LAN 500 Introduction to Colloquial Tibetan (Spring 2021)

This class is a continuation of Introduction to Colloquial Tibetan (LAN500) and is oriented toward continuing students who have had training in the Tibetan alphabet, spelling, and beginning dialogs (see prerequisites below). The emphasis of the classes will be on developing further fluency with spoken Tibetan both in listening and in speaking. Students will focus on training in successively more complex Tibetan colloquial dialogs. The class will cover the material in chapters 4 through 7 of The Heart of Tibetan Language (HOTL) by Franziska Oertle. There will be homework assigned weekly.

Required Text: 
The Heart of Tibetan Language, Franziska Oertle and its associated exercise book

Prerequisites: 
At least three sessions of colloquial Tibetan at Nitartha Institute (LAN500) or equivalent (see details below).

Students should know:

  1. The equivalent of the first three chapters (77 pages) of HOTL 
  2. How to pronounce in the Central Tibetan dialect all the letters and vowels in the Tibetan alphabet
  3. How to identify the main letter of a Tibetan word
  4. What prefixes, superfixes, subfixes, suffixes, and second suffixes are, and how they affect pronunciation
  5. How to verbally spell a Tibetan word
  6. What the essential and existential verbs are and how they are used (yin, min, red, ma red, yod, med, ‘dug, mi ‘dug, yod red, yod ma red)
  7. Demonstrative pronouns (‘di, de, pha gi, etc.)
  8. Personal pronouns (khong, khyed rang, etc.)
  9. Basic volitional and non-volitional verbs
  10. Verb tenses (past, present, and future) and auxiliary verbs
  11. Some basics of locative, genitive, and instrumental cases
  12. How to read basic Tibetan sentences aloud (but not necessarily understand their entire meaning) 

LAN 501 Continuing Colloquial Tibetan (Fall 2020)

This class is oriented toward students who have had some training in the Tibetan alphabet, spelling, and beginning dialogs (see prerequisites below). The emphasis of the classes will be on developing fluency with spoken Tibetan. Students will focus on training in successively more complex Tibetan colloquial dialogs. The class will cover the material in the first six chapters of The Heart of Tibetan Language by Franziska Oertle. There will be homework assigned weekly.

Required Text: The Heart of Tibetan Language, Franziska Oertle

Prerequisites: At least two 2020 Summer Institute sessions of LAN 500 or equivalent (see details below).

Students should know:

  1. How to pronounce in the Central Tibetan dialect all the letters in the Tibetan alphabet
  2. How to identify the main letter of a Tibetan word
  3. What prefixes, superfixes, subfixes, suffixes, and second suffixes are and how they affect pronunciation
  4. How to verbally spell a Tibetan word
  5. What the essential and existential verbs are and how they are used (yin, min, red, ma red, yod, med, ‘dug, mi ‘dug, yod red, yod ma red)
  6. Demonstrative pronouns (‘di, de, pha gi, etc.)
  7. Personal pronouns (khong, khyed rang, etc.)

LAN 510 Continuing Intermediate Tibetan (Spring 2021)

(formerly LAN 512)

We will continue reading Gyelsé Tokmé Zangbo´s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva རྒྱས་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་བདུན་མ། along with selections from two Tibetan commentaries on his famous text. This is a reading course that assumes a basic understanding of Tibetan grammar.  We will focus on: acquiring and developing reading skills; working with commentaries as a means to unpacking the meaning embedded in a text; and improving reading skills, including pronunciation and fluency. We will also practice the traditional method of spelling in Tibetan, called “jor lo” (sbyor klog), which is a useful tool when consulting with Tibetan scholars and teachers, and there will be regular instruction on grammar.

Prerequisites: This is a continuation of LAN510 and LAN511. If you have not taken the prior courses, please contact the faculty at mseibold@nitarthainstitute.org


LAN 510 Continuing Intermediate Literary Tibetan (Fall 2020)

(formerly LAN 511)

This is a continuation of LAN510. We will continue reading Gyelsé Tokmé Zangbo’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva རྒྱས་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་བདུན་མ། along with selections from two Tibetan commentaries on his famous text. This is a reading course that assumes a basic understanding of Tibetan grammar.  We will focus on: acquiring and developing reading skills; working with commentaries as a means to unpacking the meaning embedded in a text; and improving reading skills, including pronunciation and fluency. We will also practice the traditional method of spelling in Tibetan, called “jor lo” (sbyor klog), which is a useful tool when consulting with Tibetan scholars and teachers, and there will be regular instruction on grammar. 

Prerequisites: Having attended at least one 2020 Summer Institute session of LAN 510 or equivalent in real time (see details below).

This course is open to students who attended at least one session of LAN510 during the 2020 Nitartha Summer Institute in real time. Those who did not take at least one Summer Institute session or did not participate in real time, please contact our registrar (eweiss@nitarthainstitute.org) before registering. Real time participation is expected unless other arrangements have been made in advance.