BY AUGUSTIN
Idioms are like colourful paintbrushes that add depth and expression to everyday conversations. They help convey meaning more vividly and succinctly than literal language alone.
မှိုလိုပေါက်
/mhaolopout/
အားလုံးပဲ မင်္ဂလာပါခင်ဗျာ။ စိန်ရွှေရတနာဆိုင်တွေ မှိုလိုပေါက်နေချိန်မှာ မိရိုးဖလာအတိုင်း သွားနေတုံးပဲလား?…
လောင်းကစားဝိုင်းများ မှိုလိုပေါက်…
နိုင်ငံရေးပါတီတွေ မှိုလိုပေါက်…
မိုးရာသီအစ အရိပ်ရသောနေရာများ ၊ မြက်ခင်းများ နှင့် ဆွေးမြေ့နေသောမြေဆီလွှာများတွင် မှိုများပေါများစွာ ပေါက်ဖွားသည်ကို တွေ့ရတတ်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် “ မှိုလိုပေါက် “ ဟူသော ဝေါဟာရသည် ပေါများခြင်း သို့မဟုတ် တိုးပွားခြင်းကို ရည်ညွှန်းသည်။
To grow like mushrooms
To proliferate rapidly
At the start of the rainy season, it is typical to discover mushrooms growing abundantly in shaded areas and in decaying soil in meadows. Therefore, the term “growing like mushrooms” refers to being plentiful or prolific.
The Myanmar saying compares something to mushrooms appearing suddenly at the start of the rainy season. It vividly describes how mushrooms quickly grow in shaded places with decaying organic material when the rainy season begins.
In Myanmar culture, this natural occurrence symbolizes rapid growth and abundance. Therefore, when someone uses this idiom, they imply that something is growing or increasing rapidly and abundantly, similar to how mushrooms appear suddenly and in large numbers during the onset of the rainy season.
This idiom reflects a deep connection to nature and seasonal changes, highlighting the cultural understanding of growth and prosperity as something that can happen swiftly and abundantly under favourable conditions, much like mushrooms sprouting prolifically in the right environment.
USAGES:
Spread like wildfire
Definition: To rapidly and uncontrollably propagate or increase.
Example: “News of the scandal spread like wildfire through the office.”
Burgeoning like mushrooms after rain
Definition: Growing or multiplying quickly and abundantly.
Example: “Tech startups are burgeoning like mushrooms after rain in the city.”
Growing like topsy
Definition: Growing in an unplanned or disorderly manner.
Example: “The town’s population has been growing like topsy since they built the new highway.”
Mushrooming
Definition: Rapidly increasing or multiplying in number.
Example: “Chain stores are mushrooming all over the downtown area.”
Snowball effect
Definition: A situation where something increases in size or importance at an accelerating rate.
Example: “The protest started with just a few people, but soon it had a snowball effect, and thousands joined.”
Going through the roof
Definition: Increasing rapidly and substantially.
Example: “The prices of houses in this neighbourhood are going through the roof.”
Like greased lightning
Definition: Extremely fast or quick.
Example: “He finished the project like greased lightning, much to everyone’s surprise.”
အသံကောင်း ဟစ်
/ asan kaung hait/
အချို့သောလူများသည် မတရားမှုများတွင် ပါဝင်နေသော်လည်း ၎င်းတို့သည် ဖြောင့်မတ်ပြီး အသိစိတ်ရှိသူများအဖြစ် ပုံဖော်ကြသည်။ ကောင်းမြတ်ခြင်းကို ကျယ်လောင်စွာ ကြွေးကြော်ကြသည်။ မိမိကိုယ်ကို မိမိ ချီးကျူး ကြသည်။
အသံကောင်းဟစ်သည်။ လေကြီးလေကျယ် စကားနာထိုးသည်။
ထိုသူတွေကတော့ လက်တွေ့မကျ ရွှေဇွန်းကိုက် ပျော်ပါးပြီး အသံကောင်းဟစ်နေကြသူတွေ….
To shout out a good voice
To call out loudly with a pleasant tone.
To project a strong, clear voice.
To vocalize loudly and with clarity.
Some individuals frequently engage in wrongdoing and injustice, yet they consistently portray themselves as righteous and conscientious. These people are said to have a loud voice proclaiming their goodness. Similarly, anyone who praises themselves despite their actual behaviour being contrary is also considered as such.
The Myanmar idiom referring to encapsulates a concept found in many cultures: the discrepancy between one’s actions and their self-proclaimed righteousness.
It vividly describes individuals who habitually engage in wrongful acts but vociferously assert their own moral uprightness. In essence, it highlights the hypocrisy and the disparity between outward claims and actual behaviour.
This idiom underscores a universal truth about human behaviour: actions speak louder than words. It critiques those who boast about their virtues while their deeds contradict their claims.
Such individuals often seek to manipulate perception, projecting an image of righteousness to mask their moral failings or to deceive others for personal gain or social acceptance.
In Myanmar culture, as in many others, this concept serves as a cautionary tale against hypocrisy and the dangers of false appearances. It encourages people to discern true character beyond superficial displays of virtue and to value integrity over outward showmanship.
USAGES:
Pot calling the kettle black
Definition: Criticizing someone for a fault that you have yourself.
Example: It’s somewhat hypocritical of him to call me lazy when he spends half the day napping.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing
Definition: Someone who appears harmless but is actually dangerous.
Example: Be cautious of him; he may seem friendly, but he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Practice what you preach
Definition: To follow the advice or beliefs that one gives to others.
Example: She always tells us to be punctual, but she herself is often late—she really needs to practice what she preaches.
Two-faced
Definition: Someone who is insincere, presenting one face in public and another in private.
Example: I thought she was my friend, but it turns out she’s quite two-faced, spreading rumours behind my back.
Holier-than-thou
Definition: Acting morally superior to others.
Example: He has a holier-than-thou attitude about charity work, yet he never volunteers himself.
Turn a blind eye
Definition: To ignore something intentionally.
Example: The manager turned a blind eye to the staff’s tardiness, even though it was against company policy.
Put on a show
Definition: To behave in a way that is not genuine, usually to impress or deceive others.
Example: She puts on a show of being a health enthusiast, but she secretly indulges in junk food every night.
မြွေပွေး ခါးပိုက် ပိုက်
/ mwha phayay hkar pite pite/
To nurse a viper in one’s bosom
To harbour a dangerous enemy unknowingly
အဆိပ်ရှိတဲ့ မြွေပွေးမလေးမှန်း သိသိရက်ကြီးနဲ့ ခါးပိုက် ပိုက် လို့ တင်ထားဆဲ.…
မြွေပွေးကို ခါးပိုက် ပိုက်ထားရတဲ့ဘ၀ ရောက်နေပြီ….
“ဟာ… ဆရာ မြွေပွေး ခါးပိုက် မပိုက်ချင်ပါနဲ့ ” တပည့်တစ်ဦးက ဝင်ပြောလိုက်သည်….
It is believed that if someone keeps a dead female viper in their clothing, live baby vipers will emerge from the mother’s womb and try to harm the person. Therefore, figuratively speaking, taking care of a dangerous or ungrateful person is likened to nursing a viper in the bosom.
The Myanmar idiom “nursing a viper in the bosom” vividly illustrates the peril of nurturing someone or something dangerous or untrustworthy. Originating from a belief that keeping a dead female viper in one’s clothing can lead to live baby vipers emerging to harm the person, the idiom warns against harbouring potential harm or betrayal despite good intentions.
Figuratively, the idiom advises caution in relationships and dealings, emphasizing the danger of maintaining close ties with those who may turn out to be ungrateful, treacherous, or harmful. It underscores the idea that even well-intentioned care or support can backfire if directed towards someone who is inherently deceitful or untrustworthy.
Culturally, this metaphor resonates deeply in Myanmar, serving as a potent reminder of the need for discernment and self-protection in personal and professional relationships. It highlights the universal theme of trust and betrayal, cautioning individuals to be wary of hidden dangers that may lurk beneath seemingly benign appearances.
Ultimately, the idiom encapsulates timeless wisdom: the importance of vigilance in assessing the true nature of those we choose to trust, as nurturing the wrong entity can lead to unexpected harm and consequences.
USAGES
Bite the hand that feeds you
Definition: To harm someone who has helped or supported you.
Example: “After all the help and advice he gave her, she bit the hand that fed her by spreading rumours about him.”
Stab someone in the back
Definition: To betray someone’s trust or confidence.
Example: “He thought they were friends, but they stabbed him in the back by revealing his secrets to everyone.”
Snake in the grass
Definition: A deceitful or treacherous person who hides their true intentions.
Example: “Watch out for him; he’s a snake in the grass who will smile to your face and then betray you when you least expect it.”
Sell someone down the river
Definition: To betray someone’s trust or loyalty, especially for personal gain.
Example: “He promised to support us, but in the end, he sold us down the river to secure his own promotion.”
Wolf in sheep’s clothing
Definition: Someone who appears harmless or friendly but is actually dangerous or deceitful.
Example: “He seemed like a nice guy at first, but he turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, scamming everyone in the neighbourhood.”
Burn bridges
Definition: To destroy one’s relationships, often irreparably.
Example: “She burned bridges with her colleagues by spreading false rumours, leaving her with no allies when she needed help.”
