Week three of teaching Tibetan
Jun. 4th, 2012 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusJetsunma asked me to teach a Tibetan class at the temple.
I kind of, er, let's politely call it panicked, and avoided it for several weeks. (Then I got laryngitis.) Kept saying, "But why couldn't we have started this in 2009, when I'd just finished UVA's Tibetan program? I'm rusty! Creak!"
Went ahead anyways. With help from Paljor (and he is the best speaker, very well educated).
It's going great. Just completed week three of six. And this time I did the class on my own! We have a surprisingly large group: eleven people.
On a Sunday night at 8pm? Wow. I didn't even advertise.
Jetsunma was right. People want to learn Tibetan.
Even today, with a Buddhist holiday tomorrow (Saka Dawa, where all virtue is multiplied by 10 million, so pile on those good deeds...) even after a day of hard work in the sun repairing stupas ... my team gamely showed up.
We covered a massive amount of material. (Today's class: stacked letters, and what you can ignore.) I'm following the structure my first Tibetan teacher, Rick, established. I had all these ambitious plans but found what he did was just perfect: small bites. Build that foundation strong and solid.
They're learning. And I can see them grow more and more confident.
*Pleased as punch.*
I kind of, er, let's politely call it panicked, and avoided it for several weeks. (Then I got laryngitis.) Kept saying, "But why couldn't we have started this in 2009, when I'd just finished UVA's Tibetan program? I'm rusty! Creak!"
Went ahead anyways. With help from Paljor (and he is the best speaker, very well educated).
It's going great. Just completed week three of six. And this time I did the class on my own! We have a surprisingly large group: eleven people.
On a Sunday night at 8pm? Wow. I didn't even advertise.
Jetsunma was right. People want to learn Tibetan.
Even today, with a Buddhist holiday tomorrow (Saka Dawa, where all virtue is multiplied by 10 million, so pile on those good deeds...) even after a day of hard work in the sun repairing stupas ... my team gamely showed up.
We covered a massive amount of material. (Today's class: stacked letters, and what you can ignore.) I'm following the structure my first Tibetan teacher, Rick, established. I had all these ambitious plans but found what he did was just perfect: small bites. Build that foundation strong and solid.
They're learning. And I can see them grow more and more confident.
*Pleased as punch.*
