• The courses offered by Trikāya Tibetan Language Academy are perfect for students with all kinds of learning goals.

• Our courses lead to fluency and literacy in Classical, Colloquial and Modern Literary Tibetan.

• Courses are available in a wide variety of different subjects, are customized and personalized to meet the particular needs of students, and can accommodate all levels of language proficiency.

• Study Tibetan language online with a professional Tibetan translator and long-time Buddhist scholar, who can clearly explain Tibetan vocabulary and grammatical structures in fluent English.

• Become literate in Classical Tibetan, and learn how to read and pronounce Classical Tibetan texts properly.

• Learn how to speak contemporary colloquial Tibetan in an authentic manner, according to the most widely understood standard dialect, Central Tibetan (Ü-Tsang).

• Review a particular Tibetan text in detail, with a recognized expert in the field.

• Receive a comprehensive overview of a specific Tibetan text, according to linguistic or doctrinal analysis.

• Learn how to read Tibetan Dharma texts, including your favorite teachings and practices.

How it’s done

• Students study directly with the teacher in online sessions.

• Classes are held live with the teacher via audio and/or video call.

• Connection methods for the classes are WhatsApp, Google Duo, Zoom, Skype, Jitsi, Telegram and Signal.
  
  Students may choose from any of these methods according to their needs and preference. The teacher will provide you with the relevant contact details.

• English and Tibetan are the mediums of instruction.

Who the teacher is

• Eric Tsiknopoulos, a specialist in Tibetan translation and language teaching, has been studying Tibetan since 2004, translating Tibetan texts, orally interpreting for lamas and teaching Tibetan professionally since 2008, and instructing students both online and in-person since 2011.

• He studied classical, colloquial & modern literary Tibetan language, literature and Buddhism within an immersive native environment in the Tibetan communities of India and Nepal for 11 years (2009-2019).

• In 2020 Erick founded Trikāya Tibetan Language Academy, and now devotes much of his time to teaching enthusiastic students around the world.
  
  He is now focusing his efforts on developing effective educational literature, including writing new Tibetan language textbooks.

How our courses are taught

• Having spent 11 years in the Himalayan region studying Tibetan language, literature and Buddhist philosophy while living in the Tibetan communities of the Himalayan region from 2008 to 2019, Eric Tsiknopoulos offers students rare insights into not only the Tibetan language itself, but also its cultural background.

• Our courses explore topics and introduce material which is often relatively overlooked or even unknown outside the Tibetan communities themselves. These include the cultural, social, symbolic, mythical, historical and psychological dimensions of Tibetan.

• By drawing upon these first-hand experiences, he employs a distinctive cross-cultural teaching approach which is bilingual in nature, and adapted for English-speaking students.

• Being familiar with most topics in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, scriptural doctrine, he explains Tibetan texts to his students by way of both linguistic analysis and traditional Buddhist commentary. In this way, the literary meaning of each text is ascertained with reference to its specific context.

• Based on both modern Western academic and traditional Tibetan scholastic models of pedagogy and textual exegesis, his teaching methodology is unique, adaptable, inventive and well-suited to the needs of students in the modern world.

• This includes hermeneutic analysis and philosophical, historical and cultural commentary, contextualized within the broader spectrum of Buddhist and Asian Studies.

What we study

• Trikāya Tibetan Language Academy offers a wide variety of Tibetan courses, in numerous subjects and for students of all levels.

• Courses are focused, but flexible by design. Every Tibetan course is specifically designed to suit each student’s personal learning goals.

• Students can choose to focus on Classical Tibetan, Colloquial Spoken Tibetan, Modern Literary Tibetan or Reading Buddhist Texts in Tibetan as their main subject of study.
  
  These four subjects can also be taught in combination (depending on the course).

• Courses on several other topics are also offered and are available upon request.

• Colloquial Tibetan courses are available in two different dialects:
  
  1) Ü-Tsang Dialect (Central Tibetan)
  
  2) Exile Dialect (Refugee Tibetan)

• Interdisciplinary Tibetan Studies courses are available, which consist of 3 different concentrations:
  
  1) Classical Tibetan Literacy & Digital Research Methods 
  
  2) Colloquial Tibetan Fluency & Contemporary Idioms
  
  3) Modern Literary Tibetan Reading Skills & News Media

• Classes are scheduled to ensure convenient class times that work for every student, regardless of their time zone.

• Individual consultations are held with every new or prospective student to learn about their personal language goals, and structure the course curriculum in order to help them accomplish their own study aims, free of charge.

• Homework is only assigned that is specifically useful for achieving fluency and literacy in Tibetan as fast as possible, as supported by leading research on second-language acquisition. Serious students of Tibetan must therefore focus their efforts on the learning resources which are most efficient, not busywork.

• Special attention is given to students whose native language is not English, and help with English translation from Tibetan is also provided in relevant cases.