The Thai consonants are all named after things, people or animals. A very common letter is moh maa, or "horse letter m". When I started learning Thai, I used to call it, by mistake, moh muu, or "pig letter m" -- a logical mistake since Thais eat a lot of pork, but I've never seen a horse in Thailand. Poo and Thun thought it was hysterical, and they have called the letter moh muu ever since.
Today Poo helped me with my Thai homework. This always makes her laugh because of my mispronunciations. For example, to say "ride a horse" in Thai is kee-maa. (with a flat tone and then a high tone). To say "dog shit" in Thai is kee-maa (with a high tone and then a rising tone). So, if I'm trying to say "ride a horse" I often say "dog shit" (or, if I get it half right: "horse shit" or "ride a dog") and this makes her laugh.
Today she was laughing as she helped me and poking fun at my pronunciations.
"Stop teasing me!" I told her. I get angry because instead of simply correcting me, she repeats what I mispronounce and giggles, so I get confused between the correct and incorrect pronunciations.
"OK," she said, "I'm serious now. How do you spell meu-wan-nee (yesterday)?
At the first consonant, I said, moh maa, (or "horse letter m").
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yes!"
"Are you sure it's not moh muu (or "pig letter m")? and she started laughing again.
POO!" I screamed at her, "STOP TEASING ME!! I'M TRYING TO LEARN THAI!!! I'M TRYING TO BE SERIOUS!!!!"
"OK, I'll be serious," she said. The next word on her list was samee (husband), but she said samee-kee-moho (angry-shit-husband).
I scratched my head, thought about it, and spelled it correctly.
"Next?" I said.
"Did you write down samee-kee-moho?" she asked, "let me see."
I showed it to her. I expected her to say, "very good!" but instead she laughed so hard that I had to quit studying.
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