Thursday, July 16, 2009

Tibetan language

Bejing based Tibetan writer and poet Woeser's most recent entry on her blog http://tibet.woeser.com/?p=8609 drives home a point that the standard of Tibetan language in China's so called Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) is to the point of dismal. Which she thinks is very disgraceful to say the least. She urges the TAR officials to make Tibetan language the medium of instruction and standardized test for job and training recruitment.

Woeser and her friend recently investigated /researched the standard of Tibetan language in all the Tibetan regions under PRC. To her surprise, the findings concludes the standard of Tibetan language in Tibetan Autonomous region is very poor. Woeser whines many Tibetans in Lhasa frequently go to Nangma and induldge in drinking and dance, which according to her view is a sheer wasting of their time. Thus Tibetan who cares for the preservation and promotion of their culture and language have dwindled . Tibetan regions that scored high points in the standard of Tibetan language are Tibetan autonomous regions of Gansu, Ganan and Amdo Ngapo. The regions that shows poor standard of Tibetan languages are, some of the Kham areas, such as Yushu, Decheng, and Tibetan Autonomous regions.

The reasons for this deteriorating standard of Tibetan languages is attributed to lack of good professional institutions and proper education guidance and facilities in these areas. Except in some Amdo regions, all other Tibetan autonomous regions conduct test for profesisonal and employment purpose all in Chinese. Woeser raised the question, why Tibetan are not given the test in their own mother tongue?

Even though Woeser did not mention what means of criteria applied for the evaluation, yet her assessment by and larges reflects the true level of Tibetan education as censurable from new Tibetan arrivals in Nepal and India. Tibetan from Amdo tend to be more educated whereas Tibetan from Kham, many of them are illiterate. The most celebrated Tibetan poet, Woeser implores that her fellow Tibetans compatriots took to heart the importance of promoting and preserving Tibetan language and culture. She said why the so called Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) failed to implement at least 20% of test in Tibetan language itself shows the government priorities in education policies .

I am curious that if exile government and institutions take a similar assessment of Tibetan language standard in exile, particularly in all the schools and institutions , then we will know the truth, whether Tibetans in exile are better off in preservation of Tibetan language than the Chinese occupied Tibet. Recently in a response to a reporter's questions on the standard of Tibetan language in Nepal's Songtsang high school, the Principal without reservation replied " As far as Tibetan language are concerned, I think comparing to other Tibetan schools, our school neither ranks high nor too low. Our student's Tibetan language standard is mediocre " .
The Department of education in exile government after introducing Tibetan proficiency test as a requirement for Fulbright scholarship, only then there was surge of interest in learning Tibetan by graduate students, who aspire for the coveted scholarship. Crash course in Tibetan language were also offered to meet these demands.
Tibetan language will be taken seriously by the majority of Tibetan only when it become necessary for employment and advancement in career. In today's consumeristic society ,people may not learn the language just because it is holy language and it is our mother tongue. There need to be a high demand for it. For example in most recent time arabic language is extremely popular in schools and university in U.S. Since U.S is on a global war on terror, knowledge on arabic languages is essential for intelligence gathering, and oversea post in most of Arab and Muslim countries. Hence, U.S government agency and top organizations prefer their new recruitments with knowledge in arabic language.

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