Meet Cherry: the Only Burmese Tutor in Italki

Burmese teacher Cherry on italki (photo courtesy of Cherry)

What's it like to be the only Burmese teacher on a language-learning website? To find out, I decided to book myself a lesson with Cherry on italki.

On italki, you can find someone to teach you a language, or you can sign up to teach a language. There are more than 2,900 tutors for English learners, more than 1,000 for Spanish, 427 for Chinese (Mandarin). 471 for French, and 320 for Japanese. The numbers for the less commonly taught languages are a lot more modest. There are 45 tutors for Hindi, 12 for Swahili, 11 for Punjabi, 38 for Thai, 30 for Indonesian, and 4 for Khmer (spoken in Cambodia). 

But for Burmese, italki offers all but one choice. Born in Burma and currently studying in Austria, Sayama Cherry (Teacher Cherry) would gladly give you lessons for about $16 per hour.

Mingala bah: greetings from italki

First, in the spirit of full disclosure, when I contacted Cherry I told her I actually didn't need Burmese lessons. Having spent the first 20 years of life in Burma, I am fluent in the language. But with her permission, I'd like to interview her, I said.

"You don't need to pay me for that," she messaged back. But I insisted. So, at the appointed time, our lesson/interview began on Skype, in the same way she would teach students.

Cherry has been teaching on italki since 2013-2014. "I started doing it as a hobby, but the job grew on me. I continue to do it because I enjoy it," she said. "Since I live in Europe, the pay from italki is not something I can rely on as a regular income."

According to the cost of living statistics on Numbeo, a meal in Austria costs about €12 (U.S. $13), and a one-bedroom downtown apartment costs about €720 (U.S. $805) a month. That means Cherry needs to teach about 50 lessons, spending 50 hours, to cover just her rent. That doesn't yet address her meals, transportation, and life expenses. Keep in mind -- italki also takes a cut from each transaction.

For most teachers living in the U.S. and Europe, the profit margins for teaching on italki may not be sustainable. For someone like Cherry, it has to be a labor of love.

Arh nah dae -- the quintessential Burmese guilt

In Burma, there are, I'm sure, a fair number of native speakers who're capable of giving language instructions to foreigners on italki. The hurdle, however, is the lack of access to online banking. To work and get paid through a site like italki, you'd need to have a web-accessible bank account, a credit card, a PayPal account, or some type of online banking capacity. In the cash-driven Burmese society, that's only a small sliver of the population.

So at least for the moment, Cherry has the market cornered on italki with no competition. Why not charge more, I asked.

"Arh nah dae," she said. It's the quintessential Burmese feeling of guilt that has no English translation for. She'd rather not set her price to be a burden, even though she has the monopoly.

"Some of my students are learning the language so they can go work in Burma," she explained. "They can't afford to pay too much."

Instead of having a monopoly on italki, she'd prefer to see more Burmese teachers, to give Burmese learners more choices. For some international students, Cherry simply cannot schedule lessons because they're free only during her work and rest hours.  

Cherry teaches Burmese on italki (photo courtesy of Cherry)

Who come to italki to learn Burmese?

Cherry regularly gets lesson requests from those planning to travel to Burma, either for work or pleasure. Many of them sign up for her package deal -- a set price for 10 hours -- for a crash course on survival Burmese. She also gets requests from polyglots, who tend to speak multiple languages (often more than five).

"Many of my polyglot students speak more than ten languages," Cherry noted. "Most of them have their own study methods, so I don't have to prepare a lot for them."

All lessons on italki are one on one; therefore, Cherry ends up customizing her instructions based on the student's objective. "Some just want to learn how to speak, no writing at all, so I teach them using Romanization. Some tell me specifically the phrases they need to learn. Some want to focus on culture," she said.

Tolerating mispronunciation

Some Burmese consonants and vowels simply don't have English equivalents. Therefore, English speakers tend to struggle with words spelled with such letters. The nga consonant (sounds like the ng at the end of words like drinking, sleeping ...) and the nya consonant (sounds like the ñ from el niño or la niña) are particularly problematic.

"In the early stages, I think it's much more effective to focus on something else other than mispronunciation," she explained. "If the student's overall speech is understandable, I'd ignore their mispronunciations; I won't keep correcting them. If I do, they might lose confidence."

Cherry herself has studied Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish languages to various levels; therefore, she understands the pitfalls of focusing too much on pronunciation -- or, rather, mispronunciation.

One of the most troublesome aspects to master in spoken Burmese is tone-shifting. For example, the affirmative sentence-end particle tae, the auxiliary verb chin (want to), and the command particle pah are sometimes pronounced as written (tae, chin, pah), but also pronounced dae, jin, bah in many instances. There are rules that govern when tone-shifting happens, but figuring out these rules require a thorough understanding of the writing system itself. This could be a hurdle for those who aspire to sound like native speakers, as tone-shifting is something native speakers do intuitively and consistently.

"I often tell the beginners not to worry about tone-shifting too much," explained Cherry. "In the case of tae, I tell them to go with dae -- the more common pronunciation of the two. I notice that, over time, the students correct themselves as they get more practice, because they copy my speaking style. The more they speak, the easier tone-shifting gets."

Ngapi on her mind

Cherry goes home about once every two years. In between her returns, she admits she often thinks about her favorite Burmese dishes and condiments.

"There's no Burmese restaurant in my city. The closest is a Thai restaurant," she said. "But even that's not too close, because overseas restaurants tend to cater to the local people's taste, so it doesn't taste authentic."

The two Burmese dishes she craves most are chin baung jaw, or stir-fried sour leaves, and ngapi yay, a thick pungent dipping sauce made from fermented fish.

The reward from teaching

Cherry is thrilled whenever she notices a student who once was barely able to speak, is starting to have basic conversations. She's sometimes amazed at her students' tenacity.

"The students make me proud to be a teacher. I'm surprised some of them put in so much efforts to get to that level," she says. "That inspires me to put in equal effort in my own Korean study as well."

If you'd like to schedule a lesson with Cherry, please visit her italki profile here.
Cherry also keeps a YouTube channel with free Burmese reading, writing, and vocabulary lessons.