Customer Reviews

Fluent Tibetan: The Vocabulary and Dialogues--CDR: A Proficiency-Oriented Learning System Novice and iNtermediate Levels

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've hesitated a long time between Hopkins' "Fluent Tibetan" with tapes and Tournadre's "Manual of Standard Tibetan." 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.

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.

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.

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.

Life in the fast lane this is not. This is actually the first of a three-volume series, and there is a great deal of repetition, with new vocabulary being introduced only very gradually. The emphasis here is on mastering the most important and fundamental sentence patterns and although the drilling may seem like overkill, it is effective. Still, one could certainly complete the course without feeling like they were able to converse much- more (and more varied) vocabulary would certainly be an enhancement. This may seem like a petty criticism, but there aren't a lot of sources out there for learning to speak Tibetan (actually there is probably more material available for learning literary and Buddhist Tibetan). 'Manual of Standard Tibetan' certainly would also be good for a beginning learner to have.

I found some comments rather unfair, it all depends on how deep you want to go for Tibetan. Tibetan sounds are difficult, subtle change (glottal stop, high pitch or low pitch, etc) sometimes can make a big difference.

I finished the Manual of Standard Tibetan (another excellent textbook) with a professor at the University of Tibet in Lhasa before taking this book, and I found some of my pronunciations wrong, though very subtle.

This book, though a bit repetitive, is a godsend and I found the section "Unit Three: Pronunciation Changes" extremely useful. Most of the time it would be difficult to correct your pronunciation even with a teacher sitting next to you, because of the stress and pressure. A teacher may also tolerate some pronunciation mistakes because you are foreigners. It's not the fault of a teacher though.

Yes, this book may be a bit of a "parrot fashion", but if you want to speak like a native Tibetan (at least those in Lhasa), you will like this book. Try to overcome the boredom of the first few chapters, and I'm sure your Tibetan friends would be amazed how "native" you suddenly become.

It took me around 3 days to finish it and I am glad I did it!

(I'm using the cassette version, but a CD version sounds like a good idea. And I think an interactive computer version may even be better.)

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.