This is an easy one! It’s the month of the Messiah of course!
We celebrate Passover (the last supper of Jesus) and Easter (the resurrection) in April.
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โชคดี อีสเตอร์นี้ 500 รับ ฟรีGood luck this Easter Get 500 free! |
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อัพเดท แพทช์ ต้อนรับ เทศกาล อืสเตอร์Update patch receive (on) Easter festival |
St Patrick’s Day is in March. The story of his life is fascinating. He had a pretty mean life, captured by pirates and enslaved for six years. He was also a bit of a mean fighting man, railing against druids, idols and kings. Many fellow Christians were quite hostile towards him also. But he baptised thousands of people and ordained priests and introduced the shamrock (three-leafed plant) to describe the concept of the Holy Trinity… not to mention banishing all snakes from Ireland.
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ฤกษ์ดี วันดี เดือน มีนาคมAuspicious days and times in March. |
For the guys: Why not take your beautiful, delicate new Thai girlfriend to a romantic Valentine Day’s meal at the German Sausage & Beer Restaurant, where you will find an Oom Pa Paa band!?
For the girls: The ideal place to take your fellow on Valentine’s Day is to the German Sausage & Beer Restaurant with the jolly Oom Pa Paa band!
(กุมภา “koompaa” is February, the พันธ์ “-pun” ending = obligation/to unite/to connect, probably refers to the fact that it’s a non-standard 28-day month.)
You might not remember the word “koompa-pun” itself all that accurately at first. That’s okay. Thinking of Valentine’s Day, which is in February, and the Oom Pa Paa band will be enough of a trigger. After a few attempts, you’ll easily be able to get from “oom pa paa” to “koompaa-pun”.
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Can you read the modern fonts? I cover these in the workshop, but I can also send you a handout that shows you how to do it easily.
กุมภาพันธ์ Peter was in a Thai TV series and became a popular singer for a short while. “February” was the theme song. |
After the expensive month of Christmas presents and New Year partying, all one can usually afford to eat in January is MACARONI.
(The -com or -yon endings refer to whether the month as 31 or 30 days respectively, so it’s not something one needs to put any effort into remembering.)
Okay, so this mnemonic is a bit imprecise I admit. But I chose this to illustrate a point: even a convoluted suggestion is usually enough to help you remember something… if it’s bizarre enough!
See if you still remember this tomorrow and next week…
As I said, you might not get “mockaraa-com” precisely. It might have been better to try a mnemonic involving “mocha” (e.g. my New Year’s Resolution is to reduce my caffeine intake by drinking mocha instead of coffee).
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Important: Pronounce “ck” the same way as the “k” in “sky” – the air is kept inside your mouth, not expelled as a puff.
The word for January consists of two syllables: มก and รา. The first syllable has the invisible vowel “o” (“mock”). It’s difficult for Thais to run these two syllables together, so they add the spacer sound “a” as a bridge. That’s why you get “mock-a-raa” (and not “mokraa”). |
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Can you read the modern fonts? I cover these in the workshop, but I can also send you a handout that shows you how to do it easily.
3 มกรา มาดู proud ขวัญเวียง … ฟรี 3 Jan come look … khwanwiyang … free! ขวัญเวียง is just the name of the moobaan, but it’s an interesting name. ขวัญ means “the spirit inside you” (possibly the same as “soul”?). So ของขวัญ is a (nice) thing for your soul, or a “gift”. เวียง means a walled city, like the old city in Chiang Mai. And a moobaan is, after all, a private, protected area for your soul (or peace-of-mind). Nice name…! |
This is part of a series of how to remember essential vocabulary “in Thai”.
The months are particularly difficult, primarily because they are not really Thai words – they usually have something to do with the Zodiac or originating from Sanskrit.
Nevertheless, at some point, it is worth learning the names of the months. Start by learning the current month and the one following, so that you can at least talk about today’s date and a date in the next month.
Or you could cheat and simply say เดือนนี้ (for this month) and เดือนหน้า (for next month).
Here’s how to remember the months in Thai:
| Month | Hint |
|---|---|
| January | Macaroni |
| February | Oom Paa Paa |
| March | Meaner |
| April | Messiah |
| May | Pretty Party |
| June | Meat ‘n Tuna sandwiches |
| July | 4th of July fireworks |
| August | Leo the Singer |
| September | Hunting season, get out yer guns |
| October | OktoberFest Too Laa Laa |
| November | Dance a Pretty Jig |
| December | A Ton of Xmas presents |
