Name a price (3, final)

I told the story about the funny Thai names I encountered at the massage shop, to my new friends Gai, Tew, Nurse and Dewars.

As the children sat with me in the sit-down eatery, their parents asked them to try talking to me in English.

'How are you...where are you from?" Dey asked, while admitting he was not good with languages.

I answered.

Then the girl asked me a few questions. Her eyes shone brightly, and she looked eager to talk.

"Nurse is not scared to speak, and has a quick mind," said Dad.

Gai asked me if I would like to teach them English.

I said I would be interested. First, we would have to find a time when the children and I were both free.

"Please give me your cellphone number, and I will send you a text message," I said.

I sent him a message that night, asking him if he was serious, and if so, to name which days suited.

I did not get a reply, but then Thais are not good on texting.

The next night, Gai was away. I spoke briefly to Tew.

She called her daughter on the cellphone, to see if she was still interested. "Do you want to learn with the farang?" she asked shyly.

The next night, I met Gai again. He fetched a glass, and poured me a beer.

"I will ask you to join me in a small beer," he said. "I don't drink much - two or three bottles a day. But I drink every day," he said.

Further negotiations followed.

"Can you cope if I pay you just B200 an hour?" he asked.

I had asked for B250 an hour, which is already cheap. However, I was prepared to charge that no matter how many children turned up.

Happily, however, Gai thought that was the daily charge per student.

His aunt joined us, from her cart outside the shop.

"I don't have much money," she said.

Gai looked at me, waiting to see if I would cut the price still further. I stayed silent.

The next day, I called Gai on the telephone. He handed the phone to his wife. A further round of negotiations followed.

We settled on a flat price of B500 a day. However, three children will join the classes, not two - another member of the extended family.

The children go to a public school nearby. It has a specialist unit which gives English instruction in most subjects.

"All the kids around who live around here go to that school," said Gai.

Foreigners teach at that unit, which is for secondary students only. The family once hired a foreigner to teach Nurse privately. Neither child is old enough to join the unit yet.

Their parents are eager for them to learn. On Mondays and Tuesdays after school, they have extra tuition in other subjects.

I will teach English to the three youngsters later in the week. We will meet above the shop, before I go to work.

The teaching assignment will bring in extra money, but could also wear me out.

I hope I still have energy left for my main job. If I turn up looking bleary-eyed, it's because I've taken on to much work teaching Nurse, Dewar and Beer down the road.

I told a Thai-Indian friend from work about how my new friends tried to drive down my price.

"Are they Thai-Chinese?" he asked.

"If they are, then they want their education, and a discount as well - they're businesspeople," he said.

"They look like ordinary Thais. But their shop has been there a long time," I replied.

"In that case, they might have saved money - shops like that did very well in the past," he said.

Tew, mother of Nurse, asked me to teach conversation. She also negotiated on behalf of Dewar's Mum.

Thais get sick of grammar instruction - that's what they get in class, from their mainly Thai teachers, and it fails to work.

Conversation is easier to teach than grammar instruction. If the boys fail to follow what's going on, then we can call on Nurse, who is just 10 but bright, to help.

"They have asked me to teach conversation," I told my friend.

"They want to pick up the farang's accent," he said.

Lessons start this week.