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What’s a good language for meditation? | ||
Tags: Meditation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4810 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes  Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 9 of 24 11 March 2013 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you ask me, the act of meditation has very little to do with languages. Meditation, as I understand it, is about concentration and contemplation. It is a very individual and a very personal activity. One does not need to communicate with others as in a group activity.
And most retreats have a couple of English-speaking-persons on their staff. :-) Just my 2c! PS. Don't let me keep you from picking up a new language. If something interests you then, by all means, go for it! Best of luck! Edited by napoleon on 11 March 2013 at 2:01pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6376 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 10 of 24 11 March 2013 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Also, I'm a bit worried about getting a visa for long-term stay in Tibet. Is that easy?
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| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6376 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 11 of 24 11 March 2013 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's true, and language learning wouldn't be the primary purpose of my going there. But if I'm going to do a retreat, I might as well do it someplace interesting, and getting around there, finding a place to do it in, and communicating with the people who are there will still require some language use. Quite possibly I'd be travelling around a bit first, too. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4810 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 12 of 24 11 March 2013 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@Ari:Don't let me keep you from picking up a new language.
If something interests you then, by all means, go for it! I hope you tell us all about your experience. Best of luck! Edited by napoleon on 11 March 2013 at 1:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4105 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 13 of 24 11 March 2013 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
I did recall finding a Tibetan course online a while back, you can take a look at it here. The only problem is that the course is apparently designed for Christian missionaries; you also have to learn the Tibetan script before the course is of any use. Edited by leroc on 11 March 2013 at 4:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4638 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 14 of 24 11 March 2013 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I know that "Colloquial Tibetan" will be released by Routledge in September. About visas: I don't know how hard it is to get one, might be a problem. How long do you want to stay?
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| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4924 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 15 of 24 11 March 2013 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Meditation is not big in Thailand, as far as I can tell, but you won't have trouble finding a place to meditate for some time (weeks, months). Last year, I just walked into a random forest monastery in Thailand's North-East and meditated there for three days; I could have stayed for months if I had wanted. Apart from Thailand, you could probably also try monasteries in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka for the same sort of Theravada Buddhism. Japan, Korea and Taiwan have been mentioned already. If English, a beautiful and expressive Indoeuropean language, is on your list of target languages, you could also do retreats or join a monastery in the USA, there's an active Buddhist community there. In Western Europe (and maybe in Eastern Europe as well, but that I don't know), for instance in France or Germany, you should be able to find quite a few monasteries and retreats affiliated with various schools. The best meditation retreats, however, impose silence.
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| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6376 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 16 of 24 11 March 2013 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Right now Japanese and Thai are looking pretty good.
Japanese pros: * It's sinosphere, so I get a lot of vocbulary at a discount, and get the pleasure of seeing the interaction between the languages. * My meditation is partially related to martial arts practice, and it'd be swell to be able to read books about mushin in the original (or are those all written in Literary Sinitic?). * It looks really interesting grammatically. Japanese cons: * I've got a lot of prejudices about Japanese culture, so I'm afraid it'll be all anime, video games, weird game shows and tentacle porn. I'm sure there's lots of other stuff there, though. * The same way, I'm prejudiced about zen. I'm afraid it's all weird riddles and being hit in the head with a stick. * It has an ugly writing system. * It's expensive to stay in Japan. Thai pros: * It's indosphere, so lots of new and interesting stuff there, and I get a leg up if I want to tackle Sanskrit in the future (which I might). * It's really cheap to stay in Thailand. * It's tonal, which is fun (but then I already know two tonal languages, so that's hardly new). Thai cons: * It's grammatically boring and similar to Mando and Canto. * It's got an ugly writing system (but not as ugly as Japanese). Eh, I've got more, but I'm too tired now. Gotta keep thinking about this. Tibetan is still a bit tempting (at least it has a beautiful writing system!). Thanks for your responses so far! You're helping me clear up my mind about this stuff. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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