February is KOOMPAA-PUN กุมภาพันธ์

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”.

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 ปีเตอร์ คอร์ป ไดเรนดัล Peter was in a Thai TV series and became a popular singer for a short while. “February” was the theme song.

January is MOCKARAA-COM มกราคม

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).

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 (mockaraa maa doo … khwan wiyang … free!) 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