Tibetan

Students are offered two years (12 U.Va. credit hours) of Tibetan in an intensive, atmosphere. The program will focus on modern spoken and written Tibetan according to the Central Tibetan dialect using Nicolas Tournadre and Sangdak Dorje's Manual of Standard Tibetan, and oriented towards producing hearing and speaking proficiency. Students will learn both print as well as cursive script, a unique aspect of the program. In addition, it will utilize new multimedia materials being developed by the Tibetan Language Learning Resources from original film shot in Tibet. The last unit of the summer will offer a bridge to classical literary Tibetan on the basis of mastery of modern Tibetan. In addition, the course is part of a four-year curriculum designed for self-study after the first year and available in large part through the Web (see below), such that ongoing students will be able to sustain their studies after the summer wherever they are.

Three instructors will teach the course. The main instructor is usually a native English speaker learned in modern and classical Tibetan.

Virginia undergraduates may fulfill their language requirements with Literary and Spoken Tibetan I and II (RELB 500S and RELB 501S).

Student Comments

• “Overall, it was a wonderful experience in both the intellectual and social sense. I had a great summer.”

The course has a specialized Web page under development which provides direct access to materials for the course, and more advanced units. Visit the specialized Tibetan Web page.