In Burmese, the face is a great way to express your helplessness, pride, shame, or outrage--figuratively. When you’re feeling awkward, you might say, your face is burning (မျက်နှာပူတယ်). When you’re feeling insecure, your face is small (မျက်နှာငယ်တယ်). And when you favor someone, you give them face time (မျက်နှာပေးတယ် or မျက်နှာသာပေးတယ်). By the same token, if you get special treatment, people begrudge you for getting face time (မျက်နှာရတယ် or မျက်နှာသာရတယ်). Why say, “Don’t dishonor me” when you can say “Don’t rub soot on my face” (မျက်နှာကို အိုးမည်းမသုတ်နဲ့)? For more, listen to this episode of Bite-Size Burmese about face-related expressions.
(Illustration by Burmese artist Nyan Kyal Say, NK Artbox; Intro and end music: "When my ukulele plays" by Soundroll, Upbeat.io.)

Vocabulary

အခြေခံတယ် to be based on
မျက်နှာပူတယ် to feel awkward, to feel embarrassed
မျက်နှာငယ်တယ် to feel small, insecure
အားငယ်တယ် to feel insecure, helpless
အားကိုးတယ် to rely on, to depend on
အကြွေး debt
မျက်နှာပေးတယ် / မျက်နှာသာပေးတယ် to give favorable treatment
မျက်နှာရတယ် / မျက်နှာသာရတယ် to receive favorable treatment
မျက်နှာပျက်တယ် to lose prestige
မျက်နှာကို အိုးမည်းနဲ့သုတ်တယ် to bring shame, dishonor on someone
လှောင်ပြောင်တယ် to mock, to make fun of someone
စော်ကားတယ် to insult someone
မျက်နှာပြောင်တိုက်တယ် to act with a bold face

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