The Heart of Tibetan Language Volume 3
Welcome to Volume 3 of The Heart of Tibetan Language! As with the first two volumes, this innovative textbook doesn't require you to have deep knowledge of English grammar to study བོད་སྐད།. Instead, you will study the language by further deepening your understanding of the way Tibetans think and express themselves.
Relying on our studies of Volumes 1& 2, this volume is a unique blend of colloquial language and Dharma vocabulary. Studying this textbook will certainly bring you much closer to your dream of understanding Dharma talks in བོད་སྐད།. In addition to advanced colloquial grammar structures, this book offers you a variety of Dharma related features. In each lesson, you’ll enjoy a dialogue and vocabulary about Buddhist topics, such as ཆོས་འཁོར་རིམ་པ་གསུམ།, ནང་པའི་ལམ་གྱི་རྩ་བ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས།, ནང་པའི་ལྟ་བ། and ཚད་མེད་བཞི།; a popular prayer, a well known quote, a short biography of a past Buddhist master, such as ཙོང་ཁ་པ།, གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། and ཀློང་ཆེན་པ།; a Tibetan song dedicated to Tibetan བླ་མ་རྣམ་པ་ཚོ། as well as a spotlight on a contemporary important female Buddhist teacher; including རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་བསྟན་འཛིན་དཔལ་མོ་ལགས།, H.E. འཆི་མེད་ཀླུ་ལྡིང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།, དགེ་བཤེས་མ་སྐལ་བཟང་དབང་མོ་ལགས། and Venerable Robina Courtin. In order to inspire your study of literary Tibetan, verses from the ལེགས་བཤད་ལྗོན་དབང་། are also included. Each of these features is associated with one of the non-human students who represent the diversity of interests, learning styles and personalities of Tibetan language students.
Franziska Oertle’s novel approach introduces you to indigenous notions, logic, and categorisations used by Tibetans, combining them with a student-centred learning methodology. This highly effective method helps learners gain a deep understanding of the Tibetan mindset. As you learn how to communicate in colloquial Tibetan blended with Dharma terminology, The Heart of Tibetan Language may even change how you view yourself and the world.
Exercise book:
Practice is the mother of all learning, especially when it comes to studying a foreign language. This accompanying exercise book, as well as the website with all the audio files, dialogues with footnotes and solutions to the exercises, are therefore indispensable additions to the textbook The Heart of the Tibetan Language.
Featuring a wide variety of exercises for each lesson in the textbook, the exercise book provides optimal methods and opportunities for practicing the three language skills: listening, speaking and reading. The exercises are skillfully designed to be engaging and enjoyable.
Each lesson has two sections, the first one focusing on Dharma terminology blended with colloquial language, and the second one supporting your learning of the colloquial grammar presented in each lesson. Based on a rich variety of listening comprehension, speaking prompts, word ‘salads’, fill-in-the-gap exercises, matching, tic-tac-toe, memory games, and other playful exercises, you’ll put your newly acquired Dharma vocabulary and grammar knowledge into practice right away. In addition to the topics in each lesson, the exercises intentionally use a lot of intermediate grammar structures and vocabulary to reinforce them. Each lesson also includes two exercises using beautiful གཞས་ཚིག, song lyrics.
Beyond being motivating and humorous through the pictures of the non-human students, the colorful page layout represents the colors of Tibetan prayer flags. In this way, we can keep our awareness alive about how རླུང་རྟ་མཐོ་པོ།—or how fortunate—we are to have the precious opportunity to study the Tibetan language.
About the author:
Born in multilingual Switzerland, Franziska Oertle was always fascinated by foreign languages, cultures and religious traditions. Upon her first encounter with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 2005, she dreamt of understanding his teachings in Tibetan. She left her teaching job to study in Kathmandu, Nepal. Franziska began teaching colloquial Tibetan while studying Buddhist Philosophy and Himalayan Languages at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. While co-teaching with her native speaker colleague རྒན་མི་འགྱུར་ལགས།, she was deeply inspired by his passion for indigenous Tibetan grammar and the traditional way of explaining the language. She therefore went on to write her MA thesis on Tibetan grammar and decided to publish a 4-volume language textbook using that insider approach.
For the past sixteen years, she has been teaching and developing Tibetan language curricula and programs at institutions throughout Nepal and India, as well as the University of Virginia. She is currently designing and teaching Tibetan language courses online at SINI, the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute.