Bite-Size Burmese: The Shadows of Social Intercourse

Learn Burmese from Natural Talk

Hello!

My cohost Mol Mol is on vacation this week. Rest assured, when she returns, we will resume our Learn Burmese from Natural Talk series, but in this episode, I'll give you a bite-size lesson.

This is the first of what will become a series of mini lessons sandwiched between our regular talks. I’ll call it Bite-Size Burmese. It’s intended for intermediate and advanced Burmese learners, so I’ll be speaking in a mix of English and Burmese. In it, I'll focus on introducing you to the classic, quirky, and quintessential Burmese phrases that local people use daily but won’t expect foreigners learning Burmese to know, let alone use them correctly.

Today's phrases are:

အရိပ်သုံးပါး နားမလည် (to be oblivious to the three types of shadows); and

အရိပ်ပြရင် အကောင်မြင်တယ် (to recognize the beast from its shadow).

The former describes people who lack certain social skills; the latter is the opposite. To find out what these expressions mean, how you might use them, and which kind you should aspire to be, listen to the very first bite-size Burmese lesson. (Intro and end music: "When my ukulele plays" by Sounddroll, Upbeat.io)

Vocabulary

လူမှုရေးနယ်ပယ် the realm of social interaction

မပါးနပ်ဘူး not clever, not sophisticated

သွယ်ဝိုက်ပြောတယ် to speak indirectly

မသိမသာပြောတယ် to drop casual hints

ဒဲ့ဒိုးပြောတယ် to speak directly

ခန့်မှန်းတယ် to guess, to deduce

ဆင်ခြင်တွေးတောတယ် to think through, to reason

ကောက်ချက်ချတယ် to draw conclusion

Have a question about a Burmese word or phrase you heard here? Send us a message.