Signification
Showing off one's success.
Contexte culturel
Humility is a core Buddhist value. Publicly boasting about one's own goodness or success is often seen as 'Hman-ma-htauk' (not being humble). 'Let ma htaung' is the label given to those who break this social norm. In traditional sports, 'Let ma htaung' is more acceptable as a sign of victory. It's a moment where the 'thumb' represents the 'champion'. With the rise of social media, 'Let ma htaung' is increasingly used to describe 'influencer' behavior or 'flexing' wealth, often with a mix of envy and criticism from the audience. In business, 'Let ma htaung' can be a double-edged sword. It can signal confidence to partners, but if overdone, it can alienate employees who value a more 'A-nar-de' style of leadership.
Don't use as a compliment
Never tell someone 'You are let ma htaung' if you mean they did a good job. They will think you are calling them arrogant.
Use with 'Nay tal'
To sound more natural, use the continuous form 'Let ma htaung nay tal' when describing someone's current behavior.
Signification
Showing off one's success.
Don't use as a compliment
Never tell someone 'You are let ma htaung' if you mean they did a good job. They will think you are calling them arrogant.
Use with 'Nay tal'
To sound more natural, use the continuous form 'Let ma htaung nay tal' when describing someone's current behavior.
The 'A-nar-de' balance
If you are successful, always follow up with a humble comment to avoid being labeled as 'let ma htaung'.
Teste-toi
Which sentence correctly uses 'လက်မထောင်' to describe someone boasting?
သူက အရမ်းတော်ပေမယ့် ______။
The word 'ပေမယ့်' (but) implies a contrast. 'He is very good, BUT he doesn't show off' is the most natural sentence.
Fill in the blank to tell your friend not to show off.
သိပ် ______ နဲ့ဦး။
'လက်မထောင်နဲ့' is the standard way to say 'Don't show off.'
Match the situation to the correct use of the phrase.
Situation: Your friend just bought a gold watch and is making sure everyone sees it.
The behavior of making sure everyone sees a luxury item is a classic example of 'လက်မထောင်နေတယ်'.
Complete the dialogue.
A: သူ နိုင်သွားတာနဲ့ ငါတို့ကိုတောင် မနှုတ်ဆက်တော့ဘူး။ B: ဟုတ်ပ၊ ______။
B is agreeing with A's observation that the person's attitude changed after winning.
🎉 Score : /4
Aides visuelles
Banque d exercices
4 exercicesသူက အရမ်းတော်ပေမယ့် ______။
The word 'ပေမယ့်' (but) implies a contrast. 'He is very good, BUT he doesn't show off' is the most natural sentence.
သိပ် ______ နဲ့ဦး။
'လက်မထောင်နဲ့' is the standard way to say 'Don't show off.'
Situation: Your friend just bought a gold watch and is making sure everyone sees it.
The behavior of making sure everyone sees a luxury item is a classic example of 'လက်မထောင်နေတယ်'.
A: သူ နိုင်သွားတာနဲ့ ငါတို့ကိုတောင် မနှုတ်ဆက်တော့ဘူး။ B: ဟုတ်ပ၊ ______။
B is agreeing with A's observation that the person's attitude changed after winning.
🎉 Score : /4
Questions fréquentes
10 questionsUsually, yes. It implies arrogance. However, in sports or hip-hop, it can be a sign of confidence.
Only if you are joking or being self-deprecating. 'ငါ လက်မထောင်နေတာ' (I'm just showing off).
The opposite is being 'Hman-ma-htauk' (humble) or 'A-nar-de' (considerate).
The physical gesture is a thumbs up, but the idiom refers to the attitude behind it.
No, it's too informal. Use more professional words for 'confidence' or 'achievement'.
Say 'Let ma ma htaung ne' (လက်မ မထောင်နဲ့).
It's an idiom, which is a bit more established than slang, but it is used informally.
Yes, it's often used to tease children when they are proud of a small drawing or a win.
Not directly, but it goes against Buddhist teachings on ego (Mana).
Because the thumb is the 'leader' finger in Myanmar culture.
Expressions liées
ဘဝင်မြင့်
synonymTo be conceited or have a high ego.
လေကြီး
similarTo talk big or exaggerate.
နှိမ်
contrastTo look down on someone.
ဂုဏ်ယူ
similarTo be proud.
ကြွား
synonymTo boast.
