BY AUGUSTIN

 

MYANMAR idioms are beautiful expressions embedded in everyday language, rich in cultural meaning and offering insightful perspectives on life, relationships, and human behaviour.

 

 

စည်းလွတ်ဝါးလွတ်

/ hacaee-lwat wah-lwat/

• Out of beat of cymbal and bamboo clapper

Rhythm and discipline essential

 

In Myanmar, when a song is sung, the singer must stay in rhythm with musicians playing small cymbals and bamboo clappers. If the singer loses the timing, it’s seen as a sign of poor training. Similarly, someone acting without principle or proper behaviour is called “out of beat” like the singer.

 

In Myanmar, traditional music requires singers to stay in rhythm with musicians playing cymbals and bamboo clappers.

 

These instruments create a steady beat, and the singer needs to stay on time. If the singer loses rhythm, it shows a lack of training or discipline. This idea also applies to everyday life.

 

When someone behaves wrongly or doesn’t follow social rules, they are called “out of beat,” just like a singer who can’t stay in rhythm. This term reminds people of the importance of acting with respect, following rules, and maintaining harmony in life, just as they would in music. Staying in beat – whether in music or behaviour – helps create smooth and respectful interactions in society.

 

စည် းဝါး(၄)မျိုး

န် မာ့ ဂီ တတွ င် အခံ အားြင ့ ်စည် းဝါး(၄)မျိုး ွ ဲခြားထားသည် ။၎င် းတိ ု့မှ ာ- (၁) ဝါးလတ်စည်း၊ (၂) နာရီစည်း၊ (၃) စုံစည်း နှင့် (၄) စည်းသုတ် တို့ြစ်ကြသည်။ ဝါးလတ်စည်းသည် အခြခံအကျဆုံးသောစည်း ဖြစ်သည်။

ရစ်သမ် Rhythm သည် မန်မာဂီတတွင် အလွန်အရေးကြီးပါသည်။ သီျင်း ကို စည်းစနစ်တကျနှင့် သာယာစေရန် ကူညီပေးသည်။ လမ်းကြောင်းမှန်ပေါ် တေး သွ ား ရှ ိေစသည် ။မန် မာ့ ရိ ုးရာဂီ တတွ င် စည် းမကျိုးအောင ် ထိ န် းသိ မ် းရပါသည် ။

ကားကို ထင်ရာမင်ရာ စည်းလွတ်ဝါးလွတ် မပြောသင့်ပါ....

• ချစ်သူစုံတွဲတွေစည်းလွတ်ဝါးလွတ် ပျော်မနေကြနဲ့....

• စည်းလွတ်ဝါးလွတ် အတွေးအခေါ်တွေကို လက်မံသင့်ပါ....

 

USAGES:

Out of sync

Definition: When something or someone is not in harmony or working together with the rest.

 

Example: “Her movements were out of sync with the music, making her performance look awkward.”

 

Off-key

Definition: When someone’s actions or behaviour are not in line with expected standards or norms.

 

Example: “His comments were off-key during the meeting, and they made everyone uncomfortable.”

 

Hit the wrong note

Definition: To make a mistake or say something inappropriate in a particular situation.

Example: “John really hit the wrong note when he brought up politics at the dinner table.”

 

On the same wavelength

Definition: When two or more people share the same thoughts, ideas, or understanding.

Example: “When we brainstormed, we were on the same wave­length and came up with great ideas.”

 

In Harmony

Definition: When things or people are in agreement or working together smoothly.

Example: “The team worked in harmony to finish the project on time.”

 

March to the beat of one’s own drum

Definition: To do things in one’s own way, even if it’s different from how others do them.

 

Example: “He doesn’t care what anyone thinks; he marches to the beat of his own drum.”

 

Strike the right chord

Definition: To do or say something that is well-received or appro­priate for the situation.

Example: “Her speech about climate change struck the right chord with the audience.”

 

စုန်းပြူး

/hsone pyau/

အများနှင့်မတူ တစ်မူကွဲလွဲဖောက်ပြန်မှု

• မာကျောသော ပဲစေ့

ရေစိမ်ပီးသည့်တိုင်/ ကပြုတ်ပီးသည့်တိုင် မကကသေသော ပဲစေကို ရည်ညွှန်းသည်။

• သိုးမည်း သို့မဟုတ် အကျင့်ပျက်သူ- သွေဖည်သူ၊ အကျင့်ပျကခြစားသူ သို့မဟုတ် လူ့အွဲ့အစည်း၏ စံနှုန်းများအပြင်ဘက်တွင်ရှိသူကို ဆိုလိုသည်။

• ထူးထူးခြားခြား မူမမှန်သူကို မှော်ဆရာပိုင်ဆိုင်သော ပဲစေ့ဟု ခေါ်သည်။

 

Seed possessed by a wizard

If a bean seed remains hard and does not soften even when boiled, it is believed to be possessed by a wizard. Similarly, anyone who is unusually abnormal or acts in a peculiar manner is referred to as a “seed possessed by a wizard.” This term is also used to describe a tense woman who is troubled by the absence of a partner.

 

In some cultures, the idea of a “seed possessed by a wizard” is used as a metaphor for something that does not behave as expected or is difficult to change.

 

If a bean seed remains hard even after boiling, it is believed to be under the influence of a wizard, as it refuses to soften like other seeds. This belief extends to people who display unusual or abnormal behaviour.

 

When someone acts peculiarly or stubbornly and doesn’t conform to social norms, they might be referred to as a “seed possessed by a wizard.”

 

Additionally, the term is also used to describe a woman who is tense or uneasy due to the absence of a partner. In both cases, the term implies a sense of unnaturalness or something being out of balance, as if under an external, mysterious influence that prevents normal behaviour or emotional peace.

 

ျို့ကတစ် ထူ း၊ ကံ စု န် းပြူးနှ င့ ်၊ဉာဏ် ရူ းမွ ဲတေ…..

• ကျွန်တော်တို့ရဲ့ မိသားစုမှာ သူကစုန်းပြူး…..

• သူကစုန်းပြူး ပါပဲ…..

• ကျွန်တော် စုန်းပြူးကို ကြောက်တယ်…..

 

USAGES:

A hard nut to crack

Definition: A person or problem that is difficult to understand or solve.

 

Example: “John is a hard nut to crack; no one can figure out what he wants.”

 

Out of sorts

Definition: Feeling unwell, irritable, or in a bad mood.

 

Example: “She’s been out of sorts ever since the breakup.”

 

March to the beat of your own drum

Definition: To do things in your own way, regardless of others’ opinions.

 

Example: “He’s always marching to the beat of his own drum, refusing to follow the crowd.”

 

Off the rails

Definition: Acting in a way that is unusual or unacceptable, often in a chaotic or erratic manner.

 

Example: “Since his promotion, his behaviour has gone off the rails.”

 

A square peg in a round hole

Definition: Someone who is in a situation or role that is not suited to them.

 

Example: “He’s a square peg in a round hole, trying to work in a job that doesn’t match his skills.”

 

Barking up the wrong tree

Definition: To make a mistake or pursue a misguided course of action.

 

Example: “If you think she’ll change her mind, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

 

Under the weather

Definition: Not feeling well or being in a bad state of health or mood.

 

Example: “I’m feeling a bit under the weather today, so I’ll stay home.”

 

စွယ်စုံ

/swe-sone/

အစွယ်နှစ်ချောင်းရှိသောဆင်။

တောင်ခြေရင်းဝယ် စွယ်စုံတစ်စီး ရတော်မူ၏…..

လေ့လာမှုနယ်ပယ်များစွာတွင် ကျွမ်းကျင်သူ

 

The Myanmar word “စွယ်စုံ” refers to something or someone versatile, multifaceted, and adaptable. It is used to describe entities with many aspects or roles that can be performed effectively.

 

This term can also mean “encyclopedic” or “comprehensive,” sug­gesting something that includes a wide range of topics or information. For example, “စွယ်စုံကျမ်း” (sway-zun kyan) refers to an “encyclopedia,” a collection of diverse knowledge, while “စွယ်စုံပညာရှင်” (sway-zun panyar-shin) describes a “polymath,” a person with expertise in multiple fields.

 

In Myanmar culture, the term holds high regard as it signifies a well-rounded understanding, the ability to perform in various roles, and the capacity to adapt to different situations. The concept of “စွယ်စုံ” emphasizes breadth and depth, representing a holistic, inclusive approach to knowledge, skills, and creativity.

 

USAGES:

Jack of all trades, master of none

Definition: Someone who is skilled in many different areas but does not specialize in one.

 

Example: “She’s a jack of all trades, master of none, but she’s great at everything she does.”

 

Renaissance man/woman

Definition: A person with expertise in many areas, typically someone with a broad range of knowledge or skills.

 

Example: “Leonardo da Vinci was a true Renaissance man, excelling in art, science, and engineering.”

 

A little bit of everything

Definition: Involvement in a variety of different tasks, interests, or skills.

 

Example: “He does a little bit of everything—coding, writing, and teaching.”

 

To wear many hats

Definition: To take on multiple roles or responsibilities.

 

Example: “As a manager, she wears many hats—planning, budg­eting, and team coordination.”

 

The whole package

Definition: Someone who possesses many qualities or skills that make them well-rounded.

 

Example: “He’s the whole package: talented, hard-working, and a natural leader.”

 

Know-it-all

Definition: A person who claims to know a lot about many things, sometimes to the point of being annoying.

 

Example: “She’s a bit of a know-it-all, always sharing random facts at the dinner table.”

 

One size fits all

 

Definition: A solution or approach that is suitable for all situations or people.

 

Example: “The new software is designed to be one size fits all, adaptable to any business model.”