Colloquial Tibetan : The Complete Course for Beginners

Colloquial Tibetan provides a step-by-step course in Central Tibetan as it is spoken by native speakers. Combining a thorough treatment of the language as it is used in everyday situations with an accurate written representation of this spoken form, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Tibetan in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Key features include:

• progressive coverage of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
• phonetic transliteration of the Tibetan script throughout the course to aid pronunciation and understanding of the writing system
• structured, jargon-free explanations of grammar
• an extensive range of focused and stimulating exercises
• realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of scenarios
• useful vocabulary lists throughout the text
• additional resources available at the back of the book, including a full answer key, a grammar section, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues.

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Tibetan will be an indispensable resource both for independent learners and for students taking courses in Tibetan.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages and at the Intermediate-High on the ACTFL proficiency scales.

Jonathan Samuels (also known by the name Sherab Gyatso) spent 20 years as a monk, living in Tibetan communities in Asia. He is one of a handful of foreigners to have been awarded the title Geshe, having completed a full course of traditional academic studies in Tibetan monastic institutions. He has many years experience teaching Tibetan, and has both designed and taught training courses for translators and interpreters. Jonathan Samuels holds a Masters degree from the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, and is currently completing his PhD with the same institution. He currently holds the position of Research Fellow (Buddhist Studies) at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" at Heidelberg University.