Nepali Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
jimbagsh
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2019 5:19 am
Location: Dhading District, Nepal
Languages: English (N), Spanish (A2), Thai (B1), Mongolian (A2), Nepali (B1 studying now)
x 6

Nepali Study Group

Postby jimbagsh » Sun Sep 29, 2019 6:01 am

Okay, there wasn't a Nepali group, so I started one. :)

I am currently serving as a volunteer with the US Peace Corps in Nepal. I arrived in late January 2019, took 2 months of language study and moved to a small rural community up in the mountains west of Kathmandu and will be here until April 2021. At present, my language level is what the PC calls "Intermediate Low" which would be about a B1 level. After 2 years, I would be happy to be at C1. We'll see.
2 x
: 4 / 9 Nepali (currently studying)
: 4 / 9 Thai
: 3 / 9 Mongolian
: 3 / 9 Spanish

galaxyrocker
Brown Belt
Posts: 1120
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:44 am
Languages: English (N), Irish (Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge B2), French, dabbling elsewhere sometimes
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=757
x 3333

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby galaxyrocker » Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:08 pm

Oh, please don't tempt me. I've been wanting to learn Nepali for the exact same reason you are -- I'm seriously thinking of doing PC there. I'd be interested in following this group, for sure. Also, would you mind if I PMed you about PC and your experiences, so far, in Nepal?
1 x

Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Oct 02, 2019 6:39 am

I have never studied Nepali and am not likely to do so. Nevertheless, the creation of this new study group prompted me to dig around a little in the LLORG and the HTLAL and, to my surprise, I could not find a list of resources for this language. Borrowing a leaf from the children's morality tale "The Little Red Hen", I wrote one myself. Here it is:

Nepali / Nepalese Resources - LLORG - October 2019
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=150657&sid=c9f2211ea0271eaf6f5fbc2c261fc714#p150657
1 x

User avatar
Pinecone
White Belt
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:01 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (Intermediate), Nepali (Intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11506
x 108

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby Pinecone » Fri Oct 25, 2019 9:09 am

Welcome to Nepal! I am an American living in the Kaski district. I have a web development business here. I've been here a little over five years and have done a variety of courses and learning approaches.

I am not exactly sure where my Nepali level is since I haven't taken any assessment tests for it. I am guessing I am somewhere in the B2 range. I can move beyond the conversation pleasantries into thoughts and opinions but I have trouble understanding complex sentences or tracking group conversations.

I am currently studying twice a week with a tutor. We focus on conversation and reading. We uncover about 20-30 new words a week that I add into a word log / review system which I use for vocabulary reviews throughout the week. Outside of that I have conversations here and there as part of life. Lately I've been trying to increase my listening to spoken Nepali. I've been listening to some recorded radio programs for that and there are some shows on YouTube I want to get into a habit of watching a few times a week.

I am looking forward to sharing with other Nepali language learners!
2 x

PfifltriggPi
Green Belt
Posts: 486
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:44 pm
Location: Amerique du Nord
Languages: Uses daily : Français (heritage) English
Reads : Castellano, Català, Italiano, Lingua Latina
Studying: Українська мова, Ελληνικά
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4860
x 1088

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby PfifltriggPi » Fri Oct 25, 2019 2:37 pm

How much of a literary presence does Nepali have? The culture and country itself has always fascinated me, but I can't exactly up and move to Kathmandu, and frequent trips around the world to practice my languages are well beyond my budget, so I tend to prefer languages, cultures, histories and litterateurs which I can bring to me, through the printed word. Is Nepali literature large enough to justify learning it pretty much just for that? Or would I be setting my self up for disappointment?
0 x
Please correct my errors in any tongue.

"Зброя - слово." - Леся Українка

User avatar
Pinecone
White Belt
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:01 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (Intermediate), Nepali (Intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11506
x 108

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby Pinecone » Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:47 am

PfifltriggPi wrote:Is Nepali literature large enough to justify learning it pretty much just for that? Or would I be setting my self up for disappointment?


Good question. I don't know exactly how you would evaluate that. My gut is that you would be disappointed. There is good literature available. However it is not very extensive. The website goodreads lists just 180 books on their Nepali shelf compared to 1,500 in Hindi or 3,500 in Thai. GundrukPost dot com has a list of 30 of the best-selling Nepali books in the past decade if you want to see what kind of material is available (I'd post the link to that list but I am new here and not sure I am allowed to post links yet).

I have a hard time finding children's books (my current reading level) and I am in country! Most of the ones that exist are translations of English children's books which have mistakes that my Nepali friends point out when they read them. Of course it doesn't help that if you ask three Nepalis what the official spelling of a given word is you are liable to get three different answers!
1 x

Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby Speakeasy » Sat Oct 26, 2019 4:25 pm

1. LITERARY PRESENCE
PfifltriggPi wrote:How much of a literary presence does Nepali have? ...
While I have never studied the language and have no intentions of ever doing so, I appended a list of Nepali Readers to the “Nepali Resources” thread. The very nature of the items in the list (i.e., collections) suggests to me that the Nepali language is well-supported.

Nepali Readers
Selected Titles:

Contemporary Nepali Social and Cultural Anthropology: a Reader (2018) by Laya Prasad Uprety (editor) et al - Tribhuvan University

Himalayan Voices : An Introduction to Modern Nepali Literature (1991), 352 pages, 352 pages, by Michael J. Hutt - University of California Press

Intermediate Nepali Reader: Volumes 1 & 2 (1979), 416 pages total, by M.K.Verma – Manohar

Intermediate Nepali Structure and Intermediate Nepali Reader (1979) by M.K.Verma, T.N. Sharma – Manohar

Modern Literary Nepali: An Introductory Reader (SOAS Studies on South Asia) (new edition, 2000), 302 pages, by Michael J. Hutt - Oxford University Press

Nepali Newspaper Reader (1984) 274 pages, by Champa Jarmul, John D. Murphy - Dunwoody Press

Use of Language in the Nepali Press (1999), pamphlet, by S. Subedi Rayamajhi - Aero's

Additional Sources:

links4languages - Nepali
https://sites.google.com/site/links4languages/nepali

2. CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Pinecone wrote: … I have a hard time finding children's books (my current reading level) and I am in country! …
While searching the websites of the major online booksellers (AbeBooks, Alibris, Amazon) in preparation of the Nepali Resources thread, I came upon several children’s books in Nepali, not a tonne of them mind you, but quite a few. If you are truly interested in acquiring a few of these, I suggest that you search these websites using "Nepali Reader" as your search criterion. I chose not to include these readers in the list that I prepared because I felt that they would be of little interest to the average adult and because I did not want to assume the responsibility of listing absolutely every possible resource imaginable for the study of this, or of any other, language. However, I understand that importing these materials to Nepal from British or American warehouses would involve paying seemingly punitive shipping charges.

3. FSI NEPALI BASIC COURSE
Pinecone wrote: I am not exactly sure where my Nepali level is since I haven't taken any assessment tests for it. I am guessing I am somewhere in the B2 range. I can move beyond the conversation pleasantries into thoughts and opinions but I have trouble understanding complex sentences or tracking group conversations.
jimbagsh wrote: … At present, my language level is what the PC calls "Intermediate Low" which would be about a B1 level. After 2 years, I would be happy to be at C1. We'll see.
As the two of you progress through your in situ studies of Nepali, you might wish to consider working with the FSI Nepali Basic audio recordings (see below) and “volunteering” to create a bilingual transcript. You might even agree to collaborate on such a project. Having done so for the DLI German Basic Course sentence-pattern drills, I am quite aware of the amount of work involved!

FSI Nepali Basic (1960s) 0 pages - audio recordings only (at present)
The Yojik and Live Lingua websites host the audio recordings which were prepared to accompany the FSI Nepali Basic course which I assume was published in the 1960’s. As of this writing, the course manual is not available. Perhaps an Intermediate Level student of the language, or a native speaker, will volunteer to create a transcript (Nepali with English translations) of these recordings and submit them for hosting on the Yojik website. Astute Beginner-to-Intermediate students would be able to use the audio recordings and the transcripts for aural/oral practice in conjunction with a grammar of the language. Any volunteers?
https://yojik.eu/languages/FSI/fsi-nepali.html

EDITED:
Nepali Readers
FSI Nepali Basic
Formatting
Tinkering
Insertion of topic headings.
0 x

User avatar
Pinecone
White Belt
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:01 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (Intermediate), Nepali (Intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11506
x 108

Nepali Children's Books

Postby Pinecone » Sun Oct 27, 2019 5:01 pm

Speakeasy wrote:
While searching the websites of the major online booksellers (AbeBooks, Alibris, Amazon) in preparation of the Nepali Resources thread, I came upon several children’s books in Nepali, not a tonne of them mind you, but quite a few. If you are truly interested in acquiring a few of these, I suggest that you search these websites using "Nepali Reader" as your search criterion. I chose not to include these readers in the list that I prepared because I felt that they would be of little interest to the average adult and because I did not want to assume the responsibility of listing absolutely every possible resource imaginable for the study of this, or of any other, language. However, I understand that importing these materials to Nepal from British or American warehouses would involve paying seemingly punitive shipping charges.

Just to clarify, it is not that I can't find them or don't own a collection of them, I was observing that kid's literature written by Nepali authors is not readily available. If you move to books targeting upper elementary there are even fewer. So, yes they can be found, but from the perspective of learning Nepali solely for being able to read the literature--I think the depth and breadth of literature by Nepali authors is considerably less than you would find in other Asian languages.

As far as readers go, one of the best option is the मेरो नेपाली (Mero Nepali) series that the government of Nepal publishes for use in schools here. There is one for each class. They contain grammar exercises and stories. PDFs of the books can be downloaded from various places, but the newest editions I am finding online are at E-Pustakalaya (https://pustakalaya.org/en/). A search for 'मेरो नेपाली' will turn up the titles. Here are links to the first three classes:
Class 1: https://pustakalaya.org/documents/detai ... 9f9da7de7/
Class 2: https://pustakalaya.org/documents/detai ... 2405f8a2c/
Class 3: https://pustakalaya.org/documents/detai ... 8a0ffbae6/

(Note: In Nepal, if you want a hard copy of the मेरो नेपाली books, you will find them at stationary stores rather than book stores.)

As I was looking up where to download the मेरो नेपाली books I came across the Government of Nepal's curriculum development center and noticed they had a nice collection of children's books available in PDF form here:
http://nkcs.org.np/cdc/library/opac_css ... brique=120.

Hopefully these will be of use to others in the study group.

Edit: Added note on where to find hard copies of the मेरो नेपाली books in Nepal.
5 x

Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby Speakeasy » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:00 am

Pinecone, thank you for the additional information, I have inserted much of your comments in the "Nepali Resources" thread.
1 x

User avatar
Pinecone
White Belt
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:01 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (Intermediate), Nepali (Intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11506
x 108

Re: Nepali Study Group

Postby Pinecone » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:27 am

Speakeasy wrote:3. FSI NEPALI BASIC COURSE
As the two of you progress through your in situ studies of Nepali, you might wish to consider working with the FSI Nepali Basic audio recordings (see below) and “volunteering” to create a bilingual transcript. You might even agree to collaborate on such a project. Having done so for the DLI German Basic Course sentence-pattern drills, I am quite aware of the amount of work involved!


I listened to the audio files. The sound quality is not amazing (especially Tape 30) but these could still be useful. What I like is that it has both a male a female voice so you can tune your ear with more than one voice input. I did a quick romanized spelling transcription of about 1/3 of the first tape. I'll tinker on that one a bit more. Not sure how far I'll go beyond that unless the transcribing and translating ends up being helpful for my own Nepali learning or someone specifically asks.

Do you have thoughts on where would be a good place to post that transcription as it is in progress. I was thinking a Google Doc or maybe use github's version control with it. Maybe you all are aware of something different that others have used in the past for that kind of collaborative work. I am all ears.
0 x


Return to “Study Groups”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests