as we didn't quite get to the end of the book last year. There's some new grammar to learn, and the translation exercises are extracts from the Bhagavad Gita, which is quite exciting. After that I'll be translating and reading various stories and short texts, such as stories from the Shukasaptati. I'm also starting Modern Mandarin this term. We're using the "Integrated Chinese" books, and will get through Level 1 Part 1 this semester. This seems perfectly doable. Learning the vocabulary and grammar won't be much sweat, but memorising so many characters (about 500 I think) will be a new and interesting challenge. I learn in a very visual way though, so I'm feeling fairly confident. I'm just going to write the characters over and over again - first one by one, then write out whole dialogues from the book as many times as I can manage. I won't be able to attend the classes for this course, so it's going to be self-study and then taking the exam. I've also arranged a language exchange with a Taiwanese student at Oslo University. (I'm going to teach her Norwegian, and she's going to help me with Chinese - mainly conversation and calligraphy). I'd planned to take a bit of a break from Tibetan this year and focus on Sanskrit and Chinese - but then I found out that there's going to be an introductory course in Classical Tibetan running this semester. Oslo University doesn't normally have Tibetan Language classes, so this was too much to resist! Apart from my language study, I'm taking a course in Modern Indian History (which is a requirement for my Sanskrit degree), a course in Chinese History (which, together with the Chinese language classes I'm taking this year will qualify me to teach Chinese as a foreign language in schools) and a course in Islam (partly because I need the credits for my Religious Studies major, and partly because most of the students at the school where I teach are Muslims, and I'd like to know a bit more about their tradition.) Next term I'll carry on with Sanskrit, reading gradually more challenging texts, and I'll get an introduction to Vedic Sanskrit and to Pāli. I'll take Chinese 2 and an Introduction to Classical Chinese, and the last few classes I need to finish the two bachelor's degrees (Tibetan Religion and Culture, South Asian Political Culture and two bachelor essays). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| audiophile Groupie United States Joined 5107 days ago 44 posts - 81 votes Studies: French | Message 27 of 29 28 August 2011 at 7:16am | IP Logged |
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For Tibetan study, maybe one can teach himself by using the "Fluent Tibetan" audio
course available in the following link? This course seems to be very comprehensive. http://www.snowlionpub.com/html/25.html I briefly looked at Tibetan. But I can see more relationship between Pali and German, than between Tibetan and Chinese. So for now I am just focusing on Pali study. As for Buddhism, I think there are several layers. Pali is the first (deepest) layer, then Sanskrit, then Chinese (mainly sourced from Sanskrit), and then Tibetan (mainly sourced from Sanskrit). So if it is just for understanding what Buddha had said, maybe learning Pali is good enough for a hobbyist? Now I can understand why anyone wants to become a monk: it is a full time job to learn Buddhism well in more than two languages! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5520 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 28 of 29 26 June 2012 at 1:47pm | IP Logged |
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It’s been a whole academic year since my last update (time flies!) and my studies are going well, although I
discovered that the plans I made at the beginning of the year were a little ambitious... I’ve now completed my major in Sanskrit and a BA in the History of Religion. I feel I have a good grounding in Sanskrit and Pāli, but I still have a long way to go before I’m able to read fluently and confidently. I completed Chinese 1 in the autumn with good grades, but doing Chinese 2 and the Introduction to Classical Chinese in the spring was going to be a bit too much, so I decided just to focus on the ever-increasing demands of Sanskrit, and the other courses I needed to complete my BA in the History of Religion. I’d hoped to complete a BA in South Asia Studies with Sanskrit this term as well, but although I managed to finish the Sanskrit courses, I had to drop a couple of South Asia Studies courses (South Asian Political Culture and the South Asia Bachelor Essay) as I was ill for a couple of months. I’ll do these two courses next spring along with Chinese 2, and finish the BA in South Asia Studies with Sanskrit (with a minor in Chinese) next summer. I’ve applied to start an MPhil in the History of Religion in the autumn, and have good enough grades to be more or less assured of a place. The structure of the MPhil is more flexible than the BA, so I’ll be able to focus more on language study and won’t need to take so many general courses. My main focus over the next two years will be working on a translation project along with two others at the university. We’re translating the Bodhisatvapiṭaka, a previously untranslated Mahāyāna text. We’re principally translating from Sanskrit, but we’re reading the Sanskrit in parallel with one Tibetan and two Chinese translations. The other two translators are Norwegian, and know the source languages much better than I do. My role is as the English language expert, making sure that the finished text is polished and accurate. This is a great way for me to develop my Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese, whilst still being able to contribute something to the project. We’ve received some funding from the 84000 Project, so I’ll be able to work a bit less than full-time at my teaching job. Now that I’ve finished my Sanskrit major, I’m going to give more attention to Tibetan and Chinese. The introductory course in Classical Tibetan I took in the autumn was good, and not all that demanding after the intensive course in Modern Tibetan I took in Virginia, but I haven’t had much time to work on my Tibetan since then. I’m planning to take a Tibetan reading course this autumn, which should help get my Classical Tibetan up to a higher level. I’ll take the Introduction to Classical Chinese in the spring alongside Chinese 2, but I’m going to start working on the material for these two Chinese courses in August, so that I’m about half-way through by the time the spring term starts. I’ll still try to keep working on my Sanskrit a bit if I have time, mainly by going back over the texts in Maurer and learning the vocabuary and structures more thoroughly. I’ll also work on the reading texts from Deshpande, as they have accompanying audio, which I find very useful. So if everything goes according to plan, this time next year I should have a much better grasp of Tibetan, Chinese and Buddhist Sanskrit, and be about halfway through an exciting translation project:) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4920 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 29 of 29 26 June 2012 at 8:47pm | IP Logged |
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David,
I always welcome your posts. Keep working as hard as you can to learn languages central to the Buddhist tradition; they are a lifelong gift you give to yourself. Keep up the great work. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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