Why Make this Blog?

The purpose of this page is primarily to make a place for people to download updates to my colloquial Tibetan word lexicon/textbook and will also provide information for students who wish to come to India and Nepal to study Buddhism and Tibetan language. I have been studying in India and Nepal for the last six years and here I will share some of my experiences and advice about learning Tibetan, as well as some opinions about Tibetan studies and translation.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction to my book....download it if it seems useful:

" This book started as a mixed-up vocabulary list from my studies in the Manjushri Institute for Tibetan Culture in Darjeeling in 2008, and after being asked by a friend to compile my notes to give to other students, I began working. My teachers in the Manjushri Institute, Gen Dawa and Gen Lobsang, filled our days with various expressions and colloquialisms which I have never seen in any textbooks. I have added many words and eliminated others, organized them into sections, checked spellings, and added example sentences for many verbs and expressions where extra context is necessary. For checking and editing the content I relied mainly on people born in India or on friends who have been living in India for 10+ years to reflect as much as possible the dialect spoken in the refugee population. Even then, there is some variation from one refugee settlement to the next and this book will primarily reflect the dialect spoken in Himachal Pradesh, specifically in the Dharamsala and Bir areas.

This book should take up where the other textbooks such as The Manual of Standard Tibetan, Colloquial Tibetan, etc. leave off. One who has studied such textbooks should have a good foundation and know many basic terms, sentence structures, and vocabulary dealing with coming, going, eating, sleeping--what is called in Tibetan "eating and drinking language" What is provided here should help to bring one to the next level--to be able to express one's feelings and desires, discuss politics, religion and other complex topics. I did not include many specific Buddhist terms as there are an abundance of other resources for learning them. This text is by no means complete or consistent in style or choice of words. Some basic words are included and some are left out by my own laziness or by my assumption that the reader would have some basic knowledge. Many common and useful words are also surely missing out of my own ignorance...."

here's the link:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups&hl=en#!topic/tibetanstudiesinfo/3fzb_W15dz0[1-25]

there are also mp3 example sentences for many of the examples in the book...i'm currently looking for an easy way to make them available for download and will post a link asap.