Language/Burmese/Vocabulary/Ordering-at-a-Restaurant

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Burmese → Vocabulary → 0 to A1 Course → Ordering at a Restaurant

Introduction

Welcome to the lesson on ordering at a restaurant in Burmese! In this lesson, we will learn how to practice ordering food and drinks in Burmese, as well as understanding restaurant menus and asking for the bill. This topic is an essential part of learning the Burmese language, as it allows you to engage in everyday conversations and experience the rich culinary culture of Myanmar.

Throughout this lesson, we will explore various vocabulary related to dining, including types of meals, table settings, and common foods. We will also learn how to effectively communicate our preferences and make requests at a restaurant. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to confidently navigate a Burmese restaurant and enjoy a delicious meal while immersing yourself in the local culture.

Let's get started!

Vocabulary

Before we dive into ordering at a restaurant, let's familiarize ourselves with some essential vocabulary related to food and dining in Burmese. Here are some words and phrases you will frequently encounter:

Burmese	Pronunciation	English
အစား	a:saa	food
အစာအား	a:saa a:	menu
အစိတ်	a: sè	dish
အစားထိုး	a:saa hto	cuisine
အိမ့်အစား	ein a:saa	drink
အရည်အသွေး	a. jì a. swé	appetizer
အစပ်	a: sa:	rice
အသုံးချပ်	a. zóun: hkyat	main course
ဟင်းချော်	hìng: chau:	chicken
သုတ်ပုံ	thout pone	soup
အသား	a: taa	fish
သီးသန့်	thi: thin	meat
ငါး	ngá	pork
ငွေ့ကြော်	nwe: kau:	beef
ကြက်	gyaik	egg
ငါးကြက်	ngá gyaik	scrambled eggs
ကြော်ငြောင်း	kau: zau:	omelette
ထမင်း	htamín	rice
ချဉ်သီး	chany thi:	grilled meat
အင်းရည်	ing: yè	salad
အော်ကြော်	aù kau:	soup
ပဲ	be	fish
အင်း	ing:	shrimp
ကြက်သား	gyaik tha	chicken curry
ပြန်သား	pyan: tha	pork curry
ငွေ့ရည်	nwe: yè	beef curry
ပြန်ကြော်	pyan: kau:	pork stew
ငါးရည်	ngá yè	pork stew
အစပ်ချဉ်	a: sa: chany	fried rice
အသားဖော်	a: taa hau:	grilled fish
အသားကြော်	a: taa kau:	grilled meat
အသားချဉ်	a: taa chany	grilled fish
ငါးချဉ်	ngá chany	grilled pork
အသားငါး	a: taa ngá	grilled fish
ကြက်သားအစား	gyaik tha a:saa	chicken curry
သင်္ဘောထီး	thinbawhtee	vegetable
အသားဟင်း	a: taa hìng:	fried fish
ဟင်းမန်း	hìng: man	fried chicken
ကြက်သားမန်း	gyaik tha man	fried chicken curry
ပေါက်ကြက်	paù gyaik	roasted chicken
ငါးဟင်းနား	ngá hìng: na	spicy pork
အသီးဟင်း	a: thi: hìng:	spicy meat

Take some time to practice pronouncing these words and phrases correctly. Listening and speaking are essential components of language learning, and mastering the pronunciation will help you communicate effectively in real-life situations.

Now that we have a good foundation of vocabulary, let's move on to understanding how to order food and drinks at a restaurant in Burmese.

Ordering Food and Drinks

When you visit a restaurant in Myanmar, it's essential to know how to order your desired food and drinks. Here are some phrases and sentences you can use to place your order:

Ordering Food

To start, you can use the following phrases to express your preference for a particular dish:

• ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may) - I would like chicken curry.
• ကြက်သားကြော်မယ်။ (gyaik tha kau may) - I would like grilled chicken.
• အစားအစားရွေးပါ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba) - I would like to try different dishes.
• ကြက်သားပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha ba hkang: pya) - Please give me chicken curry.
• ကြက်သားကြော်ပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha kau ba hkang: pya) - Please give me grilled chicken.
• အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya) - Please bring me different dishes.

If you have any dietary restrictions or allergies, you can use the following phrases to inform the waiter or waitress:

• ကြက်သားကြော်အလှည်းကျပါသလား။ (gyaik tha kau a: lhin: kyat ba tha lar) - Is the grilled chicken spicy?
• အစားကြော်မယ်ဘူး။ (a:saa kau may be) - I can't eat spicy food.
• အစားကြော်ချစ်မယ်ဘူး။ (a:saa kau chit may be) - I can't eat fried food.

To specify the quantity or portion size, you can use the following phrases:

• အစားအရေအတွက်ပါ။ (a:saa ya: a:twat ba) - I would like a small portion of food.
• အစားနှိုးတစ်ခုပါ။ (a:saa nhaui: tay hku ba) - I would like one plate of food.
• အစားအရေရှိနိုင်ပါသလား။ (a:saa ya: shi nying: ba tha lar) - Do you have a small portion of food?

Ordering Drinks

When it comes to ordering drinks, you can use the following phrases:

• အိမ့်အစားပါပဲ။ (ein a:saa pa be) - I would like a drink.
• အိမ့်အစားကိုပါပဲ။ (ein a:saa ko pa be) - I would like this drink.
• အိမ့်အစားတစ်ခုပါပဲ။ (ein a:saa tay hku pa be) - I would like one glass of drink.
• အိမ့်အစားတစ်လောက်ပါပဲ။ (ein a:saa tay lauk pa be) - I would like one bottle of drink.

If you have any preferences or requests regarding your drink, you can use the following phrases:

• အိမ့်အစားရှိနိုင်ပါသလား။ (ein a:saa shi nying: ba tha lar) - Do you have this drink?
• အိမ့်အစားချစ်ရှိနိုင်ပါသလား။ (ein a:saa chit shi nying: ba tha lar) - Do you have a cold drink?
• အိမ့်အစားကျစ်ရှိနိုင်ပါသလား။ (ein a:saa kyat shi nying: ba tha lar) - Do you have a hot drink?

Remember to use these phrases in a polite and respectful manner when communicating with the restaurant staff. The Burmese people appreciate good manners and politeness, so it's always a good idea to be courteous.

Understanding the Menu

To navigate a Burmese restaurant effectively, it's essential to understand the menu. Here are some common terms you will find on a Burmese menu:

• ပင်မစား (paing ma: saa) - Breakfast
• နေ့လည်စား (nè lei: saa) - Lunch
• ညနေစား (nei saa) - Dinner
• နေ့စား (nè saa) - Meal
• စားကြောင်း (saa kau: ngau) - Dine-in
• လက်ဘန်း (lak bhan) - Takeaway
• စားရန်ရှာရန် (saa nà: sha: nà: ) - Eat-in or take away

Additionally, you will encounter various types of dishes on the menu, such as:

• ဟင်းချော် (hìng: chau:) - Chicken
• သုတ်ပုံ (thout pone) - Soup
• အသား (a: taa) - Fish
• သီးသန့် (thi: thin) - Meat
• ငါး (ngá) - Pork
• ငွေ့ကြော် (nwe: kau:) - Beef
• ကြက် (gyaik) - Egg
• ငါးကြက် (ngá gyaik) - Scrambled eggs
• ကြော်ငြောင်း (kau: zau:) - Omelette
• ထမင်း (htamín) - Rice
• ချဉ်သီး (chany thi:) - Grilled meat
• အင်းရည် (ing: yè) - Salad
• အော်ကြော် (aù kau:) - Soup
• ပဲ (be) - Fish
• အင်း (ing:) - Shrimp

Now that you are familiar with the vocabulary, phrases, and menu terms, let's move on to some practice scenarios to reinforce your learning.

Practice Scenarios

To help you apply what you have learned so far, let's go through some practice scenarios. Imagine yourself in a Burmese restaurant, and try to respond to the given situations using the appropriate phrases and vocabulary.

Scenario 1

Waiter: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may) You: ကြက်သားကြော်မယ်။ (gyaik tha kau may)

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba) You: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya)

Waiter: ကြက်သားပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားကြော်ပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha kau ba hkang: pya)

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may)

Scenario 2

Waiter: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may) You: ကြက်သားကြော်မယ်။ (gyaik tha kau may)

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba) You: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya)

Waiter: ကြက်သားပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားကြော်ပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha kau ba hkang: pya)

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may)

Now it's your turn to create your own practice scenarios. Imagine different situations at a restaurant and use the vocabulary and phrases you have learned to respond appropriately. This will help you become more comfortable with ordering food and drinks in Burmese.

Solutions and Explanations

Let's go through the solutions and explanations for the practice scenarios:

Scenario 1

Waiter: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may) You: ကြက်သားကြော်မယ်။ (gyaik tha kau may) Translation: I would like chicken curry.

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba) You: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya) Translation: I would like to try different dishes.

Waiter: ကြက်သားပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားကြော်ပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha kau ba hkang: pya) Translation: Please give me chicken curry.

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may) Translation: I would like chicken curry.

Scenario 2

Waiter: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may) You: ကြက်သားကြော်မယ်။ (gyaik tha kau may) Translation: I would like chicken curry.

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba) You: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya) Translation: I would like to try different dishes.

Waiter: ကြက်သားပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားကြော်ပါခင်ဗျာ။ (gyaik tha kau ba hkang: pya) Translation: Please give me chicken curry.

Waiter: အစားအစားရွေးပါခင်ဗျာ။ (a:saa a:saa swe: ba hkang: pya) You: ကြက်သားမယ်။ (gyaik tha may) Translation: I would like chicken curry.

Well done! You have successfully completed the practice scenarios. Now you can confidently order food and drinks at a Burmese restaurant.

Cultural Insight

In Burmese culture, food holds significant importance, and dining is often a communal and social activity. In traditional Burmese households, it is customary to serve a variety of dishes, allowing guests to sample different flavors and combinations. Sharing food is a way of fostering unity and building relationships.

When dining at a Burmese restaurant, you may notice that Burmese cuisine is diverse and influenced by neighboring countries such as India, China, and Thailand. Some popular dishes include Mohinga (rice noodle soup), Laphet Thoke (tea leaf salad), and Shan Noodles. Burmese people take pride in their culinary heritage and are known for their use of fresh ingredients and bold flavors.

Furthermore, it is common for Burmese restaurants to have a communal dining style, where several dishes are ordered and shared among the group. This practice allows everyone to experience a variety of flavors and textures, creating a sense of togetherness and camaraderie.

So, when you visit a Burmese restaurant, embrace the communal dining experience and be open to trying new dishes. Immerse yourself in the vibrant flavors and savor the rich cultural heritage of Myanmar.

Conclusion

Congratulations on completing the lesson on ordering at a restaurant in Burmese! You have learned valuable vocabulary, phrases, and cultural insights that will enable you to confidently navigate a Burmese restaurant and enjoy a delightful dining experience.

Remember to practice using the vocabulary and phrases in real-life situations to reinforce your learning. The more you engage in conversations and immerse yourself in the Burmese language, the faster you will progress.

In the next lesson, we will delve into Burmese customs and etiquette, exploring the traditions and expectations when greeting others and visiting a Burmese home.

Keep up the great work, and see you in the next lesson!

Table of Contents - Burmese Course - 0 to A1

• Course Presentation

  ---

Greetings and Introductions

• Basic Greetings
• Introducing Yourself

  ---

Sentence Structure

• Simple Sentences
• Nouns and Pronouns

  ---

Numbers and Dates

• Numbers 1-10
• Days of the Week

  ---

Verbs and Tenses

• Regular Verbs
• Irregular Verbs

  ---

Common Activities

• Daily Routines
• Hobbies and Interests

  ---

Adjectives and Adverbs

• Describing People and Things
• Expressing Manner and Frequency

  ---

Food and Drink

• Meals and Dining
• Ordering at a Restaurant

  ---

Burmese Customs and Etiquette

• Greetings and Politeness
• Visiting a Burmese Home

  ---

Prepositions and Conjunctions

• Location and Direction
• Connecting Ideas

  ---

Travel and Transportation

• Modes of Transportation
• Asking for Directions

  ---

Festivals and Celebrations

• Burmese New Year
• Other Important Festivals

Sources

• Ordering Food and drinks in Burmese

Other Lessons

• Fruits
• Modes of Transportation
• Colors
• Clothes
• Education
• Geography
• Asking for Directions
• Days of the week
• Express Surprise
• Months of the Year

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