Sarnath International Nyingma Institute

This Online Tibetan Reading course is specially designed for those who wish to learn reading Tibetan དབུ་ཅན། (Wylie: dbu can) [U-chen] script and Wylie transliteration. The participants will be provided with visually engaging webinars, complemented with key-point videos explaining the subtleties of pronunciation of the Tibetan alphabet. The course also includes written instructions, reading exercise sheets, tests and exercises.

This course can be started at any time of the year; the pace of the study can be chosen by the participants on their own.

The Online Tibetan Reading Self-Study course is divided into five units which gradually guide one to achieving reading fluency. Unit One focuses on learning the correct pronunciation of the thirty letters of the Tibetan alphabet and memorizing them. Units Two to Four explain the reading rules, the suffixes, prefixes, and the stacked letters. Finally, Unit Five is dedicated to the exceptions and the Wylie transliteration system.

The title of the course is slightly misleading—it is not quite possible to become fluent in reading and pronouncing the Tibetan words completely on your own. Thus, this course includes eight hours of one-on-one online sessions with a native speaking Tibetan tutor who will help you to put your acquired knowledge into practice.

You will be expected to come prepared to the tutor sessions by having watched the webinars, key-point videos, done exercises and self-study (the study steps are explained in step-by-step instructions).

Here is what the course offers at glance:

• Engaging webinars vividly explaining the subtleties of pronunciation and the Tibetan phonetical system;
• Animated videos explaining the key-points of the webinars and and answering common questions;
• Eight hours of one-on-one reading practice classes with a native Tibetan tutor;
• Exercises and Quizzes for self-assessment;
• Step-by-step instructions;
• Written explanations of reading exceptions.

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to read any text written in the U-chen script or Wylie standard transliteration, without understating it. 

IT Requirements:

1. PC or Mac;
2. Whatsapp on PC or Mac;
3. PDF files viewer;
4. Email on Gmail.

The course can be started at any time. Upon purchasing access, the participant will be contacted via Email within three working days and be provided with instructions on how to access the course on the Moodle Platform.

Important notice. Once the students start the course, it is advised to complete all of its units within two to five weeks, without longer breaks. The reading rules of the Tibetan alphabet build one on the other, thus it is hard to master reading if one makes long breaks between the units. Thus, we highly recommend the participants to plan their time accordingly, allocating five to twelve hours of study per week.