Every once in a while, a group of Bangkok University students will come to look at what I'm working on in my studio. They are very respectful and often they come just to watch me work, standing quietly behind me. Sometimes, though, they try to ask a few questions in english, and one phrase that they know is, "What do you think about this?" This is a standard critique class question that opens up a discussion, and these students basically mean, "Why am I making this?" In english, I would have no trouble explaining my ideas, but these kids speak less english than I speak thai, if that is possible. So, I try to really, really simplify my concepts. For example, why am I photographing empty billboards and cutting out the interior space of the billboard structure? Because "di-chan chop plaao" or "I like empty [billboards]." Now, in english I might say something about vacant billboards as a contemporary ruin and that they symbolize a struggling economy, etc. But in thai language, I can only say that I like them...and I DO like them; I am compelled by them and drawn to them as forms. I don't even know if I'm using the right word for empty--thai language has 3 or 4 words for empty, and "plaao" is the one I use to ask for plain "empty" bottled water, as in "naam plaao." You can't just say "water" because many kinds of drinks have the term "water" in the title, like orange juice ("naam som").