Learn Burmese from Natural Talk

Episodes

• 
  Vocabulary Booster: Physical Appearance 18.07.2026 21m

  Hello Burmese learners! In this episode, my regular guest Su from Burmese Chatter Talk and I introduce you to a list of basic words and phrases to describe physical appearance, from body types and skin tones to hair and height. We discuss the Burmese word "to be fat," which few people like to hear, and the alternatives that are much more diplomatic. We also discuss tricky words that are typically used to describe tall people, long streets, and long hair, and some that are used primarily to de...
• 
  Vocabulary Booster: Weather-Related Words 18.06.2026 22m

  Following our debut Vocabulary Booster episode introducing you to flavor-related words, my cohost Su, a Chiang Mai-based Burmese teacher, and I now introduce you to commonly used weather-related verbs and expressions, along with a handful of time-related phrases such as "today, yesterday, and tomorrow." (Image licensed from Shutterstock. Music: "Sunshine Dreams" by Kaazoom, Pixabay) ပူတယ် to be hot မပူဘူး not hot (negative) အေးတယ် to be cold မအေးဘူး not cold (negative) အိုက်တယ် to...
• 
  Vocabulary Booster: Flavor-Related Words 19.05.2026 16m

  In collaboration with Su, a Chiang Mai-based Burmese language teacher, I am launching a new series of mini-episodes called Vocabulary Boosters, as part of the Learn Burmese from Natural Talk podcast. Long-form conversations, like the past episodes on the Burmese teashop culture and common insults, target intermediate and advanced learners. They're meant to replicate authentic conversations a learner might overhear on the streets or in the market. On the other hand, Vocabulary Boosters t...
• 
  On Love and Life According to Forrest Gump 14.04.2026 48m

  "Life's like a box of chocolate; you never know what you're gonna get," says Forrest Gump, the title character played by Tom Hanks in the 1994 film. In Burmese, the saying roughly translates to "ဘဝဆိုတာ ချောကလက်ဘူးလေးလိုပါပဲ။ ဘာပါလဲဆိုတာ ဘယ်သူမှ မသိကြပါဘူး။" In this episode, my cohost Su, a Burmese language teacher from Chiang Mai, and I discuss Forrest Gump's attitude toward life's tragedies and challenges, war's toll on the human psyche, and the bitter-sweet nature of first love. Alon...
• 
  Bite-Size Burmese: On the Poet Min Thu Wun's Ode to a Tree Stump 10.03.2026 9m

  "Pyimma Ngote Toe (ပျဉ်းမငုတ်တို)" by Min Thu Wun (1909 to 2004), written in the four-syllable rhyme scheme typical of classic Burmese poetry, is an ode to a tree stump, the surviving fragment of a pyimma tree standing on a mound. The common name for this specimen in English is Queen's Crape Myrtle or Queen's Flower, giving off the unavoidable stench of colonialism. The original Burmese name pyimma, however, is quite different. It invokes the image of a sturdy, leafy tree offering refuge from...
• 
  Bite-Size Burmese: Twitchy Eyebrow, Itchy Heart 21.02.2026 5m

  Twitchy eyebrow? Itchy sole? According to Burmese superstition, twitching eyebrows may be an omen of good fortune or financial ruin, depending the exact spot of the twitch, also on who you ask. And an itch in the sole might be a sign of imminent travel. မျက်ခုံးလှုပ်တယ် (the eyebrow twitches) and ခြေဖဝါးယားတယ် (the sole itches) are also expressions people might use to convey worry and anxiety or wanderlust and the itch to travel, so even if you don't plan on visiting a fortuneteller, it's a g...
• 
  On Christmas Festivities 13.12.2025 35m

  In San Francisco, the city I now call home, the large Christmas tree in downtown Union Square has officially been turned on to usher in the holiday season. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, home to my guests for this episode, regular night markets have turned into Christmas markets. For this special year-end episode, I invited Su and Zue, two Chiang Mai-based Burmese teachers, to talk about Christmas, from our earliest memories of the carol singers, our favorite Christmas movies and books, and our pre...
• 
  On Diplomacy and Language 28.11.2025 28m

  Imagine this. You’re a diplomat, and in the middle of an embassy cocktail party, you suddenly switch language and speak to your counterpart from the host country in his or her mother tongue, with the kind of fluency that only comes from years of dedicated learning. With that display of earnest interest in the host country's culture, you’re bound to impress those in attendance. Who knows? The favorable impression you’ve made might even help you broker a peace deal or a trade agreement in the f...
• 
  Bite-Size Burmese: Choking on Happiness, Flattened by Sadness 13.11.2025 8m

  Many Burmese words describing how you feel—happy, sad, depressed, and so on—are constructed with the root words ဝမ်း for "belly" or "womb," and စိတ် for "the mind." The phrase ဝမ်းသာတယ် "to be glad, to be happy" literally translates to "the belly is pleasant, favorable." The opposite phrase ဝမ်းနည်းတယ် "to be sad or unhappy" is "the belly is deficient." To feel an overwhelming happiness is ဝမ်းသာလုံးဆို့နေတယ်, a picturesque phrase that means "to be choking on a ball of happiness." And t...
• 
  On Burmese Poetry 19.09.2025 49m

  My first introduction to Burmese poetry was through the children’s nursery rhymes and classic verses scattered throughout the government-prescribed school textbooks. These were usually in the traditional four-syllable rhyme scheme, called လေးလုံးစပ် (lay lone zat), often depicting the charm of pastoral life or the longing of royal courtiers. Later, I’d come across rhymeless or freeform modern poetry, in the front pages of popular lifestyle and literary magazines. In this episode, my gue...
• 
  On Animal Farm, Part II 04.09.2025 34m

  Orwell’s masterpiece, Animal Farm, was inspired by the power struggle in post-revolution Russia, where a one-party authoritarian rule slowly began to take shape under the guise of Communism. The book outlines the playbook of many dictators, past and present, from the way they use propaganda and false nationalism to sway mass opinion to the way they accuse dissidents and critics of treason to silence them. In Part II on Animal Farm, my cohost Su, a Burmese teacher in Chiang Mai, and I discuss ...
• 
  On Animal Farm, Part I 11.08.2025 36m

  Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm shows how a revolution could lead to the rise of opportunists, power struggles, infighting, fake news, and ultimately a new breed of authoritarians. Even though Orwell was looking at the rise of Joseph Stalin in post-revolution Russia as the model for his animal farm, we would later see the same sequence of events in Communist Cuba, Chairman Mao’s China, and other places. In this episode, my cohost Su and I discuss Thakin Ba Thaung’s translation of Anima...
• 
  Bite-Size Burmese: Let's Talk About "You" and "I" 16.07.2025 11m

  In English, when you’re talking about yourself, your choice of pronoun is a solitary “I.” Not so in Burmese. There’s a variety of ways to refer to yourself, based on your gender, profession, age, and your relationship towards the other person. And the same is true of ways to refer to the person you’re speaking to. You can refer to him or her by name, a kinship term, or an honorific associated with his or her profession or field of expertise. In fact, there are situations where using what is t...
• 
  On Dowry 01.07.2025 34m

  As singles with no marital experience, my cohost Su and I are under-qualified to discuss this episode's theme: dowry. In Burmese context, it usually means what the groom and his family offer to the bride’s parents as gifts when asking for the girl’s hand in marriage. The so-called gifts could be cows for ploughing, a plot of farm to live on, a new bed, furniture for the newly weds' room, a luxury car, a home, or even cold, hard cash. When the wealth and social status of the two families invol...
• 
  On Burmese Slangs, from Being Broke to Having a Crush 14.05.2025 35m

  If you’re going out to lunch with a Burmese friend who says he’s running low on water (ရေခမ်းနေတယ်), be prepared to pay for the meal. That means he’s broke. On the other hand, if you’re running low on water yourself, but he is overflowing, so to speak (ရေလျှံနေတယ်), you can probably ask him to pay for the meal. In English, if you need some type of permit or approval from a government office or an institution, you may need to grease the wheel. In Burmese, you may need to offer the clerk ...
• 
  Bite-Size Burmese: Drink a Cigarette, Strike a Photo, Dream a Dream 23.04.2025 5m

  Would you ever drink a cigarette or a cigar? In English, you wouldn't, but in Burmese, you must. To describe smoking a cigarette or cigar, you must use the verb သောက်တယ် , the same verb for drinking coffee, tea, or Coca Cola. It may seem counterintuitive to use the verb to describe consuming liquid for smoking, but that's the correct form: ဆေးလိပ်သောက်တယ် , quite literally, to drink a cigarette. When talking about having a dream, you cannot just use the single-word verb "dream," as you ...
• 
  On Thingyan and Thaan Jaat 15.04.2025 32m

  Mid-April is when Burmese people celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of another one with a water festival, similar to the people of Thailand and several other neighboring countries. In modern times, young people driving around in open pickup trucks and shooting water through high-pressure tubes and cannons is the standard practice, but in the old days, people dipped laurel leaves into silver goblets of fragrant water and dabbed them on one another-- a practice that seems quain...
• 
  On Chinese New Year 21.02.2025 30m

  You might have noticed that, in Chinatown, red lanterns are going up, and lion dancers and dragon dancers are coming out, ready to parade the street. Mid-February is usually Chinese New Year, so both the Chinese community in Yangon, and the Chinese diaspora around the world are decked out in red dresses and new outfits, ready to welcome the new year. In this episode, my cohost Su, a Chiang Mai-based Burmese language teacher, and I discuss the new year festivities we can see around us. (Photo ...
• 
  Bite-Size Burmese: Straddling Two Boats at Once 08.02.2025 8m

  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 Culture Shock 29.01.2025 39m

  In the 1980s, when I was growing up in Rangoon under Ne Win's Socialist Government, I remember how foreigners were shocked by, among other things, local people chewing betel quid and spitting out splashes of red betel juice all over the sidewalks. Today, if you come from a place like Japan, where nobody expects you to tip, you’re in for a shock when visiting the U.S., where tipping is expected everywhere, from coffee shops to fine-dining restaurants (15-20% of your bill is the norm, in case y...