Yeah back to my problem. Since I work at a retail outlet, it's quite important that I know whether I'm speaking to a dude or a dudette cause I need to address them as "Miss" or "Sir". You know, to show respect while talking to them. I remember one time, I had to make phone calls to our would-be members to inform them that they still had points to collect if they wanted to become and official member and the sale is just around the corner blah, blah, blah (trust me it was a lot of calls and I had to repeat the same lines over and over and over again). The list was long but I was fine doing it since it's just through the phone right?? I didn't have to face them or anything. All I had to do was to listen to their voice to differentiate whether they're a man or a woman and I should know whether to address them as "sir" or "miss". I mean you can differentiate them by their names for the malays and indians and some of the foreigners (seriously this is not being racist).
But there was this one particular call I made, apparently to a chinese lady (you know you can't always differentiate their gender according to their name), she had a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep manly voice. And of course, after many many many calls, I thought that this customer was a guy and addressed her as "sir" to which she replied "I'm not a sir, I'm miss Tan* " Embarrassed muchh!! End of first scene.
Moving on to the 2nd scene, I was in charge of the fitting room. A customer came in the fitting room to try jeans taken from the men section. Not that I gave much thought when the customer came in. I greeted the customer by saying, "Hi sir! How many pieces do you have?". To which she answered "only one" with a i-can-confirm-that-she's-a-girl pitched voice, and smiled. And yet another embarrassing moment. What can I do? Her hair was short, she was wearing baggy clothes, guy's cargo shorts and big ass shoes plus she was trying on men's jeans. For all I know, she's actually happy I called her a sir. Looks like all her effort of looking like a man paid off.
Third scene. I'll make it short and sweet(maybe not so sweet). Went out for dinner with my family just now. All i wanted was to ask for an extra spoon. Out of respect for the waiter/waitress, I asked "kak, nak sudu satu boleh?". And she/he nodded and smiled and off she went. Didn't think much about it until my sister asked, "kenapa yan panggil dia kak and bukan bang?". DAMN! That was when I realized I really do have trouble differentiating genders now. The waiter/waitress came with my spoon and smiled and to which i thanked him/her. If he/she was a boy, he/she would be a really pretty boy indeed. But if he/she was a guy, she did a pretty good job at covering her boobs. Really. It was nowhere to be seen. As flat as a plank of wood. Gah! I hope he/she don't take offense IF I did addressed her wrongly.
Anyway, for those that is going through the journey of "transforming" themselves as a woman but not quite there yet, (meaning they still have that manly voice, manly arms, manly legs, no boobs, and probably short hair but nicely combed and well maintained) then what should we address them as? Sir? Miss? Missy? This is confusing me.
Interesting fact here. I've always wondered where the transvests go to when they needed to use a public toilet. To the mens? Afraid of offending the ladies in the ladies' loo? Or the ladies? Cause that is what they are now. But question answered! They don't go to neither. They go to the disabled and mother's with child's toilet in the middle of the men and women's toilet! Saw it with my own two eyes. Lucky me. One of my pathetic-short-life-questions answered. Now I can sleep at peace :P
*names has been changed for confidentiality. Ok i'm lying. Names has been changed cause i forgot what their real name is. Happy?
2 comments:
How did u differentiate qeela? O.o
it was very difficult at first. but after a while, i saw how beautiful she is on the inside. and i knew she was a girl. but a boy on the outside :P jokiiiinnggg
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