The Thai language, and its unwitting (to English speakers) double entendres, has
me guffawing like a schoolgirl. For some reason, I’m reminded of the unlikely Japanese name in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado,
Titi Pu. It really is that accidentally potty-mouthed, the stuff of slapstick
and pantomime. My seven year old son, from whose mouth toilet humour tumbles
relentlessly, would love it and no doubt laugh hysterically at every turn, now
that he can read.
The Pilipino house musos, who found my story about Captain
Phu Shit hilarious, assure me I am not the only one, and that it isn’t just
English – apparently there are smutty Tagalog and Spanish double entendres as
well, accidentally alluding to women’s private parts. Despite having lived
here for 30 years, Victor and his wife Elvie claim to still find signs that
amuse them, all around the place.
Victor also recounted the story of a guy who operates a
small, mobile roadside coffee stand called, in all seriousness, Starbutts. This
has provided me with good chortle mileage for several days. Apart from actual, legitimate Thai words
sounding like puerile expletives, Thai people are apparently very aural in
their acquisition of English, and don’t stop to check the actual spelling of
borrowed words. Hence my ‘upper lift’ waxing
escapade.
Today, on the complimentary half-day tour of the south
provided along with my airport transfer with the Phuket Shuttle company, I was
taken to a place that specializes in locally-grown tropical sweets and
delicacies (fruit, cashew nuts, seafood products etc). It is an apparently
prosperous company proudly calling itself Porn Thip (pronounced ‘porn tip’). I
thought it was Phrom Thep, named after Cape Phrom Thep on the southernmost tip
of Phuket Island, with its spectacular ocean views and a wonderful,
colourful elephant shrine, to which we’d
been not an hour earlier. I had an out
loud fit of the giggles upon arrival, which I could not for the life of me explain
to the Thai guide (whose English was the most abysmal I’ve encountered so far),
and again I wondered what sort of a place I’d been escorted to!
Speaking of language, I have learned a few new Thai words
that generate pleasure in Thai speakers if uttered correctly, and a reciprocal
cackling mirth if mispronounced: mah (dog), not to be confused with maah
(mother, pronounced like a sheep bleating- meh) and chiang (elephant).
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