Tibetan language professor Tsetan Nepali recently attended the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo with several other faculty members from the department. The conference took place on November 22nd-24th in Orlando, Florida. On September 28th, Tsetan also participated in and gave a talk at the 3rd Conference of the North American Tibetan Language Schools in New York City. Additionally, Tsetan is a member of the committee that is undertaking the task of writing a Tibetan language textbook for the North American Tibetan language Sunday school.

Last spring, Tsetan was invited to several institutions to give presentations on teaching Tibetan as a second language. He first traveled to Dharamsala, India to give his presentation to the Department of Education, Central Tibetan Administration. He then presented at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala. Finally, he traveled to Kathmandu University in Nepal to present at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute.

Over the summer of 2013, Tsetan and two teaching assistants taught the Intensive Tibetan Program at UVa’s Summer Language Institute. Most of the students were graduate students from Europe, Asia, and North America. Additionally, the Tibetan Language House was provided to the summer program students as a way to enhance their Tibetan language skills and to immerse them in Tibetan culture. During the academic year, Tsetan hosts the Tibet Corner. The Tibet Corner is also a way for students to practice their Tibetan with native speakers and to improve their speaking abilities.

For the first time, UVa has partnered with Duke University to offer Tibetan language courses via the Cisco TelePresence video conferencing system. The technology has allowed Tsetan to offer his first level Tibetan courses to students who previously did not have access to the language.

The department is pleased to continue to support Tsetan’s outreach and promotion of the Tibetan language.