Bite-Size Burmese: Plain Janes and Hidden Talents Under the Leaves

Where are your hidden talents hiding? If you’re speaking Burmese, they might be hiding under the leaves. The Burmese expression for someone with a hidden talent is ရွက်ပုန်းသီး -- meaning "a fruit hidden under the leaves." And someone you might call a Plain Jane in English is ရွက်ကြမ်းရေကျို or "tea brewed with plain leaves" in Burmese. Someone who can adapt to any situation, be comfortable in any circumstance or environment is ရွက်ကျပင်ပေါက် or "a plant that regrows wherever its leaves may fall." The Burmese word for leaves on trees and sails on ships are the same. Both are referred to as ရွက်. So the Burmese version of "full sail ahead" is ရွက်စုံဖွင့် or "raise all sails." In this episode, I introduce you to some leaf-related phrases, along with example usages. (Illustration by Burmese artist Nyan Kyal Say, NK Artbox; Intro and end music: "When my ukulele plays" by Soundroll, Upbeat.io.)

Vocabulary

ရွက်ပုန်းသီး someone with a hidden talent
အရည်အချင်း skill, talent
မထင်ရှားဘူး not well-known
ကျွမ်းကျင်တယ် to be proficient, to be skilled
အလှမယ် beauty queen
ရွက်ကြမ်းရေကျို Plain Jane
အသင့်အတင့် ordinary, fair
သာမန်ကာလျှံကာ ordinary, fair
အနံ့အရသာ fragrance and flavor
ရွက်ကျပင်ပေါက် plant that regrows from fallen leaves, someone who can thrive in different circumstances or environments
ဥပစာ metaphor, figure of speech
ရွက်စုံဖွင့် with all sails raised, full speed ahead, with all might
ချွပ်စွပ်တူတယ် to be an exact match
ခရီးဆက်တယ် to journey on