the third sex

Musing about Thai names in the last blog entry, and the problems Thais have with the English language, brought me onto the related subject of communicating with ladyboys.

Although all Thai kids are taught English at school, few of them have the opportunity to use and improve on the language once they have left. Plus, of course, and I know this sounds patronising but it has to be said, the level of tuition is not necessarily that great. I once knew a Thai girl who had a qualification to teach English and she could not speak the language. She could read it and write it, but could not string a verbal sentence together.

Poor English language skills is one of the problems that holds Thais back when it comes to obtaining overseas work, even (or especially) the lower-level agency work that Filipinos more or less monopolise in places such as Hong Kong, Singapore and other prosperous parts of Asia.

This is also a problem you are going to encounter when exploring the ladyboy community.

A member of the site came to Bangkok recently, and contacted me to see if he could meet one of the models I had photographed. I knew that the girl in question was open to any offers that brought in revenue, so I gave him her number. The only problem was, she doesn’t speak a word of English. Not a word. He tried phoning her to suggest a get-together, and  in the end he gave up because of the language problem.

I can speak enough Thai to get me through most situations, although I have to admit I would find it difficult to sit and have an intelligent conversation in Thai (I find that hard enough in English!). So when I’m taking photographs the conversation is in Thai,  and I don’t always know if  the model can speak English or not. I do test them out before we begin, but as the response to “Do you speak English?” is inevitably an embarrassed “nit noi” (a little bit), I tend to let it rest at that and plough on in Thai.

In the bars, although the  girls in places like Obsession and KC3 do generally have some English basics, often picked up from customers,  it can still be difficult to make yourself understood.

I had to laugh the other evening. I was in Nana Plaza, standing at one of the outdoor bars with a ladyboy friend, who was on her way to start work. Her English is nil. We were talking in Thai, when at a distance she spotted a foreign man who she knew and who had clearly upset her at some recent point.

“Motherfucker” she said, very distinctly.

I creased up laughing. “That’s the only English word you know, and it’s a bad one!” I told her.

She saw the funny side of that, and went off to her bar with a huge smile on her face.