Burmese dictionary is mainly based on the Myanmar-English dictionary published in 1993 by the Myanmar Language Commission and republished in 1996 by Dunwoody Press (ISBN 1-881265-47-1)
I thought I would share this Perl script I have written to convert Burmese
unicode from version 4.1 to 5.1. If any of you find it useful, please feel free
to use it with GPL license. If you find any bugs, please let me know.
Dr. Kyaw Thet gave a lecture at the once-prestigious Rangoon University. The clip was
taken from 1957 CBS Edward Murrow's "See It Now" program on "Burma, Buddhism, and
Neutrality".
Click on the keyboard icon (on your left panel) as shown in the following picture.
Click on the input characters so you can see the prediction. Please wait for a
fraction of a second (because of the server delay) after you click on the characters.
You will see the predicted Burmese words based on the dictionary order
as in the following picture.
Warning about fonts
If you use Zawgyi font, you won't see the correct rendering
of some characters, especially subscript forms. Zawgyi is incompatible with the
Unicode standard.
Our dictionary uses the old Unicode standard with UTN #11 (the documentations
are listed below)
I went to a "mom and pop" store for cigarettes. A very young woman was handling the transaction; thin, long hair, long legs, pretty face with no makeup. I wondered if she was 18.
As she turned and descended into the dark shop, an elderly women, presumably a relative, emerged from the shadows. She lunged from her seat, sensing opportunity. "You want she?" the woman asked, meaning "her" - the young woman.
I was shocked and caught off-guard and couldn't respond. In the silence, the
elder woman continued "You want daughter? You take," she said, pointing. "Have
hotel. Fifteen dollar."
"No," I said firmly. With that, the old woman scowled and slunk back to her seat.
The shop girl never met my eyes as she handed over the cigarettes. Still, I perceived a small smile.
A sex slave working as a shop girl; a young woman being sold by her own mother. It was a sad situation that I won't soon forget. Sadly, scenes like this will likely continue until the Myanmar government can improve the lives of its 55 million people. I was overcome by this realization as I settled the bill in that tiny shop on the Myanmar-Thai border.
As I turned to leave, I heard the shop girl whisper "thank you".
I went to Laos last week on a business trip. I met some of my former students from Laos.
I gave them IT training while I was working for
Digital Divide Data in Vientiane.
Lwin with his Laos students at the Friendship bridge on the Thai-Laos border
