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, and cover lots of common situations that you might encounter when traveling.
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
- Buying a present for Grandma’s birthday
- Buying a bus pass
- Mr. Mike looks for a hotel
- The guest and the guide have a conversation
- The old woman and the hen
- John asks Tashi about his daily activities
- Having a conversation about the weather
- A conversation of a first meeting
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:
(Conversation 1)
Daughter: Mom, I’m ready. Are you ready 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 years 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)
Buying a present for Grandma’s birthday
རྨོ་ལགས་ཀྱི་འཁྲུངས་སྐར་ལ་ཕྱག་རྟགས་གཟིགས་པ།
Nyima: Drolma-la, do you have time today?
Drolma: Yes, yes. What happened?
Nyima: Nothing happened. Today is my grandma’s birthday, so I thought if you have time, I should ask you to help me buy a birthday present.
Drolma: Sounds good. I have no work.
Nyima: Ah, that’s very good. Please come as soon as you can. I am waiting for you at home.
Meeting at home:
Drolma: Knock knock. Hello, Nyima-la, are you there?
Nyima: Yes, come in. Sit. What tea do you want to drink?
Drolma: Okay. Chamen (a type of tea). Shall we go?
Nyima: Okay. Should we go by car (lit. “in a car”) or motorcycle (lit. “straddling a motorcycle”)?
Drolma: If we go by motorcycle, it will be fast.
Nyima: Yes, exactly. Let’s go.
Drolma: Nyima-la, look. In that store over there, there are things that look good. How old will your grandma be turning this year?
Nyima: My grandma will be turning eighty this year.
Drolma: What present will you buy for your grandma?
Nyima: I usually never know how to buy something good. Could you please buy my grandma’s present today?
Drolma: Okay. These days there are those boots with the fur. Do you want to buy something like that? Or there are those nice black feathered shirts, do you want to buy that?
(Note: When he says “sku stod” for the second time, he pronounces it like “toekoe” for some reason. I think this is just an error.
Also, there is no interrogative marker on གཟིགས་ here because when you’re asking someone to pick between multiple different options, you usually just phrase it as a statement, like “you’ll buy X, or you’ll buy Y”.)
Nyima: I will give a nice present on grandma’s birthday. So if it works with you, please buy both of those.
(end)
Buying a bus pass
སྤྱིད་སྤྱོད་རླངས་འཁོར་གྱི་སྤ་སེ་ཉོ་བ།
Tashi: Older sister, sorry to bother you. I have a question to ask.
(Note: “older sister” — acha-la — is a customary way to address a woman who is older than you, but who is not an old person.)
Drolma: Ok. What is it? Speak.
Tashi: Do you know if there is a bus that goes from here to Delhi?
Drolma: Yes. I work in the travel office. This is our job.
Tashi: Oh, that’s great. I need to go to Delhi today. Are there any buses that are going to Delhi today?
Drolma: There are every day. But they’re only in the afternoon, not the morning.
Tashi: What time in the afternoon do they go?
Drolma: They go from 5 until 8:30PM.
Tashi: Ah. Do they go every hour, or how do they go? Please say clearly.
Drolma: Oh, you still don’t understand?
Tashi: I don’t understand clearly.
Drolma: The first bus leaves at 5PM. Then the other buses leave every half hour (lit. “after half an hour”).
Tashi: Okay. Now I understand very clearly. Thank you. How much does it cost for one person from Dharamsala to Delhi?
Drolma: Here our prices depend on the quality of the seat. Which seat would you like?
Tashi: Ah. I need two seats. I don’t want either the best or the worst.
Drolma: So then, you’ve asked for two average seats. For two seats it is 1500 rupees.
Tashi: Okay. Here is 2000 rupees. Sorry, I don’t have change.
Drolma: No worries, I have change. Okay. This is your receipt.
(end)
Mr. Mike looks for a hotel
སྐུ་ཞབས་མེག་ལགས་མགྲོན་ཁང་འཚོལ་བ།
Mike: Greetings. Does your hotel have any rooms available? (lit. “will/can houses be gotten at your hotel?” — the future tense can be used to express possibility.)
Lhadron: Yes. What kind of room do you want?
Mike: I want one room with two beds.
(Note: I think this should say བཅས་པ་ instead of བྱས་པ་.)
Lhadron: Sorry, there are no rooms with two beds. How many people are there?
Mike: There are three of us. Two older people and one child.
Lhadron: We have two rooms. One with three beds, and one with one beds. Uh, wouldn’t it work if you stay in the one with three rooms?
Mike: That’s good. But would the one with three beds be expensive? What is the rent for one night?
Lhadron: Don’t you worry. These days, it’s the off-season (lit. “it’s during the lack of travelers”). So, we can discount on the price a bit.
Mike: Ah. What’s the reason that there are not many tourists these days?
Lhadron: The reason is, these days the weather is getting colder, so not very many tourists are coming.
Mike: Ah. Well then, how much would it be for us for one night?
Lhadron: These days, because the tourist season has passed, for one day it’s okay if you pay 500 rupees.
Mike: Wow, 500 rupees for one night is really expensive.
Lhadron: Ah, don’t say that. Usually it’s over 1000 rupees for a night.
Mike: Oh. Well then, we won’t be able to stay hear. We are going to look for a cheap room. Take care.
Lhadron: Okay. Take care.
(end)
The guest and the guide have a conversation
སྐུ་མགྲོན་དང་སྣེ་ལེན་པ་བཀའ་མོལ་གནང་བ།
(Note: he pronounces སྐུ་མགྲོན་ like “kondroen”.)
Guide: Hello. Are you Mr. Sonam from Dharamsala?
Guest: Yes. If I’m not mistaken, I believe you are our chauffeur(?).
Guide: Yes. I was sent from the American tourist office to welcome you. My name is John. Please go over there. The car to welcome you has been waiting over there.
Guest: Okay. Oh, I should do introductions. She is my spouse.
Guide: Madam, welcome. Was your journey tiring?
Madam: Eh, no it wasn’t.
Guide: Now then, shall we go? Madam, please go.
Guest: How far is it from this airport to the city?
Guide: It’s not very far. It won’t take longer than 15 minutes by car.
Guest: Where has the hotel we’ll be staying been booked?
Guide: I’ve arranged it at the American Tibetan hotel. Because you will be with Madam, I’ve booked one with two sleeping places.
(mdo sbug pronounced “duphuk”.)
Guest: Thank you very much. You have done (hard) work for us.
(Note: observing when you’ve made someone do work for you is a polite thing to do in Tibetan culture.)
Guide: It’s nothing! We’ve arrived at the hotel now.
Arriving at the hotel
Guide: First you should take a look at the room. If it doesn’t work for you, we can exchange the room.
Guest: Good, good. That’s no problem. It’s perfectly fine.
Guide: You can tell the server whatever kind of food you would like to order. Today you have worked (hard). So, rest well.
Guest: Okay. See you tomorrow.
Guide: I’ve done all the preparations for going sightseeing tomorrow. The car and guide will be able to lead you around however you like. Now I am going to take my leave. See you tomorrow! Have a good night.
Guest: Okay, thank you. [One phrase left untranslated.] Take care.
(end)
The greedy old woman and the hen
རྨོ་ལགས་འདོད་རྔམ་ཅན་དང་བྱ་མོའི་སྒྲུང་།
Once an old woman had a hen. Every day the hen laid one egg, so the old woman was able to eat and sell the eggs for a long time.
One day, the old woman thought, “That hen doesn’t lay more than one egg a day. If I dig in the hen’s stomach, I will get all the eggs at once.”
With that thought, she killed the hen. But the old woman only found one egg in the hen’s stomach. Furthermore, then hen had lost its life. As a result, the old woman felt great regret. From then on, there were no eggs for the old woman to see, let alone eat or sell, so she felt great sorrow.
(end)
John asks Tashi about his daily activities
རྗོན་གྱིས་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལ་ཉིན་གཅིག་གི་བྱེད་སྒོ་རྣམས་བཀའ་འདྲི་ཞུ་བ།
John: Tashi-la. Is it okay if I ask you what kinds of things you do in a day?
(Note: He reads “Tashi-la” as བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ the first time, in error.)
Tashi: Yes, of course. Go ahead.
John: How early do you get up in the morning?
Tashi: I don’t get up early. I get up around 7AM.
John: What do you do after getting up in the morning?
Tashi: After I get up, I brush my teeth, wash my face, hands, etc. then I offer water and incense. After doing my morning recitations, I make breakfast.
John: Ah, what do you do after that?
Tashi: After that, I watch TV while eating breakfast. Then at 9 o’clock I start to translate books.
John: How many hours do you work in a day?
Tashi: I work three hours in a day. But only in the morning, not in the evening.
John: Oh, so then, what do you do in the evening?
Tashi: From 1 to 2 o’clock is the lunch break. So, I also go to eat lunch.
John: Where do you eat lunch?
Tashi: I mostly make breakfast at home, but sometimes I go to eat at the restaurant.
John: Do you know how to cook?
Tashi: Yes, but not very well.
(end)
Having a conversation about the weather
གནམ་གཤིས་སྐོར་ལ་གླེང་མོལ་གནང་བ།
Mother: Hey, are you Tsering?
(The term ཝ་ཡེ་, pronounced “wei”, is taught as being a way to address inferiors.)
Tsering: Hey, who is that? Oh, it’s mother. I am Tsering. Mother, are you well? I really miss you.
Mother: I’m well. Are you well, son?
Tsering: I’m well. Mother, how is your health now?
Mother: Son, don’t worry. I have no issues right now. How is the weather where you are in India?
Tsering: Right now it’s summer in India, so it’s extremely hot.
Mother: It’s May right now, right? Isn’t it raining?
(Note: months are identified by numbers in Tibetan.)
Tsering: No it isn’t. The rainy season only starts around June. So right now it’s the hot season (lit. “it’s in the hot heat”).
Mother: Oh, how are your rooms over there?
(Note: The word ཨ་ལས་, meaning “oh”, is misspelled as ཨ་མས་ here. དེ་པར་ is another way of saying དེར་.)
Tsering: Mother, the rooms are good here. Also, the place where I’m staying is at a high elevation. It’s not hot like Delhi.
Mother: Oh, great. I was very worried. Son, when the weather is hot, don’t forget to wear thin clothes and drink plenty of water.
(Note: the word ཀྲབ་པོ་ is a phonetic spelling of how the word སྲབ་པོ་ is pronounced in colloquial speech. In other words, སྲབ་པོ་ is an exception to the usual spelling rules, and the fact that it is pronounced as ཀྲབ་པོ་ must be memorized.)
Tsering: Ok, mom. Don’t you worry. I’m really used to it here now.
Mother: Son, when is the best season where you’re staying?
Tsering: Here where I am, the best seasons are fall and spring.
Mother: How is the weather in Dharamsala in the winter?
Tsering: In the winter, Dharamsala has cold weather. So, in the winter, most people go to lower places.
(end)
A conversation of a first meeting
ཐོག་མའི་མཇལ་འཕྲད་སྐབས་ཀྱི་གླེང་མོལ།
(Note: the spelling of Berti’s name shifts throughout the dialogue.)
Nyima: Greetings. My name is Nyima.
Berti: Greetings. My name is Birti.
Nyima: Where are you from?
Berti: I’m from Germany. So, where are you from?
Nyima: I’m from Dharamsala. I was born in India.
Berti: Ah. Are your mother and father Tibetan?
Nyima: Yes, of course. My parents are pure Tibetan. After Tibet was seized by China, they went into exile in India. Then they settled in the settlement here.
(Note: བཙན་བྱོལ་ and གཞིས་ཆགས་ are important words to know when discussing the Tibetan community in exile. The shichak, or “settlements”, are large communities of Tibetan people in exile. The language of the settlements, which largely what this website teaches, has been called “settlement language” or གཞིས་ཆགས་སྐད་ shichak ke in some studies.)
Birti: How many family members do you have?
Tsering: I have ten family members. My two parents and eight siblings.
Birti: How old are you parents?
Nyima: My father is 75 and my mother is exactly 70.
Birti: Do you have any sisters?
Nyima: Yes. I have four sisters.
Birti: Is your oldest sibling a boy or a girl?
Tsering: My oldest sibling is a boy.
Birti: Nyima-la, it was very nice to meet you today. Also, it was even nicer to have a conversation about your family. I hope we meet again.
Nyima: It was nice to meet you too. (Lit. “I was also very happy.”)
(end)
