"I'm Burmese"

“I thought you were Hispanic.”

I actually find it funny when people say this to me. I don’t know how or why they get this idea, but it’s just a repeated concept that I’ve noticed throughout my life. I find it funny because I’m actually not Hispanic at all.

“Oh no, I’m Burmese.”

“What’s that? Like where is it?”

And from there I explain what my culture is and where it comes from.

Most of the time, a lot of the people I would talk to would then google Burma and try to make out an idea of what or where Burma is. Burmese people aren’t as common as the people of other Asian cultures. It’s one of those cultures that are just as unique but not very well known. The first thing people would normally do is click on images because who would actually want to read articles about what Burma . When this happens, the first thing that shows up in images are those golden high top point temples.They don’t know what-what they are so they would ask if that’s what the houses there look like.

“Um, no. They’re temples.”

From there, most people would think that Burma focuses around temples and that’s what it’s known for. Most people find it fascinating because of how cool those high point tower looking like things look. It grabs their attention. In real life, for a person that’s been to Burma multiple times for vacation, I don’t find it fascinating. I don’t find it fascinating because I don’t see what the big deal is compared to the random tourists who would see them for the first time.

“So like what’s it for, why are there so many of them?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. They’re just there, they’re everywhere.”

It’s true, these temples, they’re everywhere. There are more than two in every city. There would even be one in every neighborhood, let alone city. They come in different shapes and sizes. But the one thing that is unique about them is that they all have the high point at the top of the building. Basically what it’s for is so people can go inside the temple and pray at a statue of a monk. They light up candle sticks and provide it water and/or fruits, it’s basically like a ritual. Every so often people do this to show respect. It is very much similar to the Chinese culture.

“Are these what the actual houses look like?”

Other than temples, people would also find pictures of houses built on the support of somewhat thin wood sticks IN WATER. Yea, it sounds crazy, but it’s actually a thing. There are many parts in Burma that have houses like those. Some are purposely like that to attract tourists attention, like for example, hotels and tourists sites. Other than that, the really poor looking houses are actually made from people who live near high tide rivers or lakes or water bodies of any sort.

“So they are houses?”

“Yes, but not all are like that.”

“Why won’t they just build it on land then?”

In Burma, and I’m sure many other countries, there is a season called raining season. Here in America we have “April showers”, it’s about the same meaning, but it’s way more effective in Burma. What happens during raining season is that for months (about 3), it would rain just about every day. No bright sunshine, like ever during that season. Some days it would just be light drizzles and that’s fine, but on other days it would rain hardcore and not only for one day but for days continuously. It causes the land to flood, and it’s not just any small flood, these are high floods. Floods that would ruin houses and supplies. Since this season comes around every year and it lasts for about three months, these poor people just decided to build their house on top of the water with support sticks because they don’t have the kind of money to build a new house every year when the flood hits.

“Oh, that’s sad. How many times have you been to Burma?”

“Quite a lot, my first time was when I was only 2.”

My first time in Burma, I was young, really young, I didn’t know anything about the place or people or cultures. As I grew older and visited Burma more, I started to notice my culture more and what it means to me.

Comments (2)

Rebecca Snyder (Student 2019)
Rebecca Snyder

I really enjoyed your essay and learning about your culture. I think that the big understanding of people's ignorance when learning about a new place is very relevant in many situations. I like how you reacted calmly to that ignorance and approached the situation in a very appropriate way.

Aysha Siddiquee (Student 2019)
Aysha Siddiquee

The big understandings that I get from your narrative consist of systems and ideas around stereotypes and the ignorance of people when introduced to a new culture, place and or idea. This relates to systems by how people draw conclusions on the spot based off of what they see first hand and as well as categorizing a person based off of their features. I really liked how your writing incorporated many pieces of your own experiences, this made the writing more real and impactful