No comments about English and Burmese Dictionary.

2 comments about The Brothel Boy and Other Parables of the Law.

1. This book is not designed to be a casebook for law students. It is designed to tease out ethical dilemmas encountered by law enforcement officials and illuminate the tough choices they face every day. The use of an Englishman in Burma under British domination allows the reader to distance him/herself and evaluate these complex moral issues from a fresh perspective. Social issues from wife battering and the insanity defense to social stigma and caste systems are addressed by the author in a way that promotes discussion and understanding. The characters are believable and easy to identify with. If you want a legal casebook, go to West Publishing and buy one. If you want an entertaining, albeit challenging discussion of morality and the law, this is your book. Keep the dictionary handy though because it will improve your vocabulary!



2. The Brothel Boy and Other Parables... is an excellent presentation of key ideas and conflicts in the law.
   Beyond its lessons about the cases Norval Morris presents, the book is a very enjoyable read. It approaches classical English literature with the main characters set in Colonial Burma. The ever present racial and cultural tensions that pervade that era and roll forward to our own, give the stories an contextual richness beyond the immediate presence of the actors in the cases.
   Norval Morris had set another standard for us by combining the presentation of case materials in a three dimensional literary context within which the characters, Lt. Blair the District Police Officer and Magistrate, his East Indian friend Dr. Verasuami, and the Burmese Buddhist lawyer Lang, bring together the perspectives of their cultures, professions and politics as they work through the issues in the cases.
   These characters are more than the common foils used by most case study authors to present the facts in their cases. Morris has created full bodied characters who's struggle and pain are apparent as they confront the issues of the people they are charged to assist.
   After reading the first parable, (I was surprised by the ending) I found that the more I read the more attached I became the characters and their moral development. As the book develops, the stories link together into a comfortable novel that ends with another moral question.
   I recommend it for its sound reasoning about the law and for its quality and a fine piece of literature. This one is hard to beat

No comments about Talk Now! Learn Burmese.

No comments about Learn to Speak the Myanmar Language Faster and Easier with Subliminal Programming CD.

2 comments about Burmese for Beginners CDs.

1. The book is very useful over all. But there are some printing errors for Burmese words. I am native burmese and I've felt some of the words or sentences are very former and too difficult for beginners to understand. The book comes together with CD. In the CDs, the pronunciation of the Burmese is not professional.



2. As for the quality of the product, not knowing Burmese myself I can't really say much. The book seems useful and I would recommend it for someone like me trying to learn something about this language on my own. When I received the CDs they were damaged and didn't play. Upon complaining with Amazon, however, I received a very quick response, and got my new CDs in a couple of weeks (I'm an international costumer) free of charge and without even needing to return the old ones. I'm fairly new to Amazon and was positively impressed with the service. The new CDs work just fine and I would like to say 'jeizutinbade' to Amazon costumer service!

4 comments about Burmese for Beginners.

1. Let's face it - Burmese isn't the easiest language to learn. But if, like me, you are serious about learning the language, this book, along with the accompanying language CD, will get you there. By the time you finish this book, you should have enough basic Burmese knowlege to puzzle your way through a newpaper, and order off a menu, as well as get around Yangon.
   
   I've been working through the book for the last few months, and I feel that I'm finally making progress.
   
   The book is clearly written, with numerous examples, and pronunciation guides throughout. Also important for a book you'll be paging through for months at a time, the book is very sturdily constructed, and my copy is still in rather good shape.
   
   This isn't a perfect book by any means (I'd love to have seen far, far more pages on the alphabet, since though everything is covered, it's covered a little quickly), but this book is *so* far ahead of every other commonly available resource on the Burmese language, it easily earns the 5 stars I'm giving it.
   
   If you don't have ready access to a native Burmese speaker, I strongly recommend the Burmese for Beginners CDs as well.



2. The book is good but it makes it much easier to understand and help with the pronounciation when you have the CD's to go with it.



3. This book is pretty good, although I do have some issues with it. It could cover grammatical points more thoroughly, and it would benefit from expanding its drills to include substitution drills. The CDs are truly needed to get the pronunciations and tones right; recorded drills would be beneficial. An index of vocabulary would also have been useful. That said, given the dearth of decent materials available, this is a very welcome foundation book.



4. This is an excellent book on Burmese, but do make sure you buy the audio material for it, Burmese is a tonal language with four tones.
   
   But first!
   The cds have to be bought separately, you could also get the older edition titled 'Burmese for Beginners [With 3 CDs]' that one seems to still have book+cds in one package.
   
   Anyway, let's get back to the review.
   There is a large intro chapter on pronunciation and alphabet, it's a very tricky language to pronounce, on the same difficulty-level as Vietnamese.
   So make sure you get the audio if you have any hopes of completing this package, I can't stress this enough.
   
   Each following chapter has this structure:
   1. vocabulary list (30-50 new words)
   2. grammar
   3. readings (in romanization + script)
   4. exercises: word-match, translation, drills...
   5. reading and writing info + exercises
   
   Each chapter is complete and well-balanced, there are enough exercises and the grammar is very well-explained.
   This is one of those cases where you benefit by learning from another Westerner, he explains it the way he learned it and guides you through the tricky parts.
   
   There are ten chapters and each takes about two weeks to "master", the script takes time to learn, so expect 20-25 weeks at least to complete it.
   
   The audio is good as-well. I really can't complain about the audio, you get dialogue and vocabulary readings etc.
   
   The only thing I want to complain about is the transliteration and romanized parts of the book, the book does look abit messy and cluttered. So the editing could have been done better regarding this, after all presentation is important in all books.
   
   I have used other books published by Paiboon on Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and Cambodian, and they all share the same strengths and weaknesses.
   Strengths: practical and broad vocabulary, excellent coverage of the script.
   Weakness: tendency to have too much vocabulary in each chapter.
   
   Overall though, I am very happy with Mesher's work - this is a very good package to use. There are very few modern books available on this language so I was glad just to find one of good quality.
   Side-note: I do not recommend learning Burmese at the same time as another South-East Asian language, like Cambodian, as it gets confusing due to close language proximity. So learn one well before the other. I only mention this because most people I've met who study a S.E. Asian language tend to learn more than one of them.

3 comments about Burmese Phrasebook.

1. Here's what it comes down to: If you're going to Myanmar (Burma) and don't have a phrase book, then get this one and tell everyone else you're going with to get it!
   
   I lived in Myanmar for a while and found this quite useful, especially back when I knew only a few words of Burmese. I would stumble through and try to pronounce the text and fail miserably (though not the fault of the book as they do a good job trying to discuss pronounciation).
   
   Then I would point to the word or phrase in the book. The person I'm "talking" with would then stare at the page for a moment, see the Burmese script, then understand what I was trying to say.
   
   Now that I can do basic conversation and basic reading/writing, I've found it to be a good resourse to keep on hand.
   
   So, if you're going to Myanmar/Burma, take this phrasebook along. You won't regret it, even if you do have to point to the text because of poor pronounciation!!
   
   My only complaint is additional phrases should be included to make it as comprehensive as other Lonley Planet phrasebooks.
   
   By the way, just about everyone I showed this phrasebook to wanted a copy so they could learn more English. You might even want to order a few extra to give away.



2. WARNING!! There is no substantial difference between the 3rd and 4th editions of the Burmese phrasebook. Calling it a new edition is a bit of a misrepresentation. The page numbering, titles, subtitles, phrases, and dictionaries are unchanged, only the 4 pages on whether to visit Myanmar at the end of the 3rd edition has been replaced by 3 pages of sustainable travel phrases by San San Hnin Tun in the 4th edition. So if you have the 3rd edition, save your money. If you don't, then buy the 4th edition.



3. This phrasebook, published by Lonely Planet,is geared toward travel to Burma. Travel to Burma puts money in the pocket of the Military Regime and not the suffering people. This is good for beginning to learn conversational Burmese.

1 comments about Burmese for Beginners Book and CDs Combo.

1. I do wish there were some pauses and prompts to repeat between each of the audio clips on the CD's. The book is well organized and supported by the CD's, the combination gives you a thorough structure in which to struggle with the tonal language that is Burmese. I intend to be able to cover the basics before arriving in Myanmar and hopefully master "I would like a beer please...No, make that two beers" in time for Dinner on the first day. I think I have my hands full and Burmese for Beginners is keeping me on track very nicely thank you.

2 comments about Burmese-English English-Burmese Compact Dictionary.

1. Great dictionary.
   
   Divided into 3 sections - English, Burmese Script, and Phonetically spelled Burmese.
   
   Includes a very large number of words for such a small book. (I haven't found any missing obvious ones, yet).
   
   It uses a phonetical spelling that's closer to Mesher's than Orkell (so it spells hat like o'-hto' instead of ouq-t'ouq, as many other dictionaries do.)
   
   I recommend it highly.



2. I bought this book because I work with English Language Learning students - many of whom are Burmese - and while it's certainly better than nothing (it IS a rather comprehensive dictionary), the IPA pronunciation and better instruction on phrase building would significantly improve this book. An aide in the classroom is a native speaker of Burmese, and she has to correct my pronunciation the majority of the time.
   
   As a student of linguistics, and my exposure to dozens of languages, I might have an easier time than some when it comes to deciphering the pronunciation. If you're a beginner to the language, I won't suggest that you don't buy this book, but I would recommend that you use it as a companion guide to something else. While I'm personally not a huge fan of the Lonely Planet phrase books (for the same reason - the lack of proper IPA pronunciation), I appreciate the fact that they release phrase books for languages that a Westerner might consider obscure. As well, their version of phonetic pronunciation tends to be easier than that found in this book, and their low costs makes them worth the investment.
   
   I give the book 3 stars because it's still useful, but not something to be used alone by a beginner. Pick up the Lonely Planet Burmese phrasebook to go with it. You'll be better off. Thanks for taking the time to read my comment.

3 comments about Pocket Burmese Dictionary: Burmese-English English-Burmese (Periplus Pocket Dictionaries).

1. I work with Myanmar/Burma refugees who have come to Charlotte, NC. When I found this dictionary on amazon.com, I was "over the moon" with joy. My students will be so glad to have this dictionary for easy reference when out in public.



2. A dictionary of this size could hold more word translations and meanings than this one does. This book is OK but limited in number of words available.



3. On one hand, this dictionary is reasonably priced and small enough to fit conveniently in a handbag or backpack. Therefore you are likely to have it when you need it.
   
   On the other hand, it is extremely limited. On page iv of the introduction it says that it contains 3,000 of the most frequently countered Burmese words. 3,000 is hardly anything and much less than is normally used in daily speech.
   
   Whenever I've tried to use this dictionary, I've often run into problems. i.e. the other day when trying to teach a refugee how to drive the roadbook stated "Research shows that awareness is the key to reducing risk of collisions."
   
   "Research," "awareness," "risk" and "collision" are all words that are not in this dictionary.
   
   There are some words in this dictionary that are not in the Lonely Planet Phrasebook, but not terribly many. I still carry it around when I visit refugees but I don't really expect much from it.