Benny Kyaw – Karen Teacher Extraordinaire

 

Benny Kyaw speaking at a home worship service
in Mae Sariang

Mentioned in the previous post, Benny Kyaw was the Karen Hostel father. Formerly from Burma he had great English and of course, he knew the Karen language extremely well. In fact, he’d done most (or maybe all?) of the translation of the “Good News for Modern Man” Bible and translated it into the Karen language. In moving to Mae Sariang, we’d left Naw Win, our Karen language instructor in Chiang Mai behind. Looking for a new instructor, Benny Kyaw seemed a logical choice. His house was only a few steps from our house too, so we signed on as students.

To be honest, we struggled learning Karen, especially in understanding what others said to us. I previously mentioned in this blog that there are lots of variations, speaking styles, dialects, accents, etc. often muffled by betel nut chewing speakers. For those growing up with the language, those variations can be taken in stride.

Plus, there was no centralized dialect like with Thai. The national Thai education system along with nationwide TV and radio broadcasts had made “Central” or Bangkok Thai widely spoken and understood. Central Thai might not be a Northern Thai speaker’s first choice for example, but they could usually adapt to one degree or another. Among Karen speakers though, it was a mixed bag. There was no real “central” version. Plus, after having learned Thai and dabbled with Northern Thai, our brains had maxed out language wise.

Still, we tried and kept learning as best we could. We’d use Karen language learning materials that had been created by long time missionary to the Karen Emilie Ballard. For a while, we went through the Karen Hymn book and Bible as well. We were making progress, but it was slow.

Benny Kyaw’s only flaw as a teacher was that he was hard to keep on task. Usually, at some point during a class session, Benny would get inspired and with his impeccable English, launch into a story from his past and expound at length. As I mentioned in the previous post, a book or two should have been written about his life as it was interesting and colorful. His stories might cover anything from his childhood in Burma, to his time in the Burma military and of course, lots of stories about the Karen church and some of its leaders. It was always interesting and usually amusing, but likely not real helpful in teaching Karen since it was all in English.

Benny had a very large catalog of stories to choose from but that didn’t stop him from repeating his favorites. And repeating them often. One of Benny’s favorites was to talk about a church leader who loved to preach against the sin of pride. Humility is a trait prized in Karen culture and this particular church leader wanted to be sure his congregation was humble. So he preached on being humble and apparently, seeing no better example, the preacher lifted himself up as an example of the ultimate humble person. Benny Kyaw would come to a punch line about how this preacher was “proud of his humility”, then he would laugh so hard he had to take a break.

Another favorite story, was how the King of Thailand had visited Mae Sariang and had even visited the student hostel where Benny and Lah Say were hostel parents. He was very proud. They had prepared a place for the King to sit and once the King left, they left the chair in place and roped it off so no one else would ever sit on it again. The chair remained there as long as I remember. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is still there now.

Benny Kyaw was the Karen teacher extraordinaire! He continued to try and teach us Karen and we continued to try and learn. But, whether learning a lot or a little, we certainly enjoyed his stories. He, Lah Say his wife, as well as Pee and Pue Luh Say have all passed on. They are alive in our memories though, and whether the memories or the people, we cherish them all.