As singles with no marital experience, my cohost Su and I are under-qualified to discuss this episode's theme: dowry. In Burmese context, it usually means what the groom and his family offer to the bride’s parents as gifts when asking for the girl’s hand in marriage. The so-called gifts could be cows for ploughing, a plot of farm to live on, a new bed, furniture for the newly weds' room, a luxury car, a home, or even cold, hard cash. When the wealth and social status of the two families involved are unequal, dowry could become a source of headache and heartache, a serious roadblock to the couple’s happy union. In modern times, the practice is not as popular as it was in the past, but it still exists in some form. In this episode, Su and I discuss a classic poem by Thakhin Ko Daw Hmaing that refers to the practice, and share out own personal thoughts on it. Vocabularyငါတွေ့မဟုတ်၊ စာတွေ့ not from personal experience but from booksခန်းဝင်ပစ္စည်း gifts to help the newly weds establish a home / dowryလက်ဖွဲ့ gifts for the newly weds / dowryပရိဘောဂ furnitureကြောင်အိမ် cabinet for temporarily storing food, usually not refrigeratedတင်တောင်းတယ် to offer something as dowry to ask for permission to marry someone (in Burmese culture, traditionally, what the groom offers to the bride’s family)ပမာဏ amountလုပ်ကျွေးတယ် to feed and take care of someoneနွားတစ်ရှဉ်း a pair of cowsစပါးကျီ a plot of farmစရိတ် expenseကန်တော့ပွဲ ceremonial offeringကြွက်မြီး literally, rat tail; figuratively, it refers to the stem of a coconutမျက်နှာငယ်တယ် to lose faceလက်ဖွဲ့ခြင်းသည်းခံပါ request to come without gift (a phrase that appears on some wedding invitations)ဝါတွင်း during the Buddhist Lent ကူငွေ literally monetary help; donation at funeral, given to the surviving family လက်သံပြောင်တယ် (1) skilled at musical performance; (2) to have a very powerful slap, strike, or punchချိုလိမ် pacifierဘိုးဘွားရိပ်သာ home for the elderliesပျားရည်ဆမ်းခရီး honeymoon  Have a question about a Burmese word or phrase you heard here? Send us a message.

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