I attended a Tibetan language course and my teachers were very “official’ in the sense that they thought the official Lhasa Tibetan. It was the Tibetan which is used in official scripts and documents.
It is a great language to learn and it helped me to decipher some of the strange looking characters in Tibetan pechas or sadhanas (those texts that consists of strips of paper that Tibetan monks used in their daily practice and chants). However, I discovered that the words I learnt were never heard when I eavesdropped into their daily conversations.
I soon discovered the reasons for this. First, the Tibetans speak many dialects and it is impossible for the novice to understand anything since words are pronounced differently.
Second, the colloquial Tibetan is often corrupted with the local language. For example in China, Chinese words have crept in. Similarly in India, Hindi words are commonly used. Words like badam, aloo, deema karab are so much a part of the spoken Tibatan that to understand anything, one will need to know some Hindi as well!
In despair I sought the help of my teacher’s wife and charming colleague. I was warned that what I am about to learn cannot be found in the books. I was going to learn corrupted speak. In golf lingo, I was going to slice and hook instead of learning to hit the ball straight.
Know what? Learning to slice was much easier. In a few short lessons, enlightenment dawned. I finally could get little snippets of stolen conversation (not that I understand them)
In conclusion, it is easier to learn to hear how people talk even though it is “unorthodox” language. Like golf, the slice may not be correct golf but it gets the ball going. In fact, it may be more natural. And learning becomes even more fun.
Golf And Learning A New Language
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