Pete Evans, a teacher from Buckinghamshire, England, is going viral for his hilarious TikTok clips on Covid-19 prevention, body shaming, and the superiority of the bum gun—all delivered in flawless Burmese language.
His friends Chan Lay and Ko Ko Naing set up the shared account in March “for a bit of fun,” he said, but the videos have since gone on to attract hundreds of thousands of views, clocking up nearly 190,000 likes and more than 51,000 followers.
“I thought a foreigner speaking Burmese would just be a bit different,” said Evans, who moved to Myanmar two decades ago. “I also thought it would be good to have some light relief from the crisis as the media can be all doom and gloom.”
One video promoting caution over fake news on Facebook has racked up 426,000 views so far, while other videos encourage hand washing and physical distancing to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Don’t believe everything you hear##staysafemyanmar##covidmisinformation##fakenews ညီေလးေရ ေပ်ာက္ကုန္ပီတဲ့?
“I posted about Covid-19 because I felt people were extremely anxious about it and therefore, it would be beneficial to have some information which was presented in a different way as Covid news was very repetitive,” he wrote in an email to Myanmar Mix.
As a teacher, he has seen body shaming and gender identity concern young Myanmar people so he made clips on those issues.
“Then of course there is the ultimate debate as to whether bum guns are better than tissue roll,” he said. “Anyone who's been in Asia knows ‘The Truth’.”
Evans settles this debate with an effective demonstration involving a pot of soil and a hosepipe.
The owner of two bookshops in Yangon named Bookworm Books, he also founded a charity 12 years ago called HelpInHands.
It gives clothes, toys, blankets, and other items to children’s homes, deaf and blind schools, and retirement homes and makes emergency relief donations.
Evans learned Burmese from karaoke versions of Myanmar ballads and children’s comics, he said, as well as by taking notes on phrases and words, which he practised at home.
On learning Burmese, “you need to really have the passion to learn and not worry about making mistakes,” he said.
“I think many are put off learning when people laugh if you make a mistake. They need to realise people aren't laughing in a mocking way; it's simply that they find it endearing.”
Fluent in Malay and literate in Thai, Evans is a natural linguist who studied Southeast Asian languages and literature in university. He has even been learning Spanish during lockdown at his home in England.
“Myanmar people love to help you learn and basically every person you meet becomes your teacher,” he added. “If you do speak Myanmar, it will greatly enrich your experience here.”
Follow him on TikTok @clkopetekkn.
