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Read Classical Tibetan

Individualized Language
Learning via Skype

 

  
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   | Craig Preston | cpreston@giganticom.com | (607) 351-8744
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Personal Video Classes Using My Books for Tibetan Students

HOW TO READ CLASSICAL TIBETAN, Volume One: Summary of the General Path, by Craig Preston. Published by Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY

The Perfect Combination of Supportive Book and Video Classes for Beginning and Intermediate Students

Do you want to learn to read Classical Tibetan? If you know how to read the Tibetan u-chen script (know the Tibetan alphabet and how letters combine to form syllables -- i.e., be able to recognize a root letter, vowel, prefix, superscript, subscript, suffix, and know how to pronounce the syllable) and how to recognize words, How to Read Classical Tibetan will show you--at your own pace--all the relationships that make Tibetan easy to read. It is a complete language course built around the exposition of a famous Tibetan text on the Summary of the General Path to Buddhahood written at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

All the language tools you need to work at your own pace are in one place. You won't need a dictionary because all of the words and particles are translated and explained upon every occurrence, and there is a complete glossary at the end of the book; every sentence is diagramed and completely explained so that you can easily see how the words and particles are arranged to convey meaning.

Because everything is always explained in every sentence, you will easily learn to recognize the recurrent patterns, making the transition from learning words to reading sentences much easier for you. As you study How to Read Classical Tibetan, you will learn to: recognize the syntactic relationships you encounter, understand the meaning signified, and translate that meaning correctly into English.

"Using this book, I improved my own comprehension and knowledge of Classical Tibetan. I am delighted to recommend it to all students who wish to deepen their understanding of this sacred language. Learning to read Classical Tibetan will give you direct access to the words of the great masters."--Ven. Segyu Choepel Rinpoche

"I can't think of a better way for English speakers to learn classical Tibetan than to study Preston's book. It's top-notch and easy to follow."-- Ani Thubten Chodron, author of Buddhism for Beginners and Working with Anger.
 
 
 
Summary of the General Path

Three Pages of Tibetan
The text analyzed here is about three sides long, occurring about 1,000 pages into Tsong-kha-pa's Great Stages of the Path..

 Complete Redundancy
  Every occurrence of every word and particle is explained every time. This is especially helpful for beginning students. 

Sentence Diagrams Galore!
Every sentence is diagrammed into parts so you can see how the words come together to make phrases, clauses, and finally sentences.