Burmese (Myanmar)

Book excerpt: The third volume in a four-part language course, this textbook enables students to become competent in reading and writing Burmese script. Most students find it helpful to begin learning the script at the same time they start on the spoken language, but this volume can be used independently if preferred. In addition to lists of words for reading and writing practice, presented in a series of short graduated lessons, Okell includes sample texts from Burmese materials such as product labels, newspaper headlines, and maps. Appendices on handwriting and cursive forms, display fonts, the Burmese names of the characters, Burmese alphabetical order, and common abbreviations round out the book. One of the challenges of learning a non-Roman script language from traditional course books is that the use of the Rroman alphabet to describe sounds is not as effective as hearing the sounds. The extensive audio files that accompany this volume allow the learner to hear and produce the sounds corresponding to the symbols. Language professors and their students, or those learning Burmese on their own, will appreciate the accessible approach and the manageable size of the lessons of the very practical textbooks in this series.