Friday, 4 January 2008

Thai sex-worker talk


Empower (เอ็มพาวเวอร์), otherwise known as the Mekong Regional Sex Worker Forum, has released a dictionary of Thai words in common use among sex workers.

It includes its fair share of slang, with the English equivalents also provided. Matichon newspaper published a few choice examples, in a front page report yesterday. Among them:

Ban saow (บ้านสาว, or women's house) - A new, kinder word for brothel. Many brothels, it says, are no longer just places for selling sex but have changed at least their outward visage so that they also boast to be karaoke joints.

Customer, Guest, Boyfriend/Girlfriend (ลูกค้า-แขก-แฟน) - These definitions are conflated together, presumably because no one wants a sex worker for a mate.

Apart from those unfortunate ones who do not know that they are seeing a sex worker, the only ones left in the boyfriend and girlfriend category are really just more reliable than casual customers. The dictionary says customers can be strangers who buy drinks, or take sex workers off the premises for sex.

As far as boyfriends and girlfriends are concerned, these fall into two categories: those who turn up occasionally, and top up a sex worker's income; and those who are regular customers, who give money to sex workers every three months.

Fat old men (ป๋าอ้วน, ไอ้แก่พุงพลุ้ย) - Not as offensive as it sounds. Many are generous, kind, and respectable.

Dek off (ออฟ) - sex workers whom customers take off the premises, and where the outing usually ends between the sheets.

Students selling sex (นักเรียนขายบริการ) - Any sex worker selling himself or herself to pay tuition fees. It can also be used more generally to describe sex workers who sell themselves on a casual basis.

Dignity (เกียรติภูมิ, ศักดิ์ศรี) - This is the pride which a sex worker can take in a job well done, or for having put in a professional or excellent performance.

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