Learn Burmese from Natural Talk
Hello! Greetings from the Burmese corner! I'm Kenneth Wong, a Burmese language instructor, author, and translator. This is a podcast series for intermediate and advanced Burmese language learners who want to learn Burmese by listening to natural conversation. Every two weeks or so, a guest speaker and I record and upload an episode on a specific topic. At the end of each episode, you'll find the keywords and phrases with their meanings. From time to time, I will also add Bite-Size Burmese episodes, featuring quirky, interesting words and expressions; and Vocabulary Booster episodes, introducing you to basic words and phrases associated with a specific topic. For more on the podcast series, visit the Learn Burmese from Natural Talk blog: http://burmeselessons.blogspot.com/
Learn Burmese from Natural Talk
Bite-Size Burmese: Straddling Two Boats at Once
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If a politician speaks ambiguously without committing to one side or the other on an issue, you might call it political doublespeak in English, and accuse him or her of being wishy-washy. In Burmese, you might say he or she is "straddling the sides of two boats," လှေနံနှစ်ဖက်နင်းတယ် or လှေနံနှစ်ဖက်ခွတယ်. On the other other hand, if you can resolve a conflict by satisfying the two opposing sides, your solution may be praised as ရှဉ့်လည်းလျှောက်သာ ပျားလည်းစွဲသာ , meaning "the chipmunk can tread on the branch; so can the bees build a hive on it"; or မြွေမသေ တုတ်မကျိုး "neither the snake shall die, nor the stick shall break." To learn how to use these phrases correctly, listen to the latest episode of Bite-Size Burmese. (Illustration by Burmese artist Nyan Kyal Say, NK Artbox; Intro and end music: "When my ukulele plays" by Soundroll, Upbeat.io.)
Vocabulary
- လှေနံ the edge of a boat
- လှေနံနှစ်ဖက်နင်းတယ် / ခွတယ် to straddle on the sides of two boats (to play both sides, to be noncommital)
- ဝေ့လည်ကြောင်ပတ် to be wishy-washy
- သောင်မတင် ရေမကျ neither stranded on the beach, nor going back into the water (to be in a stalemate, to be a deadlock)
- ရှဉ့်လည်းလျှောက်သာ ပျားလည်းစွဲသာ The chipmunk can tread on the branch; so can the bees build a hive on it.
- မြွေမသေ တုတ်မကျိုး Neither the snake shall die, nor the stick shall break.
- ပြန်လည်သင့်မြတ်သွားတယ် to reconcile
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