Fluent Tibetan - Books & Tapes
| By William A. Magee, Elizabeth Napper and Jeffrey Hopkins (General Editor) | Places to Purchase: |
| Published by Snow Lion Publications | |
| 1993 - 1010 pages (4 Volumes) | |
| ISBN : 1-55939-021-2 |
Summary
One of the more extensive study packages available. The material is presented in a drill format, in which repetition of the same vocabulary ensures the student will learn the words. However, the drawback is that the repetition can also be a bit tedious.
Review
This set of four books (1010 pages) and 18 cassettes (26 hours) covers novice and intermediate levels of modern spoken Tibetan. With 752 drills and over 7000 practice sentences this is, without doubt, one of the most extensive study packages available for modern spoken Tibetan.
The package is split into 15 units. The first three units cover the alphabet and its combination into syllables and words. Each unit has many drills to help the student to master basic pronunciation. Beginning with Unit Four, each unit starts with a dialogue followed by a translation and a list of new vocabulary. Extensive drills are then presented to repeat the vocabulary and grammatical patterns in a different context. The aim of these drills is to get the student to use the language in a constructive way, rather than just mimic the phrases. The form of each drill is usually the same. First you hear a question or a declarative sentence. Then an element is presented which you use to answer the question or modify the sentence. Here is an example taken from drill number 6.51. The base sentence is "Where will he go?" and the element is "Hospital". You should then say in Tibetan, "He will go to the hospital", before it is presented on the tape. In this drill you are given 8 such "where" questions and each time you must identify the pronoun (since it controls what final verb is used in the reply) in the base sentence, and the noun you are to use in your reply. These drills work very well; they force you to think in Tibetan and by doing so, you learn much more than simply by repeating what is said on the tape.
This study package has one main drawback: the lessons are on tape rather than CD and this requires rewinding. The drills repeat the vocabulary in different settings. I find that similar material is being repeated too often. An example of this are drills 10.37 and 10.38 which contain the same questions and reply elements. The only difference is the latter requires a shorter form of reply than the other one. The whole package contains about 550 Tibetan words, and I think less repetition and more vocabulary would have made some exercises less boring. Having said this, I must state that repetition, as boring as it can be, is the best way to learn, and by repeating you will become fluent.
Overall this is a good product which any serious beginner student should consider getting. This is especially true if you do not have a teacher. This package is what comes closest to having one. When I first got this package I had only one book and no teacher, and I was not progressing very much. Once I got the Fluent Tibetan package, I began to progress quickly.