Category: Language

• Classmate Priests
  High school and university classmates who became priests
  Some quite early
  A few after retirement
  
• 1965 – 1969
  Spent most of that period at Rangoon Institute of Technology
  Was active in extra-curricular activities
  
• 1920 – 1929
  The first decade of Rangoon University
  Established in December 1920 with Rangoon College and Judson College as constituent Colleges
  
• Myanmar Medical and Dental Professionals
  Had world wide gatherings (e.g. California, New York)
  
• BMRI / DMR
  Dr. Mya Tu founded Burma Medical Research Institute
  He also co-authored “Who’s who in Medicine in Burma?”

Classmate Priests

Catholic Priests

Father Edwin David (SPHS, GBNF) served as Priest of the St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Father Bernard Taylor (SPHS) served as a Missionary in some Asian countries. He resettled in Upper Burma.

Sayadaws

After retirement, U Aung Chaw (Victor, SPHS63, C69) became Ashin Okkantha. Sayadaw’s monastery is in Sagaing.

After retirement, U Myo Tun (Bobby, A69) became Ashin Pannagavesaka. Sayadaw serves as Dhamma Librarian, Editor and Interpreter at Mawlamyaing Pa Auk Monastery.

1965 – 1969

Lu Ye Chun Camp (Summer 1965)

The Lu Ye Chun Program was extended to Universities and Institutes. Inlay Khaung Daing Camp was established. The Camp hosted the Lu Ye Chuns from the High Schools, Universities and Institutes.

• I was chosen as Lu Ye Chun for 2nd BE in 1965.
• Ko Thein Swe was chosen as Lu Ye Chun for 3rd BE in 1966.
• Ko Tin Myint was chosen as Lu Ye Chun for 4th BE in 1967.

The RIT Lu Ye Chun list that appeared in HMEE-2012 is not complete. It did not contain Ko Sein Shwe, Ko Hla Min, Ma Khin Than Myint Tin and Ko Zaw Min (Lu Ye Chuns for 1965 Inlay Camp).

Classes at RIT

• Except for Architecture students, students from other majors took the same courses (albeit taught in different sections) for 2nd BE. There were 300+ students.
• They had to select their major for 3rd BE. There were 80+ EE students.
• Some left before graduation. Some decided to take sabbatical.
• At the end, there were 40+ EE students left.
• The EP students outnumbered the EC students 3 by 1.
• We studied EC (Electrical Communications).
• Eleven of us graduated in 1969.
• Three (Kyaw Soe, Aung Thu Yein, Chit Tin) are now GBNF (Gone But Not Forgotten) at this time.

RIT (General)

• With every turmoil (effecting “National Security”), the Classes were suspended.
• U Win Thein (M67, GBNF) was a Prime Mover. He co-founded Set Hmu Thadinzin and Mechanical Magazine. He co-organized activities.
• Several RIT students excelled at Sports. There were Burma Selected (e.g. Sai Kham Pan, Htay Aung) and All Universities Selected.

Activities

I served as

• Treasurer and Vice Captain of Rangoon University Boat Club
• Class Representative, Joint Secretary and Secretary of RIT Electrical Engineering Association
• Committee Member for “Hlyat Sit Sar Saung”
• Editor of the Bulletin published by RIT English Association
• Member of UTC, Scrabble, and Chess teams
• Free lance writer (articles, poems, translations)

Nationalization

• The schools were nationalized.
• St. Paul’s High School became No. (6) Botathaung State High School.
• Some Brothers left Burma for Malaysia, UK and Germany.
• A few indigenous Brothers (e.g. Brother Anthony) remained in Ady Road.
• Brother Joseph was ordained as Father Joseph.

U Khin Maung Zaw (KMZ, EC76) wrote :

AFAIK, EC was the hardest and strictest discipline at the RIT in those days as we’ve been told. Some even asked us why we had to go there. Of course, I am not going to mention the easiest discipline there but we joked like, “they had 109 students and 110 passed the exam”. I do not mean any disrespect to Sayas and friends from other majors!! At times, it made us wonder why were we there for god’s sake.

CRAZY TIMES!!! Indeed.

1920 – 1929

1920

• Rangoon University was established with Rangoon College and Judson College as constituent colleges.
• First Rangoon University Students’ Strike protesting the limited scope of the Rangoon University Act.
  The event is celebrated as National Day (Ah Myotha Aung Pwe Nay).
  The movement led to the founding of National Schools.
• Saya U Ba Toke is a Phwa Bet Taw of the above events.
  All took place in December 1920.

1921 and 1922

• Rangoon University conducted its own examinations for Arts and Science.
• Amendments to the Rangoon University Act were suggested. Some were implemented.

1923

• Preparation to add Engineering classes at Rangoon University
• Rangoon University Boat Club (RUBC) was founded by Sir Arthur Eggar (Law Professor and member of Cambridge University Rowing Club)

1924

• Admitted students with B.Sc. to attend a “condensed” three-year degree course in Engineering
• Admitted students with I.Sc. to attend a four-year degree course in Engineering
• First year Engineering classes were given for the first time

1925

• Second year Engineering classes were given for the first time

1926

• Third year Engineering classes were given for the first time

1927

• Fourth (Final) year Engineering were given for the first time
• The first batch of Engineering graduates (those who already had B.Sc.)

1928

• The second batch of Engineering graduates (those who joined after passing I.Sc.)
• U Hla Maung wrote in the RU Golden Jubilee Magazine.
• U Hla Maung’s article was referred in HMEE-2012 book.

1929

• The third batch of Engineering graduates

Suggested Reading

• Magazine published in 1970 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Rangoon University
• Literature on “Ah Myo Thar Aung Pwe Nay”
• HMEE-2012 by Saya U Aung Hla Tun and team
• HMEE-2012 Section One (Translated by U Ohn Khine and revised by Saya U Soe Paing)
• Book published by Dr Khin Maung Swe (Maung Thin Char) for the 80th Birthday of Saya U Ba Toke
• [1963] 40th Anniversary of RUBC (compiled by Sithu U Tin, U Po Zon and U Tin Htoon)
• [2013] 90th Anniversary of RUBC : U Tin Htoon (Chair), U Myo Myint (Vice Chair), U “Henry” Htaik San (Secretary) and several members. I volunteered as a Contributing Editor and wrote Prelude for all sections and three articles.

Myanmar Medical and Dental Professionals

There have been five Global Reunions for Myanmar Medical & Dental Professionals.

• Los Angeles, California, USA in 2009
• Sydney, Australia in 2012
• Yangon, Myanmar in 2014
• London, United Kingdom in 2016
• New York, USA in 2018

BMRI / DMR

During the early days of UCC, I was invited to give guest lectures at BMRI (Burma Medical Research Institute).

Dr. Mya Tu founded BMRI. He passed away at the age of 91 in Australia.

His successors include Dr. Aung Than Ba Tu, Dr. Khin Maung Tin, Dr. May May Yi, Dr. Than Swe and Dr. Paing Soe.

BMRI later became DMR (Directorate of Medical Research).

Dr. Nyunt Wai added :

The founder Dr. Mya Tu was a physiologist. One of his successors was a physiologist (Dr. May May Yee), another was a microbiologist (Than Swe), and the rest were physicians. Dr. Khin Maung Tin, who specialized in liver diseases passed away the earliest (heard it was a heart attack); survived by Dr. Daw Htay Kyi, a TB specialist. Dr. Aung Than Ba Tu, around 90 years of age, is still active, giving talks and participating in the editorial team of a certain journal.

• Scrabble is a board game.
• A game can be played by two to four players.
• There are a specified number of tiles.
• Each tile holds a letter worth one to ten points, or a “blank” (similar to a “joker” or a “wild card” in card games).

Rules

• The word must appear in the official set of dictionaries (e.g. Chamber’s Dictionary, Jone’s Pronouncing Dictionary).
• A player can challenge the validity of a word. He or she will forfeit a turn if the challenge is unsuccessful.
• A bonus of 50 points is given for a word formed with all seven tiles. e.g. MAJESTY
• In some contests, adding “s” to a singular to make it plural is disallowed.

Scrabble Tournaments

In our younger days, Scrabble tournaments were held by

• Guardian Newspaper
  P. Aung Khin (Editor, “Dawlay’s Circle” was a host.
  There was a “Tiger” Scrabble team with three players. One of the Tigers joined Saya Des Rodgers to play Doubles.
• RIT Scrabble Club
  Saya Des and Saya U Khin were hosts.
• YMCA
  It is known for the Chess Champions (e.g. Saya Dawson). It also hosted Scrabble tournaments.

Saya Des Rodgers won several trophies. Most of the English sayas (e.g. U Khin) and sayamas (e.g. Daw Toni) played Scrabble along with the students such as Ko Myo Tun (Bobby) and Ko Khin Maung Win (Roland). Civil Engineering sayas (e.g. U Tin Win) also frequent the English Department for Scrabble sessions and tournaments.

Saya U Khin has Chamber’s Dictionary and Jone’s Pronouncing Dictionary on his desk for use in the challenges.

Miscellaneous

• Saya Des moved to UK and then Canada.
• Saya U Khin moved to Taiwan.
• Sayama Toni joined her husband (who retired as Ambassador).
  After his demise, Sayama moved back to Yangon. She reports about the gatherings (sumptuous food and Scrabble) in Yangon.
• After retirement, Bobby was ordained as iAshin Pannagavesaka (Pa Auk Tawya monastery in Mawlamyine). He served as a Librarian and Interpreter.
  He has taught English to monks and youths at various cities.
  He mentioned that Paul requested him to be a judge at the Guardian Scrabble tournaments, so he could not participate.
• Roland retired after working for an Embassy in Yangon.

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

Machine Language

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.

Assembly Language

To bridge the human users and the computers, the next step was to use Assembly Languages such as

• Simple/Symbolic Assembly Language
• 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.

History of Programming Languages

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.

Evolution of Programming Style

Over the years, the style of programming evolved. The list is not exclusive.

• 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
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) programming

Theoretical model

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

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

The machine was proposed by Alan M. Turing (who has an ACM award named after him that is considered the “Nobel Prize in Computing“).

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

ဆရာ ဆရာမတွေ ရော

ကျောင်းသား ကျောင်းသူ ဟောင်း တွေ ရော

အို — နာ — သေ တွေ မနည်း တော့

ကိုမြင့်နိုင် ဥမ္မာခင် တို့ ဘေး က လည်းမလွတ်သေး

Reunion နဲ့ ပူဇော်ပွဲ လုပ်ဘို့ က ခက်ခဲ

တ နာရီ လောက် တောင် သက်သက်သာသာ မထိုင်နိုင်

နာရေး မှာ ကုသိုလ် ပြုတာ ထက်

ကပ် ဆိုး မှာ ကူ တာ က ပို အကျိုး ရှိ

ဘဏ် မှာ ကိုယ့်ငွေ တောင် ပြန်ထုတ် ဘို့ ခက်ခဲ ချိန်

ဆရာ ဆရာမ တွေ အိမ် ကို သွား ပြီး

ပူဇော် ကြ တာကို

သာဓု (သုံးကြိမ် မက)

ခေါ်လိုက်ပါတယ်။

အလှူ ရှင် ၊ လုပ်အားပေး အား လုံး

ကျန်းမာ ချမ်းသာ လန်းဖြာ ကြပါစေ။

ကောင်း တဲ့ ဆန္ဒ ဆုတောင်း များ အမြန်ဆုံးပြည့် ကြပါစေ။//

• Be mindful every moment.
• If one is inattentive for a few seconds, then one can trip or fall.
• Take 30 seconds to 2 minutes to change posture.
• Don’t climb up a foot or higher without something to hang on to.
• Maintain balance and moderation.
  With control, you can enjoy good food and even wine (or beer).
  
• Enjoy BFF (Best Friends Forever).
  Meet, greet, eat and be merry.
• Laughter is the best medicine.
  
• If you perform good deeds, you get merit every time you rejoice about those deeds.
• Be imperfectly perfect.
• Better to get a thing done than waiting for perfection (which may never come as in Charles Babbage’s projects).
• Que sera sera (What will be will be).
• Do not have great expectations.
• Buzz Aldrin became depressed after the Apollo 11 trip, because he was only the second person to land on the moon.

• Remember the things you learned as a kid.

“I had the blues
because I had no shoes
Till upon a street
I met a man without feet.”

“Brighten in your corner.”

“In life’s rosy morning
In manhood’s firm pride
Let this be the motto
Your footsteps to guide
In storm or in sunshine
Whatever assail
We’ll go onward and conquer
And never sail FAIL.”

Set Hmu [Maung] Thein Aung

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

• I am Set Hmu — Maung Thein Aung. (I am Maung Thein Aung studying Mechanical Engineering.)
• He is Set Hmu Maung — Thein 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.

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.”

Paying respect

• 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.

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

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)

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.

• 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.