2 comments about A Tibetan-English Dictionary.

1. Although I understand the technical reasons for not doing so, I wish that the examples and compounds were in the Tibetan script as the base entries are. I appreciate, however, the citations being full phrases so that the dictionary helps one learn written Tibetan. I especially appreciate the providing of the Sanskrit in devanagri where a Tibetan term is used technically as a translation of a Buddhist Sanskrit term. This is especially important for those whose primary language is Sanskrit but must learn Tibetan because so many Sanskrit Buddhist texts were lost.



2. Outdated (sometimes truly quaint) culturally, and definitely influenced by Jaschke's christian missionary orientation. Neverthless a classic that deserves a place on every Tibetan-English translator's bookshelf. I often consult it as a third-or-fourth opinion (after Rangjung Yeshe and Das) when I am searching for a good English match to the Tibetan. Was a pioneering work in its time, deserves continuing use within limits of its view.

No comments about Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Volume 5 A Grammar of Lepcha (Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region: Brills Tibetan Studuies Library).

No comments about A Tibetan-English Dictionary: With Sanskrit Synonyms.

No comments about A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions (James G. Forlong Series).

No comments about A primer for classical literary Tibetan.

No comments about China's Tibetan Medicine.

No comments about Learn to Speak Tibetan and Hindi.

No comments about Talk Now! Tibetan.

3 comments about Where is Tibet?.

1. where is tibet is a book that displays tibetan buddhist philosophy in a clear and beautiful way. it is an inspiration to read and motivates the reader to want to work to save tibet, and to treasure what tibet means in their own heart, to live a life of compassion. it is about two tibetan children living in exile in india and is an excellent introduction to the plight of the tibetan people as well as testimony to their spiritual strengths and hopes. i find the book to be inspiring and motivating to readers of all ages interested in buddhist philosophhy or the plight of the tibetan people. the illustrations are beautiful and intricate, adding texture to the written word as they display another facet of tibetan culture. this story seems to penetrate the heart of tibetan buddhism. i recommend that anyone interested in their own personal spiritual journey read this little book of wisdom and hope for the words apply to all struggles, not only the tibetan exiles, and the philosophy is buddhism in simple terms.



2. I have learnt Tibetan for about two months in India, I found this book extremely helpful for Tibetan students too. The text, though simple, are written with Tibetan script, transiliteration and English translation, the story is good too. I found it quite touching that finally His Holiness (in the comics) said, "Tibet is in your heart".

   Yes, Tibet is in my heart, I'm going back there one day.




3. Where is Tibet? is the book of my dreams. As a multi-cultural family (I am American and my husband is Tibetan) we cherish reading this with our [...]. (It helps me practice my Tibetan, too, with its clear phonetic translations) I first found this book in Nepal when I was teaching English to Tibetan nuns, and several of the older nuns and I were crying by the end of it, the book is so touching, but in a simple, accessible way.

5 comments about Fluent Tibetan: A Proficiency Oriented Learning System(Novice & Intermediate Levels).

1. There is a dearth of modern Tibetan language learning materials, and unfortunately this item is one of the few available. It uses drills/subsititution repetition, whereas good language learning materials use what applied linguists call the functional method, where only those language skills which a person will actually use are taught and developed. In this package, for example, there is not the expression "What do you call this [as the speaker points to the object] in Tibetan?" Use of this expression is a basic strategy for people learning a foreign language. I personally found the almost endless repetition and substitution to make sentences impossibly tiresome, and felt that I had wasted a lot of time learning phrases that I would never use. However, this is the first of its kind, and hopefully future materials developers will take more notice of the methodologies now in use for the teaching of other languages.



2. I have to give this book and tape set three stars out of respect for the huge effort that went into producing it, but many of the criticisms made by Peter from Darwin are accurate - the repetition could easily drive you to sobs. I think it is best used in a classroom/language lab setting, rather than by a poor student struggling through alone. Frankly, for most people, if you know all the dialogues and vocab in Bloomfield and Tsering, "Learning Practical Tibetan" then you can get by nicely.



3. Although I agree with the other reviewers that the repetition is sometimes enough to drive you to tears, it certainly drills basic sentence structures and words deep into your brain. You have to be creative to maintain interest by listening to the tapes without the book, reading the book without the tapes, listening to the tapes while you are folding the washing! It works! Since this course takes a few months to complete, I would not recommend it to someone who wants to pick up tourist phrases: there are other books available which are more focussed. But, if this is your starting point for learning spoken Tibetan for some other purpose, start here. There's almost nothing else available anyway.



4. Since I've hesitated a long time between Hopkins' "Fluent Tibetan" with tapes and Tournadre's "Manual of Standard Tibetan," I thought it would be helpful to write a comparative review. I ended up getting both, and I find they complement each other quite well.
   
   "Fluent Tibetan" is based on the unsurpassed method devised by the Foreign Service Institute, which aims at developing fluency in a short period of time. The tapes are quite audible and provide an extensive set of oral drills, something I haven't seen elsewhere. Some reviewers have complained about the amount of repetition, but I think being bored with repetition in an indication that one is becoming fluent with the material, i.e., the course is delivering the goods. Drilling is quite important when a language has a very different grammar (from my experience with Hebrew). On the other hand, the vocabulary is rather sparse at about 500 words. I find the main strength of the set is in the drills and in the fact that it is mostly, but not exclusively, based on audio material. The set aims at the low-intermediate level. This can keep you busy for about three months if you keep a good pace.
   
   The "Fluent Tibetan" CD-ROM, available separately, does not have any drills, and in summary is quite useless.
   
   Tournadre's Manual is amazingly comprehensive, quite sufficient, it seems, to keep a student busy trough four semester courses or so. This text is useful to lay a strong foundation to build on later on. Prior to the forty-one Lessons, over forty pages present the reader with a thorough introduction to the alphabet, pronunciation and a clever system of transcription of the author's devising. The latter is helpful in precisely describing the pronunciation of the words introduced at each lesson. I counted about 2000 words in the glossaries at the end, which makes quite a rich vocabulary.
   
   The book is also replete with cultural notes, maps and descriptions of the different Tibetan dialects. Another nice touch is the amount of supplementary material, including videos of the dialogues, exercise answer keys and supplementary exercises, all available on the web at the University of Virginia's Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library website.
   
   On the down side, I found the lessons very hard going. One sometimes gets lost in detail, that is to say, each topic is examined extremely thoroughly (e.g. the spelling variations of the word for "one" and other numbers). Those details are not always essential at the beginnning. This is probably the typical experience of a self-learner like me, while in a classroom situation the teacher would know when to instruct students to skip over the extra details. It is quite apparent that each lesson needs to be expanded and developed in a classroom situation, with perhaps ten times as many exercises, drills and dialogues as are provided in the book, in order to bring out all that it has to offer. I therefore decided that this book was hard to use as a primary text by a pure self-learner, but is probably the best of its kind for classroom instruction. I use it as a reference and will probably go back to it more methodically when I am done with the "Fluent Tibetan" set.



5. Firstly, you can buy this whole set new on Snow Lion's site for $200. It's difficult to get through. You will spend many many hours trying to hear the difference between the letters of the alphabet according to tones and with speakers who aren't always consistent in how high of a tone or how much aspiration they give a letter. There are a number of mistakes in it also which will confuse you. You are expected to be able to write in Tibetan and quickly, right from the start. So practice writing and learn the letters before you start. Also have a remote with you as you'll want to switch off the tapes and rewind alot.
   
   It is the Lhasa dialect, and while that is the dialect most well known, many of the Lamas in the US are from Kham, eastern Tibet, and speak Kham or Amdo dialects which are quite different. Lhasa dialect doesn't pronounce things the way Wylie transliterates it. So if you are doing any Tibetan typing, you will be learning to say things in a way that is not consistent with Wylie spellings, which are more consistent with the Kham dialect. I found for typing in Wylie, I had to forget the Lhasa dialect or I was too confused. However, in the end, it's good to recognize both Kham and Lhasa dialects which switch 5 or so sets of letters as to how they aspirate, such as k/g, p/b, d/t, s/z, c/j.
   
   Unless you are really good at self study and really stick with it,I would suggest starting with Learning Practical Tibetan instead, which also has tapes. A much less expensive way to start out as well.