བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། - The Heart of Tibetan Online Colloquial Tibetan Language Course is a student-centered, hybrid of live and recorded classes, and consists of 6 engaging Modules.

Module 0: How to Learn (Online) introduces students to the world of virtual learning and the methodological approach of our Course.
Modules 1-5 introduce students to the fascinating world of Tibetan language and grammar.
This Course is the Lower Beginner Course (Tib. 101) is the first of the two Beginner Courses.
This online Course is based on the first five Lessons of Franziska Oertle’s innovative text: བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan Language
It includes 23 hours of live classes with knowledgeable Western and Tibetan language instructors;
And 23 hours of live conversational classes with native Tibetan language speakers;
After graduating from Tib. 101, the students will have the option to continue with Tib 102, the Upper Beginner Course

LEARNING OUTCOMES

བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan Online Colloquial Tibetan Language Course provides the student with a solid foundation in Colloquial Tibetan, using the Central/Exile dialect. Students gain a deep and profound insight into the Tibetan way of thinking and viewing their language, as this Course introduces the indigenous concepts and categories used by the Tibetans themselves.

Graduates of both Lower and Upper Beginner Courses (Tib 101 & 102) are able to carry out simple conversations about everyday topics including: school, family, free time, food, weather, and shopping. Having learned a variety of tenses, students will be able to converse using the three times: past, present, future and imperative.

Back to Mr. Sloth Pace

Given the richness of activities and resources available in the Course and the feedback of our dedicated students, we have decided to move at a rather slow (sloth-like) pace, taking four weeks per Module (each Module corresponds to one lesson of The Heart of the Tibetan Language Textbook. We recommend that you dedicate at least about 10-12 hours per week to your Tibetan language learning, if possible.

…TO FIT YOUR SCHEDULE…

Time Zones

You can participate in this online Course independently of where you live and what your work or study schedule is, as the majority of the learning activities are asynchronous and self-paced; you can do them at a time that is suitable to you.

Live classes, held on the Zoom platform, will be offered in two different time slots, for your convenience. One morning and one evening time CE(S)T to cover all awake times of the participants. The live classes are on Saturdays - at 9 a.m. & 4 p.m. CE(S)T. The optional White Wednesday talks are of course on Wednesdays. One out of the four live sessions is a Discussion Forum about meta-cognitive reflections, the soft skills. The live classes typically last for about one hour + (optional) 15 minutes for questions.

All live sessions will be recorded and made available in the event that students need to make up a class, or for purposes of review. Those will be on YouTube, privately shared with your Gmail account or their link put directly on the Moodle platform.

*Students who know they will miss a class ahead of time can send in their questions beforehand, and watch the recording afterward.

WHAT IS INCLUDED

SPECIAL FEATURES

Live classes with Tibetan Language instructors: Gen Alexandra Sukhanova, Gen Nat Thammamitr, and/or other assistant teachers, featuring speaking practice, learning games, meta-cognitive reflections, and time for Q&A
5-minute animated key-point videos providing an overview of each Lesson
1-4 Pre-recorded webinars for every lesson, which explain the grammar in a thorough, yet accessible and engaging way
Live Discussion Forum sessions about soft skills
Small group learning environment in weekly SLC meetings
Weekly 1:1 sessions with native Tibetan-speaking conversation partners for enjoyable speaking practice
Digital language lab-like practice
A challenge (final product) at the end of each Module
A large variety of self-paced learning activities and resources

LIVE CLASSES

Live classes are an opportunity for students to ask questions, play learning games with classmates, sing Tibetan songs, practice newly acquired language skills, discuss culture, share observations, and more. There are, on average, four live sessions per Lesson or Module.

KEY-POINT VIDEOS & PRE-RECORDED WEBINARS

Each Module includes:

A 5-minute animated key-point video, which gives an overview and introduction to the new topic
Several innovative and engaging 30-minute webinars detailing key grammar points. These videos will be available for your review throughout the course.

Click on the following link to view a sample key-point video.

And here is a sample of a webinar.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Your learning process will be supported and enhanced by:

A large variety of learning activities, materials, and resources to enhance learning individually and in partnership with classmates
Engaging electronic flash-cards (Anki)
Rubrics
Learning games and songs
A digital language lab-like speaking practice
An ePortfolio
A variety of assessment activities
Dialogue podcasts
White Wednesday Talks about topics around Tibetan culture

MOODLE PLATFORM

We use the Moodle platform to host activities, learning materials, and student resources. During the first four weeks, in Module 0: “Learning How to Learn (Online),” you’ll be introduced to Moodle. You will learn how to navigate, and how to make the most of this useful tool. You can visit our landing page here.

Moodle is accessible from any device, and we offer technical support for users throughout the term of your class.

TEXTBOOK

བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan Online Colloquial Tibetan Language Course is designed around the (first half of the) textbook བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan Language, Vol. 1, which is a unique synthesis of indigenous Tibetan grammar and contemporary learning methodology. The traditional Tibetan style and contemporary style of learning are each represented by a doggie teacher, Gen Sengey la and Gen Christabella, respectively. The textbook includes dialogues with activities, vocabulary, cultural information, a phrasebook, detailed grammar explanations, rubrics, etc. The text is accompanied by a workbook that provides a variety of exercises to practice listening, reading, conversation, and grammar skills.

LIVE INTERACTION

Students discover their own learning styles and design their individual paths of learning with personal guidance from instructors. An enriching and supportive learning environment, with friendly classmates, conversation partners, and additional resources, contribute to the student experience.

1:1 CONVERSATION SESSIONS WITH TIBETAN NATIVE SPEAKERS

Based on many years of teaching Colloquial Tibetan, we’ve found 1:1 practice sessions with native speakers an important, if not an indispensable part of the Tibetan language learning process. So, once a week, students have the opportunity to practice newly acquired language skills with a language partner over WhatsApp, Telegram, or another face-to-face digital platform. The timing will be set by the student and partner, based on mutual agreement. Lesson worksheets will be provided, along with guidance designed to ensure a successful practice session. Our team of Tibetan Conversation Partners in India is a group of kind, patient, and skillful mentors and tutors, who enjoy supporting your language learning as well as giving you a unique glimpse into Tibetan culture.

TEACHERS AND CLASSMATES

On your journey of learning, you’ll be supported and accompanied by our team of main teachers, both Tibetan and non-Tibetan, with their assistant, the language tutors, and your dear classmates. In the live sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to interact with a larger group of classmates from all over the world. You’ll also be part of a smaller learning community of about four students, with whom you’ll work and learn very closely and regularly, at your own pace. At times, you may be conversing in your mother tongue within your learning community.

If you have any pets, we recommend that you include them in your learning process, as they are great listeners and don’t mind smaller, or even larger, grammatical mistakes :-)

Several of our faculty are non-human persons. The two doggies རྒན་སེང་གེ་ལགས། [rgan seng ge lags] = Professor Lion and Gen Christabella, represent the synthesis of a traditional Tibetan and contemporary, student-centered approach to learning.

NON-HUMAN COMPANIONS & HUMOR

In addition to your human classmates, you’ll also have three imaginary non-human classmates, the polyglot Ms. Giraffe, devoted Ms. Ostrich, and extremely relaxed Mr. Sloth. They are the VIPs of the key-point videos, and serve to keep the webinars engaging and interesting with their different learning styles and questions. These non-human companions represent our love for animals. They also illustrate the different learning styles of typical Tibetan language students, and represent the diversity of linguistic, cultural, and religious backgrounds, age-ranges, personalities, and approaches to learning that we are looking forward to accommodating in this course.

Last but not least, we believe that learning should be joyful, and thus cherish humor and smiles. We have a feeling that the three of them will naturally contribute to our inherent joyfulness and delight in learning! They keep the key-point videos and webinars engaging and enjoyable!

METHODOLOGY

Evidence shows that students learn more effectively in a classroom where they are invited to bring themselves fully, develop caring for classmates and instructors, and reflect on their process of learning.

For this reason, བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan is student- and learning-centered, rather than teacher- and teaching-centered. བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan classroom is a joyful and supportive place to learn the Tibetan language!

བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan methodology is based on Dr. Fink’s “6-fold Taxonomy of Significant Learning.” In this model, we encourage and accompany you to reflect on your process of learning, including the higher dimensions (aka ‘soft skills’) of caring, the human dimension, and metacognition. Students share reflections about the process of learning with classmates and teachers in our live class forum and the ePortfolio. The result is that, in addition to learning the Tibetan language, students learn how they learn best.

PREREQUISITES

The prerequisite for this course is that the students know how to read and pronounce the Tibetan script fluently. No speaking skills are required as we’ll begin from the very simple phrases and sentences. (For example, if you have studied Classical Tibetan before, you are fine.) If you do not know how to read in Tibetan yet, you need to sign up for the “Alphabet Pre-Course'' to acquire those skills before the official start of the main Course. During the main Course, Module 1, which is about how to read, will be very brief, just a review.

Students with some prior knowledge of the Tibetan language are welcome here, as there are many layers and subtleties to be discovered.

We encourage and expect our participants to be open, curious, and flexible about online learning, and all that entails. To be successful, the student should enjoy working effectively in groups, being self-responsible, and be willing to learn on a digital platform.

ALPHABET PRE-COURSE

The Alphabet Pre-Course will take 6 weeks, with 2 live classes and 1 practice session with a native Tibetan tutor every week. The course is facilitated by our native speaker colleague Gen Lhakpa Tsering-la.

During the live classes students will learn the Tibetan alphabet and reading rules according to the Central/Exile dialect.

Additionally, to facilitate quick acquisition of reading fluency, all students will be divided into small learning groups. Students in the small groups will be working on reading tasks together. The tasks will include short reading exercises that are to be completed and checked by one’s learning buddy regularly (daily or every two days).

By the end of the course students are expected to be able to read any kind of Tibetan text, including Sanskrit mantras transliterated with Tibetan script.

Date: Saturday January 11th - Friday February 21st. You can sign up for it here.

LOGISTICAL REQUIREMENT FOR EVERYONE

For practical reasons, we require our students to have a Gmail account so that we can share YouTube recordings and use Google Drive on various occasions. The students’ email accounts will be known by and shared with their classmates. So, if the email with which you register yourself on Corsizio is not a Gmail account, please send it to us at: tibetanatsini@gmail.com.

Having a WhatsApp account is also a requirement for the tutor classes and logistics around them. (If for whatever reason, the student does not have/want one of the above, please contact us.)

AUDITING VERSION

There is the possibility to audit this Course if this seems a better fit for your learning style. “Auditing” the Course means that you follow the Course at the same pace, make an active part of an SLC, you’ll have a weekly tutor class with a native speaker and do self-study like a regular student.

Auditing students however do not join the live classes on Saturdays (except for the Live Forum Discussion), do not hand in any of the assignments and therefore do not receive any feedback from the teachers.

If you choose this option, you do receive access to all resources on the Moodle platform, including access to the recordings of the live classes on YouTube.

The price for the auditing version of the Course is of course lower than the regular students. (See below)

It is important to keep in mind though that even as an auditing student, you are expected to keep up with your learning as your འཛིན་གྲོགས་རྣམ་པ་ཚོ། so that your interactions with them in the Small Learning Community (SLC) meetings and beyond are mutually beneficial and enriching.

TUITION POLICY

SINI’S MISSION

SINI is a non-profit service organization with a mission to preserve Tibetan culture and Dharma, to build “Bridges of Goodness” through education, interdisciplinary collaboration, and cultural exchange. It is important to us to make this course accessible to everyone who wishes to study the Tibetan language. We have, therefore, tried our very best to keep the costs as reasonable as possible, and we humbly ask for your assistance and understanding.

SLIDING SCALE TUITION FEE

We offer a sliding scale of price. This price is the minimum one. Given the different currencies and financial realities, it is not easy to have a ‘fair’ rate for everyone. So, we give you the option to choose your own tuition depending on your personal financial situation and limitations. Thank you very much! The minimal cost of tuition for བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan Online Colloquial Tibetan Language Lower Beginner Course (Tib 101) is $ 475.

The minimal price for the Alphabet Pre-Course is $150.

MONASTIC DISCOUNT

We offer a scholarship to support the continuation of the monastic tradition. Please see the course listing especially for monastics to access that discounted tuition rate. The monastic rate is $325.

AUDITING

The rate for auditing students is $300.

PAYMENT IN RATES

If the tuition amount is difficult for you to afford in one go, there is also a possibility to pay the tuition in monthly installments. Please write to us at: tibetanatsini@gmail.com.

BE A SPONSOR ($108)

We are trying very hard to keep the price of the courses affordable and are covering the bare minimum. If you like and can, please consider adding $108 to your course fee to support others for whom this rate might be less affordable than for yourself and support the overall development of our programs.

SCHEDULE

STARTING DATES

Opening Ceremony: Lower Beginner Course (Tib 101) Lower Intermediate Course (Tib 201) and Lower Advanced Course (Tib 301) together: Sunday March 9th, 4 p.m. CET

Starting date: Saturday March 15th 2025

Ending date: Saturday September 13th 2025

Closing Ceremony: Sunday September 14th 2025

WEEK BY WEEK SCHEDULE & HOLIDAYS

Here is the schedule for the Course which shows the holidays and free Saturdays.

REFUND POLICY

If unfortunately you decide to drop out of our Course, you receive this amount back:

Module 0: 55%

Module 1: 40%

Module 2: 30%

Later: You don’t get anything back

TEXTBOOK

The course fee does not include the textbook as some students like the ebook and some prefer the hard copy. Having the textbook བོད་སྐད་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart of Tibetan Language, Volume 1, and exercise book is highly recommended as the course is designed around it.

If you are in the US, you can order the latest edition of the hardcopy from Dharma Publishing here.

For friends in Asia (or Europe), it might be best to purchase it from the Vajra Bookstore in Kathmandu.

Friends in Europe can also order it from LotusDesignWinkel.

The ebook (both textbook and exercise book) is available on Google Play for a very affordable rate.

Friends from Russia, please contact Gen Alexandra (tibetanatsini@gmail.com) if you are unable to pay for the book or ebook with your credit card online.

Colloquial Tibetan Language Online: Lower Beginner Course (Tib. 101)