Every language has idioms – figures of speech that paint a picture in the mind. Learning the Burmese alphabet was just the start. Memorizing all the vowels, compound vowels, the three tones and some grammar rules was the next level to linguistic enlightenment. Once literal meanings and my vocabulary expanded, the cultural aspect of the language began to emerge. We all do it with our words but Asian cultures especially like the indirect – the euphemism.

            The outdoor Saturday night market was a prime setting to hear some of these colorful phrases. Sayama and I wandered slowly through the trampled jungle grass lot. The pathway was jammed with Burmese and Karen migrant workers pushing passed each other to peer into each booth. Sticky hot air held body odor, fried chicken and the thrift store smell of used clothes. Most of the items were cheap pieces of junk mass made in China. I didn’t come to buy; I came to watch and listen.

She strutted by with her group of girlfriends and made the boys’ heads swivel with raised eyebrows. Her tight short shorts revealed shapely olive-skinned legs. A conforming T-shirt with sparkles clung to her torso. Long, straight black hair with a lustrous sheer framed her delicately made-up face. Sayama wrinkled her nose, huffed and murmured under her breath, “Thu bay-mya-day”. The dictionary in my head translated word for word: she has a lot of beans. Sayama laughed when I said it aloud in English. Hum…that’s a strange way to describe someone. We dialogued about it and finally came up with the idiom – she thinks she’s all that (and a bag of chips).

Still giggling at language humor, we kept on meandering. Most Southeast Asians are petite and skinny by our over-fed Western standards. But every now and then you’ll see a chunky fellow or a waddling woman, victims of too much fatty pork and not enough physical labor. This, of course, is a gross generalization. Some people, are…well…just not shapely no matter how in shape they are.

Sayama’s hand remained by her side with her thumb vaguely pointing off to the right. With her other hand she grabbed my arm and whispered, “Lay-kah, pah-pin”. Now I was busting a gut! She just said that lady has a turtle waist and a frog butt. Ha! Now that’s pretty blunt without a need to revise the literal meaning. How mean! Poor turtles – they don’t even have a waist and the frog? Well…he’s half behind and half head with four awkward legs sticking out. Someone once told me that if I was an animal, I would be a flamingo. I would rather be equated to a bird with stick legs than a frog’s butt!

I didn’t buy a thing that night but the laughter was worth its weight in gold.