Click below to be directed to “Introduction to the Nepali Language” and “Introduction to the Tibetan Language” respectively.
| Introduction to the Nepali Language
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Introduction to the Tibetan Language
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The development of Introduction to the Nepali Language, a free Open Educational Resource (OER), was supported by a grant from the University of British Columbia’s OER Affordability Grant Program. This resource reflects the combined expertise and experiences of its three co-authors. It draws on Binod Shrestha’s decades-long experience in Nepali language education and applied language work in North America; on UBC Associate Professor Dr. Mark Turin’s three decades of scholarship in language documentation and revitalization in Nepal and the Himalayan region; and on the cultural knowledge and community-informed perspectives of Salina Dolmo Lama, a Nepali graduate student at UBC.
The Tibetan Open Educational Resource was designed by Sonam Chusang, an Asian Studies language instructor, through funding from the Institute of Asian Research (IAR) at UBC’s School of Public Policy & Global Affairs and an UBCV OER Rapid Innovation Grant. The UBC Himalaya Program is grateful for additional support from the Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), Go Global, the Teaching and Learning Engagement Fund (TLEF), the Department of Asian Studies, and the Khyentse Foundation.
Both of these Open Educational Resources (OERs) offer learners a basic introduction to each language, with lessons on script, grammar, basic vocabulary, and guidance on how to carry out a basic conversation.
We warmly invite you to explore, adopt, and adapt this open educational resource (OER) for your own learning needs. As we continue to develop and improve this teaching and learning resource, we would appreciate hearing about your experiences. Your feedback will help us better understand how the learning resource is being used and identify areas for improvement. We will also keep you informed with periodic updates and new developments, and will advise you of any upcoming community language consultation events, engagement and feedback sessions as these are finalized in the upcoming months. Please sign up to our Mailing List and the Feedback Form.
Click here to read an interview with Dr. Mark Turin and Dr. Patrick Dowd about the process behind receiving funding and creating these OERs.
Finally, click here to read an article by Dr. Turin on the changing landscape of who learns Nepali abroad today — from a language once oriented toward expatriates to one increasingly reclaimed by diaspora communities seeking to teach the younger generation a language that connects them to a part of their identity — and how open education resources offer the next generation an opportunity to learn their heritage language.