Manual of Standard Tibetan (Paperback)

by Nicolas Tournadre (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"...a delight to read...brings the field to a new level, particularly in the area of spoken Tibetan." -- Phil Stanley, Naropa University

"...excellent...one of those rare language textbooks that is a pleasure to read." -- Matthew Kapstein, The University of Chicago

"...the best resource available for teaching modern spoken Tibetan bar none." -- David Germano, The University of Virginia

A first-rate intensive course ... Tournadre and Dorje take a user-friendly approach. -- Tricycle Magazine

Product Description
The Manual of Standard Tibetan presents the everyday speech of Lhasa, as it is currently used in Tibet as well as amongst the Tibetan diaspora. It not only places the language in its natural context, but also highlights along the way key aspects of Tibetan civilization and Vajrayana Buddhism.

The Manual, which consists of forty-one lessons, is illustrated with many drawings and photographs, and also includes two informative political and linguistic maps of Tibet. Two CDs provide an essential oral complement to the Manual. A detailed introduction presents a linguistic overview of spoken and written Tibetan.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 563 pages
• Publisher: Snow Lion Publications (December 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559391898
• ISBN-13: 978-1559391894
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #130,542 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #23 in	Books > Reference > Words & Language > Translating
  #24 in	Books > History > Asia > Tibet

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of its kind, but not for the faint of heart, May 25, 2005

By	Chris Hakim - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Since I've hesitated a long time between Hopkins' "Fluent Tibetan" with tapes and Tournadre's "Manual of Standard Tibetan," I thought it would be helpful to write a comparative review. I ended up getting both, and I find they complement each other quite well.

Tournadre's Manual is amazingly comprehensive, quite sufficient, it seems, to keep a student busy trough four semester courses or so. This text is useful to lay a strong foundation to build on later on. Prior to the forty-one Lessons, over forty pages present the reader with a thorough introduction to the alphabet, pronunciation and a clever system of transcription of the author's devising. The latter is helpful in precisely describing the pronunciation of the words introduced at each lesson. I counted about 2000 words in the glossaries at the end, which makes quite a rich vocabulary.

The book is also replete with cultural notes, maps and descriptions of the different Tibetan dialects. Another nice touch is the amount of supplementary material, including videos of the dialogues, exercise answer keys and supplementary exercises, all available on the web at the University of Virginia's Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library website.

On the down side, I found the lessons very hard going. One sometimes gets lost in detail, which is not always essential at the beginnning. This is probably the typical experience of a self-learner like me, while in a classroom situation the teacher would know when to instruct students to skip over the extra details. It is quite apparent that each lesson needs to be expanded and developed in a classroom situation, with perhaps ten times as many exercises, drills and dialogues as are provided in the book, in order to bring out all that it has to offer. I therefore decided that this book was hard to use as a primary text by a pure self-learner, but is probably the best of its kind for classroom instruction. I use it as a reference and will probably go back to it more methodically when I am done with the "Fluent Tibetan" set.

"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.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and To The Point, July 3, 2004

By A Customer

As a novice trying to learn Tibetan, I have purchased a few books on the subject, and I'm currently enrolled in a Tibetan class. I avoided this book at first because of the high price, but, "you get what you pay for" rang true in this situation. The charts are especially valuable, the explanations are clear, and the dialogues are useful. It also has a healthy content relevant to Tibetan Buddhism and culture. This edition also contains 2 CDs containing all the dialogue, absolutely neccessary in order to capture the correct pronounciation of the Lhasha dialect. An appendix in the back contains a useful bridge between Standard and Classical Tibetan. Simply put, I am extremely pleased with this book and totally "geeked out" by its content!!! It's a beautiful thing, so get it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense detail, linguists will love. Little much for a beginner and the phonetic spelling seems a little weird., May 26, 2009

By	L. Wahler (India via America and Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Love it. CDs are great. slow speed conversations then the same ones at normal speed. Lots of context and description and comparisons to other languages - as a beginning Tibetan student and long time Dharma practitioner, I highly recommend!