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Learning Tibetan... any experience? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6330 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 1 of 10 24 September 2011 at 2:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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Not being a Buddhist, I had never given much thought in the idea of learning Tibetan. But a teacher of mine, who is aware of my interest in languages, has invited to be part of an intensive 3-months Tibetan language class in India (for free!). How could I say no? :) Now, I've searched the forum, but there seems to be a kind of lack of info about Tibetan (and no "Tibetan profile"), so much of my questions remain unanswered. I am especially looking to hear from those of you who studied or are learning Tibetan at the moment: what would be your best advice for a complete beginner? What was your biggest challenge? How would you evaluate the language, in terms of difficulty (compare to Mandarin, for example)? How fast should I expect to progress in 3-months? And about the different "registers of speech": how big is the difference between the "classical" and the "colloquial" version of Tibetan? Which one should I concentrate and learn first? Well, as you see, I am a complete newbie when it comes to Tibetan, so I am looking for any useful infos! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6659 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 2 of 10 24 September 2011 at 11:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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The spelling if tibetan is.. well. They still spell the same way today as they did during ancient times, so it’s very far
from how the words are pronounced. Tibetan has two tones. It’s ergative rather than accusative, differentiate between not aspirated, aspirated and heavily aspirated consonants. Modern tibetan has a ‹simpler› grammar than classical tibetan and some cases have been lost. So, tell me, how did your teacher manage to get you into a free intensive tibetan course?! I’m so envious :P 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5529 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 3 of 10 24 September 2011 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm studying Tibetan at the moment. I did an intensive course in Modern Tibetan at the University of Virginia this summer, and have just started on the classical language.
The main difficulty with Tibetan I found is simply that the language is structured very differently to any other language I've studied before. It took me quite a while to get used to constructing Tibetan sentences. The evidential categories of verb conjugation also take a bit of getting used to, as you have to be much more precise in Tibetan than in English about what you know for certain and what you assume or believe to be true. So if you want to say "He went to Tibet." in Tibetan, you have to choose between: khong bod la 'gro pa red - A plain statement of undisputed fact. khong bod la 'gro song - Something you witnessed happening (eg. you saw him get on the plane.) khong bod la 'gro bzhag - Something you believe on the basis of a report (eg. he told you he was going/had gone and you believe him.) As far as the differences between the classical and the modern languages go, I can't say that much from personal experience as I'm only just getting started with Classical Tibetan. I've heard that the verbal system is much simpler in the classical language though. There are some differences in vocabulary, but I think the bulk of it is the same. (The conservative spelling system becomes an advantage here!) Whether you should start with the classical or the modern language depends on your personal preferences and goals. I'm really more interested in Classical Tibetan, but I chose to start by getting a grounding in Modern Tibetan because I find it easier to get my head round a language when I can speak to people and have real interactions, as opposed to just reading ancient texts. The difference between colloquial and formal or honorific Tibetan is separate from the distinction between the modern and the classical languages. If you learn standard Lhasa Tibetan you will need to learn separate honorific forms for many of the most common nouns and verbs. These differences are to an extent systematic though, so it's not really that hard - just a bit of extra work. Tibetan is undoubtedly a demanding language to learn for a European, but I've found it very rewarding and satisfying. It's a beautiful, elegant, earthy language, and learning it will give you access to one of the most developed and underexplored literary cultures in the world. Do let me know if you have any more specific questions:) 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5529 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 4 of 10 24 September 2011 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is true to an extent, but the spelling is often not very far from the pronunciation. Moreover, the differences between spelling and pronunciation are systematic, so once you learn the rules you can tell how a Tibetan word should be pronounced just from looking at it. It can seem overwhelming at first, but it's not that hard once you get used to it. The differences between Tibetan spelling and pronunciation are comparable to the differences between, say, French pronunciation and spelling. It's certainly much easier than English! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6659 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 5 of 10 24 September 2011 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
That makes me happy! I’ve only heard it’s tough and full of irregularities. bsgrubs —> droop 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5529 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 6 of 10 24 September 2011 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, the b and the s at the beginning and the s at the end are always silent, gr is always pronounced as a kind of retroflex dr, and u is always pronounced as oo. So yeah, once you know the system it's really not too bad;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6330 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 7 of 10 24 September 2011 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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David, thank you for sharing your experience!
My goal is to communicate with Tibetan people and to read modern publications in Tibetan. Since I don't have an interest (for now) in reading the classical texts, I guess I'll start with the "standard" variant of Tibetan. But I am quite puzzled by the different dialects, though. Are the dialects only oral, or can they be used to write? And I was wondering what is the level of register (colloquial or formal) and the dialects used in the Tibet Times and on Radio Free Asia? I would also like to hear from you about the learning materials. I have read only good things about Tournadre and Dorje's "Manual of Standard Tibetan", so I guess this will be my starting book. Any other good books or audio ressources out there I should use? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6659 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 8 of 10 24 September 2011 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you like FSI there’s a course from Snow Lion Pr..something called ‹Fluent tibetan› in two volumes using the drills
ad nauseam FSI style method. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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