I recently commented on a now closed thread about the word "farang." I suggested it was a derogatory term.
2 readers expressed "confusion", one expressed "sad."
Well, to help clear up the confusion, here are two perspectives:
"Farang is basically a neutral word, but people who respect you (or who should respect you) will not use it - if you hear a work colleague, for example, refer to you as farang they probably mean it as an insult while a taxi driver or market vendor doing the same is unlikely to mean any offense at all."
"While the Thai may say "Oh, we don't mean any offence, we say it in a nice way", the fact is that by not using skin colour, or nationality, and collectively lumping all western (anglosaxon derived) peoples as 'farang', there is both an implicit and overt tendency to join all three attributes. And, as farang is used in a derogatory manner at times, it clearly has a racist meaning. "
This is one perspective, mind you.
Would be interesting to hear what others think.
