How to Learn Tibetan

"Soft" K: the first letter in the Tibetan alphabet.

Let's face it: learning languages is extremely difficult. It will take time--lots of it. It will take memorization--lots of it. And, most importantly, it will take loads and loads of practice, preferably in an immersion environment. That being said, it can be done, and done well, by following a few simple steps as basic guidelines. Let's take a look.

Things You'll Need

• A Tibetan-English dictionary
• An English-Tibetan dictionary

Instructions

How to Learn Tibetan

1. Learn the alphabet. Many people skip this part, or try to learn it later, concentrating solely on speaking, but this is a mistake. Knowing the alphabet well and in order will make it far easier to learn the language, as you will suddenly have a world of written material at your disposal. What's more, you'll be able to use a Tibetan-English dictionary--an absolutely necessary skill.

2. Commit to learning a specific number of new words each day--nouns, adjectives and verbs. This number depends on the amount of free time available to you. If you are serious about learning Tibetan, however, I'd suggest setting this number at no less than five, preferably 10 to 20. Carry out steps 3 through 7 simultaneously with this step.

3. Learn personal pronouns. In Tibetan, there are several levels of personal pronoun based on levels of respect and familiarity. Select a good Tibetan grammar book to assist you.

4. Learn syntax, or sentence structure, including sentence structure for interrogatives. Perhaps the greatest difference between Tibetan and English syntax is the placement of verbs; Tibetan puts them at the end of the sentence while English typically places them in the middle. Tibetan also places adjectives after the noun they describe. For example, "I am reading two books" becomes "I books two am reading." Select a good Tibetan grammar to assist you with this.

5. Learn verb conjugations for all pronouns in all tenses. Get these down perfectly, to the point where you don't even have to think about it. If you can truly master conjugations, you've learned half the language. Select a good Tibetan grammar to assist you with this.

6. Learn postpositions and numbers (both ordinal and cardinal). Go through a good Tibetan grammar book cover-to-cover, preferably one organized into lessons with practice exercises (and answers!) to go along with each concept. This will be laborious. But it will also be worth it.

7. Speak and read as much as possible in Tibetan. If you have a Tibetan-speaking friend, arrange for consistent (at least weekly) meetings during which you read and converse together somewhat informally. Travel to Tibet or northern India and practice with taxi drivers, vendors and hotel staff. Read the newspaper in Tibetan each morning (online). Most of all, have fun! A whole new world is about to unfold before you.

Tips & Warnings

• Reading, and especially spelling, in Tibetan is particularly difficult, as there are numerous silent and appended letters. At this early juncture, a tutor is highly recommended, though not absolutely necessary.

• Harvest words (see Step 2) from a source that has meaning to you, so that your expanding vocabulary reflects your own interests.

• Once you've decided how many words you will learn each day, stick to it religiously! There is absolutely no substitute for a great vocabulary.

• Hiring a personal tutor to assist you, even for just one hour per week, will greatly enhance your abilities; not only will you be able to save questions throughout the week for your tutor, but you'll improve your own pronunciation skills by conversing with your tutor.

• Practice cannot be emphasized enough. Practice, practice, practice.

• Don't move from Step 1 to Step 2 until you've really learned to read and pronounce letters and words.

Resources

• The Tibet Times, all in Tibetan
• Tibetan audio files from Wordbridge.com; a good source for pronunciation practice