Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Learn the alphabet. Many people skip this part, or try to learn it later, concentrating solely on speaking, but this is a mistake. Knowing the alphabet well and in order will make it far easier to learn the language, as you will suddenly have a world of written material at your disposal. What's more, you'll be able to use a Tibetan-English dictionary--an absolutely necessary skill.
Commit to learning a specific number of new words each day--nouns, adjectives and verbs. This number depends on the amount of free time available to you. If you are serious about learning Tibetan, however, I'd suggest setting this number at no less than five, preferably 10 to 20. Carry out steps 3 through 7 simultaneously with this step.
Learn personal pronouns. In Tibetan, there are several levels of personal pronoun based on levels of respect and familiarity. Select a good Tibetan grammar book to assist you.
Learn syntax, or sentence structure, including sentence structure for interrogatives. Perhaps the greatest difference between Tibetan and English syntax is the placement of verbs; Tibetan puts them at the end of the sentence while English typically places them in the middle. Tibetan also places adjectives after the noun they describe. For example, "I am reading two books" becomes "I books two am reading." Select a good Tibetan grammar to assist you with this.
Learn verb conjugations for all pronouns in all tenses. Get these down perfectly, to the point where you don't even have to think about it. If you can truly master conjugations, you've learned half the language. Select a good Tibetan grammar to assist you with this.
Learn postpositions and numbers (both ordinal and cardinal). Go through a good Tibetan grammar book cover-to-cover, preferably one organized into lessons with practice exercises (and answers!) to go along with each concept. This will be laborious. But it will also be worth it.
Speak and read as much as possible in Tibetan. If you have a Tibetan-speaking friend, arrange for consistent (at least weekly) meetings during which you read and converse together somewhat informally. Travel to Tibet or northern India and practice with taxi drivers, vendors and hotel staff. Read the newspaper in Tibetan each morning (online). Most of all, have fun! A whole new world is about to unfold before you.