(Sponsored by the Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University.
Contact Yale SEAS for information: 432-3431)

For Yale students or faculty interested in participating in (non-credit) group study/tutorial
in Elementary Burmese under the direction of experienced instructor and native speaker,
Dr. U Khin Maung Gyi

Books 1 and 2 (with accompanying tapes) focus on early encounters with Burmese speakers in Burma and abroad. Book 1 lays the groundwork, with copious exercises on tape, covering high-frequency sentence structures, pronunciation, question and answer with what, which, where, who, how much, numbers, quantifying, time-telling, phone numbers, prices, want to, have to, please do, and so on. They cover survival needs (asking the way, taking taxis, going to cafés, shops, etc.) and first conversations (Where are you from? How long have you been here? What's your job? etc.). It ends with a set of dialogues, again with plenty of oral practice, covering 12 situations, including survival (shops, taxis and so on) and social (Where are you from? Are you married? Shall we meet again? and so on). Book 2 extends your competence in the 12 situations.

Together the two volumes offer:
     solid grounding in the grammar and sound system of modern colloquial Burmese
     lessons kept short to enable flexible pacing and extensive practice
     copious speaking exercises and practice dialogues on the tapes
     review lessons at frequent intervals
     Burmese material presented in both Burmese script and a roman transcription throughout
     notes on etiquette and social behaviour in Burma
     cumulated vocabularies, both Burmese-English and English-Burmese
     additional vocabularies arranged by topic: names of clothes, foods, talking with Buddhist monks, etc