I may be considering Thailand either a few years from now or a decade from now (or maybe in another lifetime if I'm befallen with the same fate of being trans.  AGAIN!).  I'm really, really concerned about finding my way around the language problem, as I am nearly stone-deaf.  I have a little bit of familiarity with Hindi and Sanskrit, but no familiarity with Asian languages, just because they are formidable to me because of the writing system, the transliteration system, and also the tonal system.

How am I supposed to communicate critical concerns to nursing staff who can't speak English?  Has Dr. Chettawut ever had deaf patients (either profoundly deaf oral or sign-only)?  Another concern is asking street vendors about cooked food to eat and making sure that I'm not getting animal products.

The only thing I can think of doing is building a Thai phrase book so that I can look up by category and then by sentence in English to show them what I'm trying to say in the Thai writing system.  I recall the difficulty I had in communicating with people who didn't know English in India (even though English is an administrative language there!).  Imagine the difficulty in Thailand!  Asians are the HARDEST for me to understand (I worked for REI and had a LOT of overseas customers, so I tended to avoid the Asians, or if I couldn't escape them, I would assess the communicability of that situation, and if needed, I simply said, "Sure, right this way," and led them to another coworker and asked him to take this customer over while I took over his customer.)

It brings up the question of whether Chettawut's staff be required to be fluent in English, since Americans are largely handicapped in the language department because of the Imperial position post-WWII, which has attempted to make English the de facto language all over the world.  I'm one of them, though I have the excuse of being deaf and old enough to not have seen the resources needed to pass any language classes in school (sign language wasn't even an option in high school AND college).

Hi there,

My first piece of advice would be to contact Som and enquire if Chett has ever worked his magic on a deaf patient, I've not heard of one but he has been working for well over a decade so it is possible.

Chetts current staff have mixed levels of ability speaking English as posts on here will testify, As for conversing with street food vendors I'd say you have little chance of getting one that can sign in English but that shouldn't be a problem because unless you've eaten plentiful amounts of street food in Thailand my advice would be avoid it at all costs, You really don't want a bug a few days before your surgery or during your recovery and there is a high probability of that happening. Thai's have built up immunity to some if not all of the bugs that can come from street food where as most westerners don't have it so I'd advise avoiding the street food all together.

As you are doing early planning there are things you can factor into a trip such as taking a friend who you can sign to who can then explain in words what you need, There are a few of us on here who either live in Bangkok or spend reasonable amounts of time there and could possibly source you a signer or offer some other solution for you. I have some contacts in Bangkok from my business dealings and would happily try to find you help.

I'm sorry the information I offered wasn't great but feel free to contact me if you think I can help. I am possibly going to visit Chett in November and would be happy to ask them if they can help you

Hugs

Sorcha