15 Dec 2011
9 min 8 sec
Video Overview
Creators:
Unknown
An American Tibetan Studies graduate student is interviewed by a Tibetan English language professor.
- Lhasa
- Charlottesville
- Amdo
- Kham
- སུའུ་ཟའན།བྱས་ཙང་། དེ་གཉིས་ང་ཁག་ཤོས་རེད་ཤགSo those are the two difficult things for me.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནཞོགས་པ་བདེ་ལེགས།Hi good morning.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནཞོགས་པ་བདེ་ལེགས།Hi.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནཁྱེད་རང་བོད་ཡིག་སྦྱང་ཡག་ལ་དབྱིངས་ག་འདྲ་བྱས་ནས་ཚུད་སོང་དེའི་སྐོར་ལ་དྲི་བ་ཁག་ཅིག་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་ཡོད།I just have some few questions to hear about your interest in learning Tibetan.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ལེ་སེ།Ok
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནདྲི་བ་དང་པོ་དེ་ཁྱེད་རང་ག་རེས་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་དང་རིག་གཞུང་ལ་དབྱིངས་ཚུད་སོང་།So my first question is; what made you interest in learning Tibetan language and culture?
- སུའུ་ཟའན།འོང་ ང་དང་པོ་དངོས་གཞིའི་སློབ་ཕྲུག་སྐབས་ལ་བོད་པའི་སྐད་ཡིག་དང་རིག་གཞུང་ལ་དབྱིངས་སླེབས་སོང་།Well, I first became interested in learning about Tibetan language and culture as an undergradute.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།འོང་ ང་དངོས་གཞིའི་སློབ་མ་བྱེད་དུས་འགྲོ་བ་མི་རིགས་རིག་པ་དང་ཨེ་སི་ཡའི་སྐོར་ལ་སློབ་སྤྱོང་བྱས་པ་ཡིན།Um, when I was an undergraduate student, I studied anthropology and Asian studies.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ངས་མིའི་རིགས་ཀྱི་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྐོར་གྱི་སློབ་དེབ་མང་པོ་བལྟས་པ་ཡིན།And I did a lot of readings of ethnographies about those subjects.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།དེས་ང་རིག་གཞུང་དེ་ལ་སློབ་གཉེར་བྱེད་ཡག་གི་བསམ་བློ་སྐྱེད་སོང་། དེའི་སྐོར་ལ་ཤེས་རྟོགས་བྱེད་ཤུགས་ཆེ་རུ་ཕྱིན་སོང་།And it sort of sparked my interest, uh, in the subject and made me want to learn more.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།བྱས་ཙང་ངས་འས་ཇི་ཉི་ཡག་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོའི་བོད་རིག་པའི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་སློབ་མར་ཞུ་ཡག་གི་སྙན་ཞུ་ཕུལ་བ་ཡིན།So, uh, I applied to graduate school at the University of Virginia, uh in Tibetan Studies.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ང་སློབ་གྲྭ་འདིར་ལོ་གཉིས་རིང་བོད་སྐད་ཡིག་དང་རིག་གཞུང་ལོ་རྒྱུས་བཅས་སྦྱང་རྗེས་བོད་ལྗོངས་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོར་ལོ་གཅིག་སློབ་སྤྱོང་བྱེད་པར་ཕྱིན་པ་ཡིན།And uh I came here, and, uh, after two years of studying language, culture and history, uh, I went to Tibet University for a year.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནཨ་ལེ། ངས་ཧ་གོ་སོང་། བྱས་ན་ཁྱེད་རང་ལོ་གཉིས་་་ ཁྱེད་རང་བོད་ལ་ལོ་ག་ཚོད་བསྡད་པOh I see. So you stayed there for two...uh for how long did you stay in Tibet?
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ཟླ་བ་དགུ།For about nine months.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནབྱས་ན་ཁྱེད་རང་མྱོང་ཚོར་ག་རེ་བྱུང་།So what's your experience there like?
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ཡག་པོ་ཞེ་དྲགས་བྱུང་སོང་།Uh, It was very positive.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།བོད་ལྗོངས་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོའི་རྒན་ལགས་ཚོ་དཔེ་ཡག་པོ་འདུག་། འོང་།Um the teachers at Tibet University are wonderful.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ཁོ་ཚོ་དགེ་རྒན་མཁས་པ་རེད་ཤག འོང་ དཔེ་ཡིན་མདོག་ཁ་པོ་འདུག འོང་ རྒན་ལགས་ཚོས་ང་ཚོར་སློབ་ཁྲིད་གནང་ཡག་གི་མོས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་འདུག་་་་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོས་ག་རེ་སྦྱང་འདོད་ཡོད་ནའི་རོགས་རམ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་འདུགUh, very skilled as teachers, um very personable, um very willing to help...uh, the students learn in whatever way they need to learn.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།བྱས་ཙང་ཧ་ཅང་་་་་འཛིང་གྲྭ་ནང་༼སློབ་ཁྲིད་༽ཉམས་མྱོང་ཡག་པོ་འདུགSo that was very...it was a good experience in the classroom.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནཨ་ལས་། ད་ངས་ཧ་གོ་སོང་། བྱས་ན་ཁྱེད་རང་བོད་ལྗོངས་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོ་ལ་བོད་ཡིག་ཟླ་བ་དགུ་ཙམ་སྦྱང་འདུག་ག བོད་སྐད་སྦྱང་ཡག་ལ་ཁག་ཤོས་ག་རེ་རེད་འདུག ང་ཤེས་འདོད་འདུགOh I see. So then you stayed there to study Tibetan language for 9 months which part of the Tibetan language is most difficult for you I'm wondering?
- སུའུ་ཟའན།འོང་ ངས་བསམ་ན་དཀའ་ལས་ཁག་ཤོས་དེ་་་ འོང་། གཉིས་འདུག ཉན་ཡག་དེ་མིས་སྐད་ཆ་མགྱོགས་པོ་བཤད་དུས་ཚིག་རེ་རེ་གོ་ཡག་ཧ་ཅང་ཁག་པོ་འདུགMhm. I think the most difficult part for me is...well two things; listening comprehension, when people are speaking very quickly, it's very difficult for me to, uh, get the entire like each and every word they're saying
- སུའུ་ཟའན།འོང དེ་ནས་ལེགས་བཤད་དང་ཕལ་སྐད། གཏམ་དཔེ་བེད་སྤྱོད་གཏང་ཡག་ཧ་ཅང་ཁག་པོ་འདུག རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་དེ་ཚོའི་ནང་དོན་ཐད་སྒྱུར་བྱེད་ཀྱི་མིན་འདུགUm and the second thing is uh the use of idiomatic phrases is very difficult because they don't translate directly.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།བྱས་ཙང་ངས་མིང་ཚིག་ཧ་གོ་ཡང་ནང་དོན་གོ་ཚོད་ཀྱི་མིན་འདུག གང་རས་ཟེར་ན་ནང་དོན་འབྲེལ་ཆགས་པོ་མི་འདུགAnd so sometimes I will understand the words of a sentence but I won't understand the meaning because they don't match up entirely.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནད་ངས་ཧ་གོ་སོང་ བྱས་ན་ག་རེ་་་་ག་རེ། ཁྱེད་རང་གི་རྒན་ལགས་ཚོ་ལ་བསམ་འཆར་ག་རེ་ཡོད། དཀའ་ངལ་གཉིས་པོ་སེལ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ཐབས་ཤེས་ག་རེ་ཡོདI see. Then what would...what would be your suggestions to lang...the Tibetan language teachers to help you to solve the problems you've just encountered, you just mentioned?
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ཡའ་ངས་བྱས་ན་ཐབས་ཤེས་ཨང་་་་མ་གཞི་དཀའ་ལས་གཅིག་ཉན་ཡག་དེ་རེད། བྱས་ནའི་ངས་བལྟས་ན་དཀའ་ངལ་སེལ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ཐབས་ཤེས་ནི་དགེ་རྒན་དང་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཕན་ཚུན་སྐད་ཆ་བཤད་རེས་བྱེད་དགོས་ཀྱི་འདུག།Yeah, um... I think one thing would be to uh...although I said that the problem was listening comprehension I think that a way to rectify that would actually be to incorperate more uh back and forth dialog between the teachers and students if that's possible.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།འོང་། ཐབས་ཤེས་དེ་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོས་ཤེས་ཡོད་མེད་བལྟ་ཡག་ཡག་ཤོས་རེད་། སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོས་ཉན་ཤེས་ཐུབ་མིན་གྱི་ཐབས་ཤེས་ཅིག་ཡིན།Because its a way of uh quickly checking the comprehension, the listening comprehension of the students.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།འོང་། གལ་སྲིད་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་འཛིན་གྲའི་སློབ་ཁྲིད་ནང་ཞུགས་ཡག་ཐབས་ཤེས་ཅིག་ཡོད་ན་ཕན་ཐོགས་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོ་རེད།Um so if there is a way to involve more of a student participation in the classroom, I think that would help.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།འོང་། ལེགས་བཤད་དང་གཏམ་དཔེ་སྦྱང་ཡག་ལ་རྒན་ལགས་ཚོས་ཧ་ཅང་ཡག་པོ་སློབ་ཀྱི་འདུགUm in terms of, you know, learning the...the idioms of the language I thought the teachers were very...did a very good job of that.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།གང་རས་ཟེར་ན་ གཏམ་དཔེ་གོ་ཁག་པོ་དེ་ཚོའི་ནང་དོན་འགྲེལ་བཤད་ཡག་པོ་རྒྱག་གི་འདུག ད་དུང་གཏམ་དཔེ་དེ་ཚོའི་འབྱུང་ཁུངས་ཡང་འགྲེལ་བཤད་རྒྱག་གི་འདུགYou know they...they picked out the phrases that they thought would be difficult and explained the meaning and how they thought that phrase came into being.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།དཀའ་ངལ་དེ་ཚོ་སློབ་སྦྱོང་གི་ནང་དོན་ཞིག་ཡིན་ དུས་ཚོད་བེད་སྤྱད་ནས་གཏམ་དཔེ་ངག་སྐྱོར་གཏོང་དགོས།And that part its just a matter of uh learning and taking the time to memorize the idioms.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནདེ་ནི་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་པའི་བརྒྱུད་རིམ་ཞིག་རེད།That is process of learning.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།ད་ག་རང་རེད།Exactly.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནབྱས་ཙང་འཛིན་གྲའི་ནང་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཕན་ཚུན་དང་དགེ་སློབ་ཕན་ཚུན་གཏམ་གླེང་བྱེད་དགོས།So you are saying like in a classroom there will be needed for uh interaction between students and teacher and students and students and maybe teacher with students.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།རེད། ཡའ། ངས་བལྟས་ན་ད་འདྲ་རེད་ཤག ངས་བལྟས་ན་ཕིན་འདྲས་སེ་བྱས་ན་ཏོག་ཙམ་ཡག་པོ་ཡོ་རེད། ཡིན་ནའི་དེ་ཁག་པོ་རེད་རྒྱུ་མཚན་་་་གལ་སྲིད་འཛིན་གྲའི་སློབ་ཕྲུག་མང་པོ་ཡོད་ན་སློབ་ཕྲུག་རེ་རེ་ལ་དུས་ཚོད་སྤྲད་ཡག་ཉུང་ཉུང་རེད།Yes, yeah I think so. I think that would...that would make it a little bit better. It's difficult though because there are some...if there...the more students there are in the classroom, the more...the less time you have to devote to each one.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅནད་ག་རང་རེད།Right, yeah.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um, but yeah I think that if that could be increased a little bit it could be benificial to the students.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་I see. And also you mentioned the foundation...the teachers...may be helpful for teachers to have some foundation in English right?
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Yeah, I think that if the...if the teachers...um...had, most of the teachers that I had they had a few words of English but weren't able to express a, you know, whole...like a whole sentence or a whole thought
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And there were times when uh, you know, they had done their best to explain it in Tibetan and nobody in the classroom understood what they were saying.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And so at a time like that it would have been useful if they could have just, you know, gone into English and said the sentence.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And then we could have moved on instead of spending time trying, you know, decipher the meaning.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་So yeah, I think like a very rudimentary, you know knowlege of English would...would help in the classroom where it would speed the lear...learning process a bit.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་So there are people, some people saying like no English is involved in their classroom will be very helpful for their students for learn like English because they will be immersed in the language environment.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་However from your point it seems like still teachers will...it will be helpful for students if they have basic English foundation.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་It can help them to explain better.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Right, right. I mean I think that...at the later stages of learning a language the full immersion technique is the best.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Yes.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um, but I think in the earlier stages of learning the language you just have to be able to communicate in the, you know, in the language of...the native language of the students.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Otherwise you will got...you will be very frustrated by not being understanded what people are talking about.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Yeah it just...it...it just...yeah it takes a lot of time, you know, to figure out just the...something that could be explained very quickly.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Right, time consuming.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Yes.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་In the classroom, yeah...
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་So then uh you being there for 6 months and I would to know what...w...w...what was your most exciting experience in Tibet for example.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་I'm sure you've been to different places and done lots of visitings.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Umhm, yeah. Well I...I was able to do a bit of travelling um to...to places that where in, you know, the Lhasa area.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um but I would have to say that the most exciting part was actually not going to any of those different places but was being able to go down to the Barkor.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um in the winter months when all the people from Lhasa like avoided the Barkor like the plague and um all the pilgrams came in.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And uh were, you know, doing kor ra and um going, you know, on pilgramage to see...to see the Jowo Rinpoche.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་For me that was the most exciting because it was people coming from all over Tibet um that I was able to meet.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་It was like they were coming to me instead of me going to all these different places...in TIbet.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And so I was able to um hear a lot of different dialects as well and to see different types of regional clothing and that sort of thing.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་So for me that...that was the most exciting part. Even though it was a very normal experience, I was able to go down there every day in the winter but it was very exciting for me.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Then you met people from all over the places of Tibet.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Mhm.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་So which part of like Tibet really facinated you? For example you met people from Kham area, people from Nakchu area, or from Shigatse area.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་So what was in your mind now like if I'm asking the people from which area like facinating you the most.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Like including the language or the dialect.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Right. Well I really liked the people from Kham.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Yeah, there you go.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་...um yeah. I mean there is just a straight-forward manner about them that I found very like appealing you know.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And they were always willing to just talk to me and say like "What are you doing here?", you know.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And uh,so I was able to have some good conversations with them.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་So I think that sparked my interest in going to...to travel to Kham.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་I also met a lot of people from Amdo.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་But that was...it was much more difficult for me to communicate with them.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Because the dialect was so different from what I was used to.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Right right.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And uh so there it was too much of a...of a communication gap I think between the two of us.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་I see.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་It did...it did spark my interest I would like to travel to Amdo but I think it would be more difficult for me.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་I see. I think many people are impressed by people from Kham area because they are very tall...
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Yes.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་And very uh different right?
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་And very straight-forward with my experience.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་It was very easy to um start a conversation with them.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Amdo people also have that personality.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Then...
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Maybe it is more similar to American personalities.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Yeah, I guess so yeah.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་So another question is regarding since we are learing...studying Tibetan language and I would like to know what would be your future... future goal...goal.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um well I would like to...in the future I would like to finish my PhD and uh work at a college in the United States.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་I see, ok.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་So I think I just finish up those questions and I w...welcome you to do your further study at TU and you can also introduce the program to some other students.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་And just tell them the teachers are very nice and...
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Yes, well I live...I do that all the time.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um I definately think that if a person is interested in...in really trying to learn the Tibetan language that doing the program at Tibet University is the best way to do it.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Because uh it is an immersion experience.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Right.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Most people in Lhasa don't...like you just meet on the street do not speak English.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Right, right.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་So you can't lapse, you know, and be lazy um.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um, but also the teachers are just really incredible.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Um they are just very passionate about teaching and about helping the students and um they were just great and I mean meeting the teachers was actually one of the best parts of being at Tibet University.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་So I defineately...I advertise Tibet University's program to people who are interested in learning Tibetan language.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Then I hope I will see you on campus someday.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་Yes, me too.
- བྱམས་པ་དབྱངས་ཅན་Ok, thank you.
- སུའུ་ཟའན།་You're welcome, thank you.
Loading ... Collection:
Subcollection
- English Instruction for Tibetans
- Interviews in English
Referenced Places
- Lhasa
- Charlottesville
- Amdo
- Kham
Recording Location
- Charlottesville
Language
- English
Director:
David Germano
Editor:
Eric Woelfel
Contributing Performer:
Changba Yangjin
Contributing Performer:
Susan Bessenger
Contributing Cameraperson:
Eric Woelfel
Contributing Translator:
Eric Woelfel and Changba Yangjin
Contributing Assistant Editor:
Eric Woelfel
Contributing Assistant Researcher:
Eric Woelfel
Data Entry:
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Shanti AV Id:
507
thlib.org
2039
Versions:
Date Created:
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Encoding Scheme:
mpeg-4 visual
File Size:
65024 (KB)
Data Rate:
862 (kbps)
Frame Size:
320x240
Format Id:
Format Id:
1_qwmxsdtf
Format Id Source:
Kaltura.com
Annotation:
LANGUAGE INFO Speech Type: Conversation Situation Method: natural Register: ordinary Difficulty: intermediate MASTER TAPE INFO Tape Label: 0554 English Interviews Master Tape Label: NDRP Master 1 Recorded: 2002-06-23
