Tibetan Language at UVA in the Summer

The University of Virginia would like to announce its Summer Foreign Language Institute for the intensive study of Tibetan.

Running from June 9 to August 8, 2008, three instructors will teach the course. The main instructor is usally a native English speaker learned in modern and classical Tibetan. For this reason language learning is more rapid and covers much more content than other summer Tibetan courses (twelve credits rather than eight).

In addition, the course is part of a four-year curriculum designed for self-study after the first year and available in large part through the web (see below), such that ongoing students will be able to sustain their studies on an independent base after the summer wherever they may be.

Content

The focus will be on teaching modern spoken and written Tibetan with a focus on Lhasa/standard, but will include a final bridge unit introducing students to the study of classical Tibetan that systematically presents the relationship of classical to modern Tibetan. Upon completion, students will be prepared to continue study of modern Tibetan at the intermediate level, as well as to continue study of classical Tibetan. The course will draw upon Tournadre and Dorje's Manual of Standard Tibetan, oriented towards producing hearing and speaking proficiency. In addition, we will incorporate new multimedia materials developed in Lhasa by professional actors and inspired amateurs introducing students to natural speech by contemporary Tibetans. The course will also teach composition extensively and enable students to read and write both block print and cursive scripts. Extensive materials will be provided on-line so that following completion of the courses, students will be able to directly continue their study of both modern and classical forms of the language on an independent basis.

Application

Application materials, costs and all necessary information is available from The Summer Language Institute at U.Va.. Please note that there is a no-credit option for $2,616.00 Applications accepted beginning January 7, 2008. Qualified applicants will be admitted as space allows.

Websites

The course has a specialized website which will provide direct access to materials for the course, and more advanced units ( website ).

Questions

Questions are also welcome – please contact David Germano at .