Learn Tibetan | Lesson 16 (Part 1) — How to Sound Polite in Tibetan #learntibetan

Tashi delek and welcome to our Tibetan language course!

In Lesson 16 (Part 1), we begin exploring how to express your opinion in Tibetan very politely and humbly — without sounding assertive or authoritative.

You’ll see how Tibetan uses special verbal constructions where the speaker almost disappears, letting thoughts arise rather than be stated directly. We compare these very humble Tibetan forms with similar strategies in Japanese, and briefly contrast them with Chinese, where such extreme humility is less grammaticalized.

This lesson is not about memorising forms, but about feeling the difference:

How humble speech sounds

How it positions the speaker

How politeness is encoded across languages

In the next part, we’ll move toward more neutral and confident ways of expressing opinions — and discuss when not to use them.

🎨 Visuals in this lesson are inspired by the work of Shijun Munns.

Special thanks to:
📸 Eleonor Ye (Unsplash)
📸 Raimonds Klavins (Unsplash)
🎨 Shijun Munns — visual inspiration
🤍 Visuals & concept support by ChatGPT

Видео Learn Tibetan | Lesson 16 (Part 1) — How to Sound Polite in Tibetan #learntibetan канала nandibali