HlaMin

Category: Language

  • Vocabulary

    Comfort zone

    • Children are not shy and tend to pick up words — often in multiple languages — quickly and easily.
    • As people grow older, most tend to live within their comfort zone. Such people probably add only 10 – 20 new words a year.

    Necessity and Assimilation

    • My friend’s younger brother and sister are medical doctors from Burma who did not know Chinese. They chose to work in Taiwan. After working there for a year, they felt at ease communicating in Chinese. Assimilation helps improve one’s vocabulary.
    • During the Japanese occupation, several Burmese mastered Japanese quickly.

    Improving one’s vocabulary

    • To expand or refine one’s vocabulary, one could and should take extra effort.
    • In our younger days, we learned from a Reader’s Digest section “It pays to increase your word power” by Wilfred Funk, co-compiler of the Funk and Wagnall’s dictionary.
    • We studied Vocabulary Books which cover a lesson a day for three to six weeks.
    • With the rise of Broadcasting and Internet, it is easy to grow one’s vocabulary. One could subscribe to a program similar to (a) “Word of the Day” by Merriam Webster (b) “Word for the Wise“by National Public Radio (NPR).
  • Practice

    Practice

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Wisdom

    • Conventional wisdom says, “Practice makes perfect.”
    • Unconventional wisdom says, “Perfect practice makes perfect.”

    Horowitz (pianist)

    • If I do not practice for a day, only I will know.
    • If I do not practice for three days, my mom will know.
    • If I do not practice for a week my audience will know.

    Brother Clementian

    • In our Matriculation class, Brother Clementian — former Brother Director who continued teaching — gave a weekly one-hour Mathematics test on Saturdays. We had to answer three questions. With the practice, most of us did well in the examination where we had to answer six questions in three hours.
    • It was an example of “Perfect practice makes perfect.”
    • He would hand out the answer papers on Monday. He would call those who did not do well to a special session after school.

    Thoughts on Practice

    • There are several practice sessions before an event (e.g. Entertainment at SPZP). There may be a Full Dress Rehearsal (final practice).
    • Giving a reasonably good “Prepared Speech” requires practice, but the practice should not involve blind repetition. One should try to remember the main points and the transitions.
    • Practice helps a good athlete to become a great athlete.
    • Dr. Richard Yu Khin (MEHS61, GBNF) wrote about the tough practice sessions given by Mr. Matsuda for ten selected Burmese swimmers.
      They had to swim five 50 yard sprints with one minute interval. The coach helped Tin Maung Ni shine in Burma and beyond.
    • TTC (Teachers’ Training College) had a practicing school.

    Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint wrote :
    And why do qualified doctors keep on “practicing”?

  • I (Symbol)

    I (Symbol)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    • 9th letter of the English Alphabet
    • 3rd vowel in English
    • Roman Numeral with the value of one.

    I may stand for

    • Current. e.g. V = IR describes a property of Resistance
    • Information. e.g. IT (Information Technology)
    • Institute. e.g. RIT (Rangoon Institute of Technology)
    • Intelligence. e.g. AI (Artificial Intelligence)
    • Intermediate. e.g. I.Sc. (Intermediate of Science), I.A., I.Com
    • Intra. e.g. IV (Intravenous)
    • Iodine or Iodide

    U Win Myint (UCC) wrote:
    I may stand for I and me, not you.

    Uzin Bobby Myo Tun (A69) wrote :
    (I) Inflates the ego that brings one’s downfall!

    Dr. Nyunt Wai (SPHS63) wrote :
    I may stand for the President post of the world government, if there is one (the dream of Bertrand Russell).

    In medical science,

    I stands for

    • Inflammation
    • Infection
    • Iatrogenic ( disease caused by doctor)
    • Icterus (jaundice)
    • Injury
    • Infarction (localized death of an organ)
    • Incompatibility ( blood transfusion, organ transplantation )
    • Ischaemia (decreased blood supply to an organ)

    Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint wrote :
    And “impotence”

    Dr. Nyunt Wai added :
    Ko Johnny Thane Oke Kyaw-Myint Yes. One of the important image imploding issues.

    Michael Po Saw (M67) wrote :
    I can stand for “idiot” as well!

    Dr. Nyunt Wai added :
    idiosyncratic

  • Alphabet

    Alphabet

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    English

    • There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.
    • A is the first letter. B is the second letter. Z is the last letter.
    • A1 stands for first (e.g. in quality and performance).
      It was used as an insurance rating. It is the name of a Burmese Film Company.
    • ABC may mean “basics” or “fundamentals”. It may stand for American Broadcasting Corporation. It may stand for American Born Chinese.
    • ABCD may stand for American Burmese Cab Drivers. Some belong to “Dhamma Yin Daw Ah Phwe” which provide free rides for sayadaws giving dhamma talks.
    • One meaning of “A-Z” (A to Z) is “complete”.
    • “Dot the i’s and Cross the t’s” mean “be thorough”.

    Burmese

    Vowels & Consonants

    Greek

    • Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
    • Beta is the second letter.
    • Omega is the last letter.
    • Alpha testers are the first to test the product. Beta testers are the next group to test the product.
    • Alpha males dominate in several species.
    • Alpha and Omega” stands for “First and Last”.
    • Omega is a name of watches and clocks.
    • Omega is a kind of nutrition supplement.

    Pyu

    Pyu
    Pyu Inscription
  • Retire / Re-tire

    Retire / Re-tire

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Steeve’s Advice

    Steeve
    • U Thaung Sein (Steeve Kay, EC70, GBNF) is a Multiple Golden Sponsor of SPZPs.
    • He said, “You should not retire.
      You may re-tire (as in re-threading a tire). We will try to support you and your projects.

    Retired

    I am retired from working to make ends meet.

    Re-tiring

    • I am re-tiring as long as my physical and mental health permit.
    • Took a few on-line courses (for credit)
      Too taxing and slow
      Opted to audit 100+ courses (covering many subjects)
    • Listen to one or more Blinkist every day
    • Listen to selected Podcasts every day.
    • Ride stationary bike for 30+ minutes every day.
    • Write or revise 10+ posts every day.
  • Crossword Puzzle

    Crossword Puzzle

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Friendly competition

    My uncle and my cousin brother would have a friendly competition to complete “Cross word puzzle” which was featured daily in an English newspaper.

    Several magazines and journals also publish “Cross word puzzle”.

    Complexity

    There may be

    • Simple Cross Word Puzzle which can be completed in about 10 minutes
    • Hard Cross Word Puzzle which requires 30+ minutes
    • Challenging Cross Word Puzzle which may take a long time
    • Subject-specific Cross Word Puzzle
    • Book of Cross Word Puzzles

    Entries

    Some entries are easy to fill.

    For example, a two-letter word for printer’s measure will usually be “en” or “em”. In printing, the width of the letter M is known as an “em”. The width of the letter N is an “en”.

    A three-letter word for referee’s cousin will probably be “ump” (for umpire).

    Some entries may be anagrams. Examples of anagrams for the four directions are

    • Seat (for East)
    • Stew (for West)
    • Thorn (for North)
    • Shout (for South)

    Some entries might refer to

    • Shakespeare
    • Bible
    • Literature
    • Music

    Special Dictionary

    • for Crossword
    • based on number of letters


  • Idiom

    Idiom

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Characteristics

    An idiom

    • is usually a phrase whose meaning is not obvious
    • gets the meaning accepted due to usage over time
    • is a linguistic device

    Advanced dictionaries may list idioms and their usage.

    Examples

    During my middle school days, one of my uncles gave me books (including “A Book of Idioms”) .

    From the book, I learned that “the hand that rocks the cradle” stands for “a mother”.

    “Rain cats and dogs” is an idiom which means “Rain heavily”.
    In this example, the idiom uses a metaphor.

    No one knows the root of the idiom “kick the bucket” meaning “dies”. Someone guessed that a man being hanged by a rope might kick a bucket.

    Idioms should be used sparingly.

    If you combine two idioms mentioned above and say “The hand that rocked the cradle kicked the bucket” you might receive LOL (Laughing Out Loud) for the illogical construct.

    U Khin Maung Zaw (KMZ, EC76) added :

    Believe it or not, this subject is one of the many we learned from U Hla Min (KJ to some of us) while we were at the UCC. As some of us were preparing for TOEFL, KJ prepared us by teaching the ins and outs of the language.

    Some of these idioms are regional in nature, after some time living here, I tend to use many idioms as they come naturally. Well, that’s until a childhood friend of mine kindly reminded me that many of them were having hard time fully understanding what I meant in the posts.

    As of now, I am trying my best to use US idioms as little as possible, at times I feel like I have to write more as if I could not communicate to get my point across. I did it again, bad of me.

    “to get my point across” is an idiom meaning “to make people understand what one is saying” (per Merriam Webster).

  • Quotes

    Quotes

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    Book of Quotations

    • In our younger days, we rely on Bartlett’s “Book of familiar quotations“.
    • The Bible and Shakespeare provided the major number of quotes in the classic book.
    • Several quotes were marked “Anon.” for anonymous (or unknown author).

    Misquotes and Wrong attribution

    • If people do not check the source, they may misquote or attribute a quote to the wrong person.
    • Many wrongly believe that Sherlock Holmes said, “Elementary, my dear Watson”.

    Autographs

    • We used to have autograph books.
    • I remember a quote:
      “Worry is like sand in an oyster.
      A little produces a pearl.
      Too much kills the animal.”

  • Wiki

    • Wiki supposedly uses an easier “Mark up” than HTML (Hyper Text Mark Up).
    • A web site using Wiki usually allows some access to non-administrators.

    Wikipedia

    • Wikipedia is a collection of encyclopedias (in multiple languages)
      Contributed and managed by volunteers.
    • There are guidelines for Wiki publications such as Wikipedia and WikiMedia.
    • For example, an article for a Wikipedia should have citations, but it should not be a report for one’s research.
    • A reader can challenge an article for correctness, style, structure, and conformance.
    • I suggested and corrected discrepancies in some Wikipedia articles.
  • Word Games

    Word Games

    by Hla Min

    Updated : May 2025

    My elder brother’s wife is feeling sleepy

    • My elder brother’s wife => MAYEE
    • is feeling sleepy => yawn => THAN
    • Combine them => MAYEE + THAN
    • Transpose => MAYAN + THEE => MAYANTHEE မရမ်းသီး (Marion, delicious Burmese fruit)

    “PIN LE DHA MYA” ပင်လယ်ဓားပြ

    • PIN LE => is wide => KYAIR
    • DHA MYA => plunders (takes by force) => TAIK
    • Combine them => KYAIR + TAIK
    • Transpose => KYAIK + TAIR (Love, …) ကြိုက်တယ်

    Pho Thaike’s response

    • Offer from the boss : “If I give you a raise of 5 kyats to your present salary of 20 kyats, will you move to Na Shan?”
    • The response in Mixed Language

    Twenty
    Five
    Toee တိုး

    Pho Thaik ဖိုးသိုက်
    No

    No Go
    Na Shan နရှံ
    Town