Description:

Burmese for Beginners is a self paced study course that is also suitable for learning Burmese in the classroom. The three audio CDs allow you to develop the all important listening skills that you need to learn Burmese.

The course will give you a solid introduction into Burmese (officially called Myanmar), giving you ample material to listen to and repeat as often as you need to. Give yourself as much time as you need too instead of sticking to any unrealistic timelines as learning a language, especially as an adult, will take a reasonable amount of time. But the hard work will be worth it in the end when you can show off your newly learned Burmese language skills!

Burmese for Beginners also starts you learning Burmese fonts which you probably have never seen before. It really is unique in it's design and beautiful to look at even when you can't read it though this course will have you learning Burmese script early on.

While written Burmese does not have spaces between words the author of this course has wisely added spaces to help English speaking learners.

The course is divided into 10 major sections or lessons and 3 appendicies. Appendix 1 has a brief overview of Burmese grammar while Appendix 3 contains useful Burmese words and phrases.

Burmese for Beginners Course Details:

Author: Gene Mesher, Ph. D.
Book: Paperback. 290 pages.
Audio CDs: 3
Lesson Breakdown:

Burmese Lesson 1
Greetings, polite particles, negative sentences, final question particles, numbers, consonants I & simple vowels.
Burmese Lesson 2
at, to have, Myanmar cities, conjunctions, present tense, negating a verb, present progressive, consonants II, vowels and final consonant sounds.
Burmese Lesson 3
Going places, common verbs, to want, to go, verb modes (future, past perfect), descriptive verbs, phrases for yes and no, complex vowels, unmarked high tones and common consonants III.
Burmese Lesson 4
Question words, colours, possessive form, compound verbs, prefix and suffix, medial consonants and common consonants IV.
Burmese Lesson 5
Telling time, day structure, time terms, days of the week, writing Burmese numbers, aspiration and final consonant symbols.
Burmese Lesson 6
Calendar time, weeks, months, years, Burmese calendar and holidays, voicing, unwritten tones, talking on the telephone and buying a bus ticket.
Burmese Lesson 7
Foods, forms of address, informal pronouns, talking to monks, have ever, eating in restaurants, eating at a tea shop and weakening.
Burmese Lesson 8
Body parts and health issues, commands, gender and plural forms, ordinal numbers and stacked consonants.
Burmese Lesson 9
Classifiers, comparisons, traveller's needs, rarely used consonants and symbols, shopping for clothes.
Burmese Lesson 10
Vocabulary for feelings, family, occupation, animals, subordinate clauses, irregular negative forms, literary form.
Appendix 1
A brief overview of Burmese grammar.
Appendix 2
Test and writing exercise answers.
Appendix 3
Useful Burmese words and phrases.
The author of Burmese For Beginners, Dr Gene Mesher, is a former fulbright scholar who has studied the communications industry in Southeast Asia. You too can learn Burmese with his course.