Category: Language

  • In Lighter Vein

    Set Hmu [Maung] Thein Aung

    Thein Aung (Met72)

    U Thein Aung (M72) presents the differentiation with U Thein Aung (Met72).

    • I am Set HmuMaung Thein Aung. (I am Maung Thein Aung studying Mechanical Engineering.)
    • He is Set Hmu MaungThein Aung. (He is Thein Aung, who won Mr. RIT award and Sa Lwei Thaing in 1968).

    Ba La Gyi vs. Ba Lar Gyi

    During his RIT days, U Thein Aung (Met72) was “Ba La Gyi” (full of strength and prowess).

    Lately, he has become “Ba Lar Gyi” (nothing notable left).

    Khin Maung Win (EP69)

    At a 69er gathering, Daw Saw Yu Tint (T69) greeted U Khin Maung Win (EP69) as Sargalay (“sparrow”).

    He replied, “I am no longer Sargalay. I have became a La Da (“vulture”).

    Kar Ku La Thin Char

    Saya U Aung Myint (Pet69, Kyant Ba Hone) drew a cartoon:

    “Ah Ba, Kar Ku La Thin Char (Calculus) is fascinating.
    If you differentiate a La Da, you get a Sargalay.
    If you integrate a Sargalay, you get back a La Da.”

    Palindrome

    A palindrome reads the same when read forward or backward.

    There are palindromes in languages, music and art. The Pulitzer Prize winning book on Escher (Painter), Godel (Mathematician) and Bach (Composer) discusses threads that are common to Mathematics and Computer Science, Arts and Music. One such thread is a palindrome. For example, a musical composition (which is a palindrome) can be played from the front to back, and vice versa.

    The earliest palindrome supposedly occurred in the Garden of Eden.
    MADAM I’M ADAM and the reply EVE

    Napoleon Bonaparte is the first Corsican to attend the French Military Academy. He rose to be a young General, and then an Emperor. He supposedly lamented as follows: ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA .

    There were two early Canals (Suez and Panama) to shorten the sea routes. The degree of difficulty was not the same. It took meticulous planning to build the Panama Canal. It gave rise to the palindrome :
    A MAN, A PLAN, PANAMA

    Ashin Pannagavesaka wrote :

    Parent #1: My son’s only four and he can already spell his name backwards.
    Parent #2: Oh? And what’s his name?
    Parent #1: Otto.

    Einstein Jokes

    In our younger days, there were Newton jokes. Later, there were Einstein jokes.

    It is possible that someone processed a joke about an absent minded professor and then attributed to a famous person.

    Einstein (1)

    It was raining. Einstein took off his hat and hid it in his coat.
    A student asked “Why?”
    The reply : “My hat is new and can be damaged. But my head cannot be damaged by the rain.”

    Einstein (2)

    A ticket inspector boarded a train. Einstein searched for his pockets.
    The inspector said, “You need not show me the ticket. You are Einstein.”
    The reply : “I do not know which stop I should get down.”

    Einstein (3)

    Einstein was carrying a stack of books. He collided with a lovely student.
    The books fell down.
    The student collected the books and returned them to Einstein.

    Einstein asked, “Which way was I going?”
    The student replied, “You were going towards the school.”
    Einstein felt relieved and said, “Then, I must had my lunch at home.

  • Languages

    Language Classification

    There are several ways to classify languages, e..g. Natural Languages, Programming Languages

    In Computer Science and applications, a Programming Language is a language used to program (e.g. instruct) computers.

    In the early days, computer engineers and selected programmers have to program in Machine Language (with strings of Zeroes and Ones). They are due partly to the choice of Binary Number System as the basis of designing Arithmetic and Logic Unit inside the computer.
    On the ICL 1902S computer, we often have to use the 24 keys to enter short pieces of Machine Code. That is history.

    To bridge the human users and the computers, the next step was to use Assembly Languages such as (a) Simple/Symbolic Assembly Language (b) Macro Assembly Language.
    A Macro Processor translates Macros (a well-defined group of Assembly Language instructions).
    An Assembler translates a program in Assembly Language into Machine Language instructions.

    The development of the first 11 (or so) programming languages can be found in the first HOPL (History
    of Programming Languages) Conference.
    Currently, there are thousands of programming languages (some for academic purposes) and a limited number used for production.

    Programming Styles

    Over the years, the style of programming evolved.

    • Procedural programming
      e.g. telling the computer system what to do, emphasis on the “verbs”
    • Non-procedural programming
      e.g. telling the computer system what one wants
    • Object Oriented programming
      e.g. emphasis on the “nouns”
    • Functional programming
      e.g. based on “functions”
    • Logic programming
      e.g. based on “Horn logic” and similar logic systems
    • Top down step wise development
    • Bottom up & Middle out techniques
    • AI programming
    • Low Code & No Code

    Within each paradigm, there are several programming languages with known advantages and limitations.

    Turing Computability

    There is a theoretical model called “Turing Machine”, which is primitive but has the computational power of modern computers.

    Alan Perlis, a pioneer Computer Scientist and Programming Language Designer, defined a “Turing Tar Pit where everything is possible, but nothing is easy.”

  • RIT-related Activities

    Paying respect

    SPZP-2000
    • Paying respect to Sayas is a tradition that is unique to Myanmar.
    • The tradition is alive and well.
    • There have been seven world wide SPZPs :
      SPZP-2000 (US)
      SPZP-2002, SPZP-2007, SPZP-2010 (Singapore)
      SPZP-2004, SPZP-2012, SPZP-2016 (Yangon)
    • I was fortunate to be a Core Organizer for SPZP-2000 and a Coordinator for the remaining SPZPs.

    Alumni

    Many alumni are active in the following:

    • SDYF (Swel Daw Yeik Foundation)
    • RITAA (RIT-YIT-YTU Alumni Association)
    • NorCal RITAA (in the US)
    • MES
    • MEC
    • HMEE-2018

    History

    • “History of Myanmar Engineering Education” was published in 2012.
    • The project’s initiators included Saya U Soe Paing, Sayagyi U Ba Than and several sayas and alumni (See Acknowledgement in the Book)
    • Saya U Aung Hla Tun and team compiled the book.
    • Ko Ohn Khine (M70) and I compiled the CD Supplement for the HMEE-2012 book
    • The draft for the first two sections were prepared by Saya U Soe Paing and team.
    • Ko Ohn Khine translated Section 1 and summarized Section 2. The translations have been revised by Saya U Soe Paing.
    • Saya U Aung hla Tun gave the copyright to RITAA.
    • HMEE-2018 project is headed by Saya U Aung Hla Tun.
      Project will revise / enhance the HMEE-2012 book.
      Will cover the History of Engineering and Industries.

    YTU Library Modernization Project

    A decent Library is a requirement of the accreditation of YTU by Asean (and beyond).

    Donations — large and small — are coming in.
    Thanks to U Wynn Htain Oo (M72), Ma Nan Khin Nwe (83 Intake) and team.

    The donors include

    • U Khin Maung Tun (T78)
    • Dr. Myo Khin (C70) and Daw Mya Nwe (C73)
    • Daw Myint Myint (C69)
    • Saya U Tin Htut (M60)
    • James Shwe (M76) and Annette Shwe (A75)
    • NorCal RITAA
    • Alumni from Singapore, Australia and New Zealand

    Archive

    • The Library could have a section to help remember our beloved alma mater, our sayas and alumni activities.
    • Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi endorsed Ko Benny Tan’s proposal to archive the mementos.
    • Requested class representatives to record gatherings / activities.

    Health Care Funds

    • “Steeve and Helen Kay Health Care Fund for RIT Sayas and Sayamas”
    • “Eye examination and assistance Fund provided by U Khin Maung Tun”.
    • Balance of both funds have been handed over to Swel Daw Yeik Foundation.
    • Other funds include 69er HCF, EE69er HCF, and those administered by the classes and groups (e.g. Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65)

    Resources

    • RIT related Facebook pages
    • RIT related Google groups
    • hlamin.com

    Saya Allen Htay (C58)

    • Leader of the San Francisco Bay Area Alumni Group
    • Co-founded “RIT Alumni International” which hosted SPZP-2000 and served as President.
    • His article “Brother, can you spare US $500?” is a classic.
    • Daw Mu Mu Khin hosted a lunch in memory of Saya on December 31, 2017.
    • In memory of Saya Allen, Daw Mu Mu Kin donated Saya’s books to the YTU library.
      Also sponsored scholarships for eligible YTU students.
    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is allen-htay-1.jpg
    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is allen-htay-2.jpg

    Golden Sponsors

    • U Thaung Sein (Steeve, EC70)
    • U Benny Tan (M70)
    • U Khin Maung Oo (Ivan Lee, M69)
    • U Tin Myint (David Ko, M67)
    • U Maung Maung Than (M79)

      The five Golden sponsors and other donors made sure U Nyo Win’s Act (requiring the organizers to chip in if SPZP-2000 will not have the minimum number of attendees) will not be needed.

    2019

    • Completed two decades as Chief Editor of RIT Alumni International Newsletter
    • Compiled posts for the Golden Jubilee of 69ers
      Attended both events on December 14, 2019

    2020 – 2024

    • Writing and revising posts in hlamin.com
    • Request help to transform into digital and/or printed books for posterity
  • Chess

    Board Games

    * International Chess

    Tournaments & Ratings by FIDE

    * Burmese Chess စစ်တုရင် / စစ်ဘုရင်

    See Wikipedia for details

    * Chinese Chess

    Restrictions on the movement of King

    Chess sets

    * Received a set from U Maung Maung Gyi (saya of my father). The wooden pieces had lead inside.

    * Standard set with Plastic pieces

    * Portable Chess set from my brother U Sein Htoon upon his return from 1960 ARAE Regatta in Colombo

    * Virtual sets in Computer Programs

    Chess Enthusiasts

    * Saya Dawson (Burma Chess Champion) taught Mathematics at SPHS before opening his Private Tuition School. He taught Chess to his students and aspiring players. He is an organizer of Chess tournaments (e.g at YMCA).

    His daughter Mary was among the top female players.

    * Several doctors : Dr. Tin U (Children’s hospital), Dr. Tin U (TB hospital), Dr. Aung Nyein (Radiologist), Dr. Lyn Aung Thet (Joint 1st in Burma in 1964) …

    * RIT Chess Club was founded by U Aung Than (EE69er), U Maung Maung (M72), U Thet Lwin (EE72) and several more alumni with some Soviet Lecturers.

    U Tin Swan was Burma Chess Champion. U Maung Maung (Sin Gyi, Table Tennis Champion, C67) was also an excellent Chess player.

    Computer Chess

    * Professor Don Michie (Machine Intelligence pioneer) and David Levy (Programmer & Chess Master) had a friendly bet (of a year’s wages of David) if a computer program can beat David within 10 years. David won.

    * Monty Newborn was an organizer of Computer Chess tournaments. Notable Champions include Belle (by Ken Thompson, co-inventor of Unix) and Deep Thought (by five Ph.D students from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)).

    * IBM hired three members of Deep Thought team and several Computer Experts to develop Deep Blue to challenge Gary Kasparov (World Chess Champion). Deep Blue was unsuccessful in the first attempt, but beat Gary Kasparov in the second attempt. IBM retired Deep Blue.

    * Computer History Museum (CHM) at Shoreline, Mountain View, California had an exhibition on the History of Computer Chess.

    CHM had a panel. I had autographs of the Panelists & Moderator.

    • Professor John McCarthy (LISP inventor, Time Sharing System)
    • Professor Edward Feigenbaum (Computer Expert Systems)
    • Murray Campbell (Member of CMU Deep Thought & IBM Deep Blue Teams)
    • David Levy (Programmer & Chess Master whose wager with Professor Don Michie led to the rise of Computer Chess)
    • Monty Newborn (Organizer of Computer Chess Tournaments)
  • National Foreign Language Center

    NFLC

    • There is a NFLC (National Foreign Language Center) at the University of Maryland (College Park), USA.
    • It used to provide free (or limited) access to Federal employees and eligible educators to study languages (e.g. French, Chinese, Arabic).
    • For a number of years, it chose from among the languages used by minorities to add introductory level courses to its library.

    Burmese

    • One year NFLC chose to develop Listening and Reading Comprehension listening for basic Burmese. NFLC sent request to Burmese associations to help with the project.
    Hla Min
    • I was accepted as the Language Advisor for the Burmese project.
    • The listening comprehension consisted of broadcasts (e.g. “Win Pe Lwai Eik”).
    • The reading comprehension consisted of short articles (e.g. Amyotha Pyinnya Wun U Po Kyar).
    • Specific fonts and browsers were needed to read the script for the Listening and Reading Comprehension.
    • An English translation was provided.
      My task was to ensure the quality (e.g. correctness of the translation).
    • Exercises were provided

    Access

    • As a contributor to the project, I had access to LangNet
    • NLC no longer offers free access.
      Individuals and groups can subscribe to NFLC’s courses for nominal fees.
  • Poetry

    • Various flavors of Poem
    • Kabyar (in Myanmar / Burmese)
    • Poetry, Poem … (in English)
    • Gatha (in Pali)
    • There are websites and groups that post and/or publish Poems (in various languages) and Translations

    Studies

    • Studied Poems in school
    • Studied Translations from books, magazines, special supplements in newspapers

    Sample presents

    • Poems & Translations by Rev. F Lustig (Ashin Ananda)
    • Collection of Kabyars by Tekkatho Moe War (Saya U Moe Aung)
    • Swel Daw themed Kabyars by Tekkatho Moe War, Okpo Maung Yin Maung, Maung Nyunt Htay (Ah Htet Min Hla), Ko Toe (Myit Che), Win Myint (M72)
    • Nature themed Poems : include poems by Dr. Lyn Swe Aye
    • Kabyars by Ko Yin Zaw (U Jotalankara)
    • Kabyars by Soe Sint (U Myo Sint)
    • Minthuwun’s Kabyars with translation by his Literary Friends
    • Rhyming Dictionary

    My experience

    • My poems and translations published in Guardian, Working People’s Daily, Forward Magazine, RIT Alumni International Newsletter …
    • Translation of selected kabyars in “Poetic Art Series” (organized by U Aung Myaing and illustrated by U Myo Myint)
    • Served as Panelist at 5th Irrawaddy Literary Festival in Mandalay (November 2019)
    Panel with award winning poet from UK
  • Heritage of Bagan

    Poem : Tekkatho Moe War
    Translated by Hla Min

    UNESCO inscribed Myanmar’s ancient capital of Bagan as a World Heritage Site on July 6, 2019.

    Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War) has portrayed the cultural, religious, historical and architectural heritage of Bagan.

    စာေရးသူရဲ႕ ႏွလံုးေသြးမွ စီးဆင္းလာတဲ့
    ႏွစ္သိမ့္ၾကည္ႏူးျခင္း ကဗ်ာ။

    “ပုဂံအေမြ”

    Heritage of BAGAN

    ႏွလံုးေသြးရဲ႕ တဒုတ္ဒုတ္ျမည္သံ
    ပုဂံေျမထဲ လြင့္ပ်ံသြား။

    Rapid, incessant heart beat
    racing towards the Bagan area

    ႏွလံုးသားမွာစူးနစ္
    အေမြအႏွစ္ဟာ ပုဂံ….။

    Deeply rooted in the bottom of my heart
    the cultural, religious, historical and architectural heritage of Bagan

    ကမၻာ႔ ရင္သပ္႐ႈေမာ၊ အံ႔ၾသဖြယ္ၾကည္ညိဳ
    ပုဂံကိုသြတ္သြင္း၊ စာရင္း၀င္ အေမြအႏွစ္
    လြမ္းရစ္ေတာ့ တစ္ဖန္
    ေၾသာ္…. ပုဂံရယ္….။

    Fascinating, full of wonder and memories,
    heart rendering, sublime Bagan
    finally, rightfully inscribed as World Heritage Site
    O … ancient Temple City
    where I left my heart

    ဟိုး အေ၀းထိ၊ လွမ္းေမွ်ာ္ၾကည့္တိုင္း
    ထိ႐ွ လြမ္းေမာ၊ တေ၀ါေ၀ါ စီးဆင္း
    ျမစ္မင္း ဧရာ၀တီ၊ ၀န္းလည္ ရစ္ေခြ
    မႈိုင္းမိႈင္းေ၀ေ၀
    ႏွလံုးသား ေၾကြက်၊ အနဂၣ ခ်စ္ျခင္း၊
    ေၾသာ္….ျမစ္မင္းဧရာ၀တီရယ္….။

    Every time one looks yonder
    touched by the whirling, swirling,
    vibrant Ayeyarwaddy (Lord of the rivers)
    Misty, dreamy panoramic view
    O … my dear Ayeyarwaddy

    ယဥ္ေက်းမႈရဲ႕
    ပန္းပု ဗိသုကာ၊ လက္ရာေထာင္ေသာင္း
    ေစတီပုထိုးေပါင္းမ်ားစြာ
    ကမၻာကုန္တည္သေ႐ြ႕၊ ၾကည္ေမြ႕ ႏွစ္လို
    ၾကည္ညိဳ ၀ပ္တြား၊ ေပ်ာက္ပ်က္မသြားဖို႔
    ထားသစၥာဉာဏ္အသိ၊ တိက် မွန္ကန္
    ေၾသာ္…. ပုဂံရယ္. …။ ။
    (ကမၻာ့ ယဥ္ေက်းမႈအေမြအႏွစ္အျဖစ္သတ္မွတ္ျခင္း
    ခံရသည့္ ပုဂံ သို႔. ….)

    Finest culture
    Treasure of sculpture
    Architecture galore
    Countless shrines and pagodas of Pagan
    Will last for eternity
    as World Heritage Site
    to be revered, cherished and appreciated
    O … glorious Bagan

    တကၠသိုလ္ မိုး၀ါ
    ၇-၇-၂၀၁၉
    နံနက္ ၁၁:၃၀

    Tekkatho Moe War (Saya U Moe Aung)
    July 7, 2019
    11: 30 AM

  • To The Shwe Duo

    Poem by Tekkatho Moe War (Saya U Moe Aung)

    Translation by Hla Min

    SHWE duo

    Blossom in unison

    Disappear together

    Free from complaint

    Even with thin breath

    Showed mark [of courage and wisdom]

    Never ever wavered …

    Pressed by burden

    At the awaited turn [of journey’s end]

    Body — inheritance [from previous lives]

    Succumbs [to failing health]

    Yet, “Wei-nyin” is fresh, alive and hovering.

    [ Wei-nyin = ဝိညာဥ္ ]

    Translated by:

    HLA MIN (Editor, International Newsletter Updates, USA)

  • Poetic Art Series

    Poems

    • Aged thorn
    • Bloom together Fall together
    • Knotted love
    • Near or far
    • Night of heart throb
    • Prisoner of love
    • Search for beauty
    • Sharing and caring blossoms in Myanmar
    • Vine
    • Write your own history
    • Ywet Hla Pann

    Thanks to the Laureate Poets and the Distinguished Illustrator U Myo Myint (“Myat Myo Myint”)

    Tekkatho Moe War (Saya U Moe Aung)

    • Bagan Heritage
    • Computer in my heart
    • Kabyar Let Saung
    • Search for beauty
    • Shwe YaDu Lann
    • To the Shwe Duo

    Okpo Maung Yin Maung (Saya U Aung Myaing)

    • Aged thorn
    • Knotted love
    • Night of heart throb
    • Our leader
    • Prisoner of love
    • Sharing and caring blossoms in Myanmar
    • Traveler

    Maung Nyunt Htay (Ah Htet Min Hla)

    • Lwan Pyay Aung
    • Near or far
    • Write your own history

    Ko Win Myint (M72)

    • Bloom together Fall together

    Maung Sein Win (Padeegone)

    • Vine
  • Translation

    Translation is done from a Source Language into a Target Language.

    Burma Translation Society was formed primarily to translate reference and text from English to Burmese.

    Pali Text Society in the UK publishes selected English translations of Pali texts.

    One of the Objectives of the Sixth Buddhist Council was to translate the Scriptures (including Commentaries and selected Sub-commentaries) from Pali into Burmese. Mahasi Sayadaw and his team (including Sayadaw U Silananda) compiled a Pali-Burmese Abhidan (Dictionary) to aid the translation of the Tipitaka.

    Lexicographers

    Reverend Judson and his team compiled the “English to Burmese” and “Burmese to English” dictionaries. They translated the Bible into Burmese.

    There are several Dictionaries compiled by Burmese. The early works were done by

    • U Tun Nyein
    • Dr. Ba Han
    • Tet Toe (U Ohn Pe)

    U Hoke Sein took two decades to complete his Pali-English-Burmese Dictionary.

    Lost in Translation?

    Some meaning can be lost in Translation.

    Grapevine says that the Japanese were given an ultimatum by the US. The response supposedly had two meanings :
    (a) We will consider
    (b) We don’t care
    Due to miscommunication or “wrong” translation, the second meaning was taken, and the first A-bomb was released over Hiroshima.

    Interpreters find it difficult to translate jokes or puns. One interpreter pleaded : “The dignitary is making a joke. If you want to help me retain my job, please applaud loudly and laugh heartily.” His job was saved.

    WPD Sunday Supplement

    Working People’s Daily (WPD) carried a Sunday Supplement. It carried the translation of renowned authors and scholars.

    They include

    • MMT (former Chief Justice U Myint Thein)
    • Tet Toe (U Ohn Pe)
    • ZMT (former Ambassador U Zaw Myint Thein)
    • Sao Hso Holm (English First Class Honors, son of Arzani Sao San Htun)

    The Assistant Editor Daw Khin Swe Hla (formerly “Dawlay” at Guardian) wanted some fresh blood. She assigned me to translate a short story “Nge Thay Lo” by Sayagyi U Thu Kha. I tried my best to come up with “Still So Young” and received a remuneration of fifty kyats. Sayagyi was given fifty kyats.

    My experience

    • Translator and Interpreter at Meditation Retreats and selected events
    • Loose rendition of articles and poems by Sayas and alumni