Many of the monks here at the Sherabling Monastery speak at least a little English. At dinner one night, the monks I sat with
were my Tibetan language teachers.
I mentioned that written Tibetan looks very different from other languages that I know. The monks
explained that Tibetan consists of 30 letters and 4 vowels. Each word is separated by a dot or a
slash. The monks were very patient with my
many questions and answered each one to
ensure that I understood.
English has 5 vowels (a,e,i,o,u) are these the same sounds as Tibetan vowels? What part of the brain learns languages? Why are some good at learning languages & some aren't?
ReplyDeleteNo, the Tibetan sounds are very different from English sounds. For more information about language and the brain, see my web site at:
ReplyDeletehttp://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/lang.html