Hello. I’m new here, and it’s my first time posting a message.
It’s been my dream to volunteer at an orphanage or a street children’s center in Mongolia, but in order to do it well, I feel that I should learn Mongolian before I go. I’m busy with work, so I can’t really drop everything and move there for a year to learn it, which is how I’ve learned all my other languages, so I really need to just study it somehow. The problem is a complete lack of resources. Google translate doesn’t do Mongolian. I can go to my local bookstore in Japan and find a travel guide with basic phrases, but there is no explanation of the grammar, no CD to listen to a native speaker on, nothing but phrases.
I imagine people here who have a passion for language study must have similar problems with studying less popular languages, so I’d like to ask how you do it? I’ve been listening to a lot of modern Mongolian music, and when I find out the meaning of a word I’d heard in a song, or hear a word I’ve learned in a song, I get very excited, but there are so few resources for me to find these words and the way to use them that it’s almost discouraging. Is my only choice going to Mongolia and picking it up, or is there some way I can study at home, on the internet, or with a book?
Thanks for your expertise.
Hi,NIKUTARO!
Why do you have so interest to mongolia? This is a poore country, there’re runnig crouds of sheeps, aren’t forests, only deserts and naiked hills. What modern musics can be there? There’re not normal houses - the most of people live into “yuortas”-like tents. They get aound on horses, on camels and rarely in old soviet vehicles.
Hi nikaturo,
In case you are also intersted in the post-Soviets, you’ve got a representative opinion 
. I hope Kostya’s answer will attract the attention of someone knowledgable on Mongolian resource. If not - it is not because no one cares. Just the comminity is still tiny.
Yes, there is normal modern music, which I’ve heard. Rap music, R&B music, many kinds of music. Examples would be Camerton, Bold, BX, etc… I like the traditional throat singing as well.
I don’t want to go because it’s a rich country, I want to go because it’s a poor country. I spent some time in Mexico and really enjoyed being in a poorer country, because people are a lot kinder there. I hear that in Mongolia, you can knock on anyone’s door, and they’re likely to let you in, feed you, and give you a place to sleep. To me, that’s human kindness at its best, and I want to go and see if I can experience that firsthand, as well as doing some volunteering at an orphanage or a similar place. I just want to find a way to study Mongolian and get to a conversational level before I actually go there.
Hi nikutaro! Welcome to LingQ!
I have no information about learning Mongolian language, but I give you some tips.
As you probably know, Japanese sumo is very popular in Mongolia and yokozuna Hakuho and retired Asashoryu are very popular there. I heard many Mongolians watch live sumo on TV, the upcoming basho will not broadcast on live though. I heard many Mongolian sumo wrestlers in sumo world, if you live in Tokyo, just visit sumo stable and be fan or freind with Mongolian sumo wrestlers. I believe they speak good Japanese!
I heard many Mongolian young students study in many universities in Japan. They are struggle to study Japanese. Try to find Mongolian students who study here in Japan.
When I belonged to my local volunteer group in Shiga, one of the foreign students was a Mongolian guy. He studied economy at the university for about 5 or 6 years. He speak Japanese very fluently.
I heard he is a person in charge of the following center.
Mongolia - Japan Center
モンゴル 日本人材開発センター
Just visit the above web site and try to send a e-mail in Japanese. I think you can communicate with them in Japanese. They give you a hint how to study Mongolian in Japan.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
I can’t help at the moment, but I have a German friend in London whose daughter married a Mongolian artist in Tokyo. I shall make enquiries, perhaps she has some course material.
Wow, talk about an international marriage. I know I’d have a lot more options if I lived in Tokyo, but I don’t. I live in Aichi Pref, maybe an hour from Nagoya, so it’s not so easy for me to get to these international meeting grounds, but I will look into it more. Thanks.
Hi nikutaro, I’ve entered search key as to learning Mongolian language on google and founded following hint Free Language-Learning Resources Online | Transparent Language in the first place.
This site looks as though you can earn Mongolian language course for PC and also they offer Mongolian learning software for free. I’ve opened only the first hint and I’m not really sure whether it’s well. However, it’ll be good enough for the first start from my point of view. Respect for your goal and your really open mind!
I would try Amazon Japan- or if you have a friend in the States or the UK perhaps he/she could purchase Colloquial Mongolian Routledge (Colloquial is like Teach Yourself) as a gift and you could offer conversational lessons in return.
Japan is a gift-giving country, you know…
Hi Nikutaro, although I have no any experience with Mongolian, I’ve found something for you, take a look at this http://bit.ly/bZnqTu , maybe you’ll find it useful. I will keep my fingers crossed
I am glad there are so many resources listed here. My friend’s daughter couldn’t help. They spoke English at home in Tokyo. She was given a Mongolian language course years ago. It had been bought at Foyle’s. She said it was not very useful and couldn’t even remember its name.
Hi Nikutaro, just in case you are looking for online tutor, check here:
http://edufire.com/users/16964-languages-other-tutor-enkhbayar-enkhtaivan
I don’t know if he is still active, but you can check (edufire is a website where you can find online tutoring)
amazon.com seem to have some resources, too.
I just looked. Colloquial Mongolian is available at the Japanese version of Amazon.
There are some profiles of Mongolian students in the US listed here
and it might be useful to contact some of the students. They seem to be intending to return to Mongolia.
I am wondering how it is that your English is so good, what other languages you have learned, and your methods of language learning.