Translations of videos taken from SlowReading Tibetan’s YouTube playlist བོད་སྐད་བོད་པ་ནང་བཞིན་སྐྱོན་དང་། Speak Tibetan like a Tibetan. The videos in this playlist have transcribed audio, slow pacing, and lots of repetition, so they are particularly good for beginners who want to practice their listening skills. The dialogues also have a lot of honorific vocabulary, which is useful for more intermediate learners too.
If you know some Tibetan already, you may want to try listening to the video a few times without looking at the text to see how much you can understand on your own. Then, look at the text to find out any audio you don’t understand. If you’re having trouble understanding a passage, then check out the translation posted below the video. The translations are my own.
Videos:
- Going to eat food at the restaurant
- The wolf and the crane
- A mother and daughter going shopping
- Arguing over gold coins
- Discussion about visas
Going to eat food at the restaurant
ཟ་ཁང་དུ་ཞལ་ལག་མཆོད་གར་ཕེབས་པའི་སྐོར།
About going to eat food at the restaurant:
Note for headphone users: there’s a loud noise around 0:40-0:41.
Tsering: Nyidrol-la, where are we going to eat food today?
Nyidrol: Tsering-la, today we’ll eat at the Sotsik Tibetan Restaurant.
Tsering: Okay. When will we go?
Nyidrol: Shall we go at 12:30?
Tsering: Okay, see you around 12 o’clock then.
(The Tibetan Restaurant)
Nyidrol: Tsering-la, you didn’t wait long, did you?
Tsering: No. Please sit. Will you drink tea or cold water?
Nyidrol: I’ll drink a coffee. What will you drink?
Tsering: I’ve ordered a Tibetan tea.
Nyidrol: Ah, so are we going to order lunch?
Tsering: Yes, exactly. Waiter, please give a salad menu.
Waiter: Okay. This is the salad menu. There is whatever food you order. [i.e. we’re not out of anything on that menu.]
Tsering: Thank you kindly. Is there pizza here?
Waiter: Yes sir. But today there’s not been time to make pizza.
Tsering: Ok, then please give one plate of momos and a bowl of noodle soup.
Nyidrol: Would you please give me one rice, one salad, and also one hot boiled water.
(Conversation 2)
Tsering: This restaurant looks clean/nice. Do you often come to this restaurant?
Waiter: The food has arrived. Alright. This is your momos and noodle soup. This is your rice and salad. And this is your hot boiled water. Please enjoy the meal, you two.
Tsering: How is the food’s taste? Do you eat meat?
Nyidrol: The taste is very natural. I’ve given up meat [note: ཤང་ here should be spelled ཤ་] for going on three years now.
Tsering: Ah, that’s really not easy! For me, if there’s no meat, the food has no flavour at all.
(end)
The wolf and the crane
སྤྱང་ཀི་དང་ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་།
The Wolf and the Crane:
Long ago, a bone had pierced inside of a wolf’s throat and he was about to die. Out of desperation, he urgently pleaded to a crane, “Please extract this bone pierced in my throat! I will give you whatever gift you want.” The crane, with a good intention, helped to extract the bone inside the wolf’s throat.
After that the crane said to the wolf, “Now, like you promised [note: ཁྱོད་ཀིས་མཁས་ལེན་ should be spelled ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཁས་ལེན་], you must give me a gift.” The wolf, without giving a gift, spoke bad words: “Not only did your long beak pierce the inside of my throat, but also the phrase ‘must give a gift’ are definitely words that didn’t enter my ear.”
The crane was shocked. When he told the wolf’s behaviour to his other friends, they talked badly about him, saying, “That wolf is shameless. Bad stories pervade the region. Therefore, he left the good side.”
(end)
Note: this is one of Aesop’s Fables.
A mother and daughter going shopping
ཨ་མ་ལགས་དང་བུ་མོ་ཁྲོམ་ལ་ཉོ་ཆ་བཀྱོན་གར་ཕེབས་པའི་སྐོར།
About a mother and daughter going to shop at the market:
Daughter: Mom, I’m ready. Are you read to go?
Mother: I’m ready to go. So, let’s go!
Daughter: Mom, how are we going to the market?
Mother: If we go on the bus that’ll work.
Daughter: Mom, don’t you get sick in the bus? So, wouldn’t it be okay to get a taxi?
Mother: No it won’t, the taxis are very expensive these days.
Daughter: Okay, okay. So then, the bus has arrived. Shall we go?
Mother: Okay, let’s go. Daughter, did you bring the shopping list?
Daughter: Yes I did. Will we go to the clothes shop first, or to the vegetable shop?
Mother: We’ll go to the clothes shop first. Don’t you want to buy clothes?
Daughter: I want to buy a lot of clothes today. I want to buy a school uniform and also everyday pants, shirts, and shoes.
(Conversation 2)
Daughter: Come here! There are such good clothes over there.
Mother: Shopkeeper, how much are the pants over there? Please show one of them.
Shopkeeper: Which pants do you want? We have pants of many colours and materials.
Mother: Oh, then please show one of those blue pants.
Shopkeeper: Okay, this one?
Mother: Yes. And how much is it for those red shoes?
Shopkeeper: Those red shoes are 1500 rupees.
Mother: Oh my, that’s so expensive! Isn’t there a discount?
Shopkeeper: Madam, if you’re really going to buy, then it’ll be okay if you give 1200.
(end)
Arguing over gold coins
གྲོགས་པོ་གཉིས་གསེར་ཊམ་ལ་མ་འཆམ་པར་འཁྲུག་འཛིང་ཤོར་བ།
Two friends get into an argument in disagreement about gold coins:
In a place long ago there were two friends. One was named Pakdro and the other was named Tashi. Not only were they close friends who always went and stayed everywhere together, they would usually use together whatever food or clothing one of them had. Their bodies were strong, but they were not intelligent and were a bit ignorant.
One day, the two of them went walking in the park. On the road, the older friend Pakdro said to his friend Tashi, “How nice would it be if we two friends found three gold coins on this road!” Pakdro [note: I think this should be Tashi, not Pakdro] said, “It would be difficult to share them.” Pakdro said, “We would be able to share them. Why? I’d have one, you’d have one, and I’d have one. So, it would work out.” Tashi said, [“]If we do it like that, you’d have two and I’d have only one.” Pakdro repeated, “It’s not like that. The two of us would have one each, because I’d have one, you’d have one, and I’d have one.” In any case, the two of them got into an argument, with their words in disagreement.
(end)
Discussion about visas
མཐོང་མཆན་སྐོར་ལ་བཀའ་མོལ་གནང་བ།
Having a discussion about visas:
(Conversation 1)
Nyima: Jon, welcome. Are you well? Come inside.
Jon: Okay, thank you. I am well. Are you well?
Nyima: Yes, yes; I’m well. No concerns. What would you like to drink? Would you like to drink tea, or would you like to drink fruit juice?
(Conversation 2)
Jon: It doesn’t matter. Whatever’s there is fine.
Nyima: Alright. So, then, I’ll get you a Tibetan tea. Do you drink alcohol?
Jon: I do, but I don’t drink a lot. So, do you drink alcohol?
Nyima: Tsk, I don’t drink any alcohol. If I drink liquor I get a headache. So, I don’t consume any alcohol.
(Conversation 2, continued)
Nyima: Jon, where is your spouse?
Jon: Right now they’ve gone to the homeland to ask for a visa.
Nyima: Ah, when will they come over here?
Jon: Right now, I don’t know for sure. But they’ll come soon after getting a visa.
Nyima: In general, how many days does it take to get a visa?
Jon: Generally, you can get one in a few days. But sometimes if there are problems, you don’t get it on time.
(Conversation 3)
Nyima: Jon, how many has it been since you went to India?
Jon: It’s been six years and a few months since I arrived in India.
Nyima: Oh, are you happy in India?
Jon: Fairly, but sometimes I really miss the food at home.
Nyima: Ah, so then, it seems like you don’t like Indian food?
Jon: Yeah, I don’t like Indian food at all.
Nyima: What’s the reason you don’t like Indian food? Is it because there’s a lot of chili pepper?
Jon: There’s a fair amount of chili peppers. I eat chili peppers. But there’s so much grease in the food that I can’t eat it.
(end)
