Is "Farang" Derogatory?

[Dmaxdan]

In western culture we have moved  on a long time ago from referring to different races by names whether derogatory of not. So to come to a country were they still do is going to be a little unsettling to some people, even if the term is not insulting in anyway.  I don't believe the word Farang  is in most cases is derogatory but if Thailand wants to move on and play a bigger part in the world today they will have to remove any words that describe non Thais from their vocabulary. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ftpjtm]

1 hour ago, alant said:

I agree with you, it is these things. Interestingly it seems Thais don't have such a paranoia about racism as westerners seem to have and can use racist terms and objects in non hurtful ways, as we used to be able to do.

Thais don't have a paranoia about using racist terms because they're an extremely racist culture, starting with the language which has pronouns to describe your level in Thai society.

 

I know a Hi So Thai woman who married a Issan guy. She treats him like her slave, won't attend Hi So functions with him, vacations without him and more.

 

I know 2 Thai families living in the US who's daughter's married black men. In both cases the black son in laws were clean cut, well educated, great guys who earn at least double the Thai in laws, but are an embarrassment of such a degree that one Thai father in law refuses to acknowledge the existence of his son in law, and will only see his daughter if the husband is elsewhere.

 

And I'll never forget a Thai function where my wife, who at one time was a member of a molam troupe, was told that she was fantastic after doing some singing, and that she would be a REALLY fantastic singer if only her skin wasn't so dark. My wife thought it was a huge compliment, while I tried to explain to her why I thought the guy was a racist jerk.

[SpeakeasyThai]

18 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

So I guess we can deduce that calling Thais "uneducated and clueless" means that you are a spiteful child.

 

Usually if someone who doesn't know me wants my attention s/he calls me  "mister." People who do know me call me by name or "pa."  Can't think of any occasion when anyone felt compelled to call me anything else, but then I've never been in a police lineup or in an argument in a bar.

 

Lot of bitter old dears in this thread who feel they've lost face and are desperately looking for reasons to feel hard done by. 

In reponse to your first paragraph,  you guessed wrong.

[bert bloggs]

To those with the "snowflake" mentality these days anything is either derogotary or ,racist , etc etc . to those who think that its racist to hear the word farang  get a life .

[KiChakayan]

As far as I am concerned it is derogatory, and I make it clear that I don't like to hear it, by stating that I am a "person". Using specific term to designate any group of people is the foundation of discrimination. I see it here on an hourly basis. When I point out the unease of some people when I have to deal with them, my wife says "Teerag, they are just shy". So? they shouldn't be.

[ftpjtm]

But back to the discussion of the word "farang", I had an interesting discussion with a Russian friend who lives in Thailand. He says that according to his Thai wife, and confirmed by mine, that as a Russian he's NOT a farang. He's a Russian.

 

I was so surprised at this, because he looks like he could have come from any European country that I did more questioningly. Consensus has that my Mexican sister in-law is also not a farang.

[watcharacters]

 

 What I wonder about is  for each poster, ask yourself how many times  do you hear the word "foreigner" used in regular conversation in your home country?

 

I'm positive the USA, my home country,  has far more foreigners  living in it than Thailand will ever have , but in  all the decades I lived there  the word foreigner was  a rare word to use or hear.

 

I hear it constantly by thais.    Funny that..

[Boon Mee]

56 minutes ago, marc651 said:

No, the term itself is totally not derogatory.. Just names a group of people. Just like Thai. Or Europeans. Or Eskimos. Or Asians.

 

I feel sorry for those who have a hard time coping with being labeled farang... Must be difficult for them to hear it daily .

 

I don't think bad of it, actually refer to myself as farang in certain situations dealing with Thai.

Probably some get offended simply because we live in an age of the perpetually offended. 

[Get Real]

Nah, just wait until they call you buffalo or water montitor. Farang is just fine, dot worry, dot be so sensitive.

[KiChakayan]

1 hour ago, alant said:

I agree with you, it is these things. Interestingly it seems Thais don't have such a paranoia about racism as westerners seem to have and can use racist terms and objects in non hurtful ways, as we used to be able to do.

Yeah, "non hurtful", such as the treatment of the Jewish community between 1933 to 1945... And, can you explain why someone would have to use "racist terms and objects"?

[Rawnthai]

The pen may be more powerful than the sword, but words are what YOU make them.  You can call a woman (or man) a bitch, but the results can be resented or laughed at. It all depends on (contrary to popular belief) how you take it. When Eminem (a very white black man) used the word ‘nigger’ in one of his songs, he was given a bear down, yet when people ‘whose lives matter’, use the wornd ‘nigger’, it’s ??.  

 

There was was a case a few years ago where a senator used the word 

nig·gard·ly

ˈniɡərdlē/

adjective

1. 1. 

   not generous; stingy.

   "serving out the rations with a niggardly hand"

   synonyms:

   cheap, mean, miserly, parsimonious, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheeseparing, grasping, ungenerous, illiberal; More

    

adverb

archaic

1. 1. 
   in a stingy or meager manner.

    

   and he’s suspended from office for being racially offensive.

    

   Ignorence at it’s finest....

    

   Farang can be used with any number of meanings as with all other words. You choose what you want to hear,. What you choose to hear determines the type of person you are, not the person who said it to you.

[Soneva]

12 hours ago, siamcrut said:

 

Why didn’t you reply:
Yet Mae, Mueng!

 

Possibly not a good idea to engage an obviously strange person in an altercation...

 

Just be the bigger person and do not respond.  

 

I am not a politically correct person, but it’s not a good idea or worth it to respond to an insult from some peasant who doesn’t like foreigners.  

 

If something ever became a legal/police problem, being viewed as a well behaved, proper foreigner will often improve your chances of a favorable outcome.  Stooping to the level of an idiot, and hurling insults in Thai would likely lose one the benefit of the doubt, and increase the presumption of guilt.  

 

Not worth it.

[jackdd]

5 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

 What I wonder about is  for each poster, ask yourself how many times  do you hear the word "foreigner" used in regular conversation in your home country?

 

I'm positive the USA, my home country,  has far more foreigners  living in it than Thailand will ever have , but in  all the decades I lived there  the word foreigner was  a rare word to use or hear.

 

I hear it constantly by thais.    Funny that..

In Europe and probably also USA people like to use the term "illegal immigrant" instead of "foreigner"

[Peterw42]

1 hour ago, AlQaholic said:

No matter how it is said, it is derogatory. Any reference to a certain group of people, based on their appearance, is derogatory. If I was in my own country and called Thai people on the street "Brownie",  "Blackies", "Chestnut" etc. I would probably be attacked there and then.

Would the word "Asian" be derogatory? Or just a reference to ethnicity. 

[marc651]

22 minutes ago, KiChakayan said:

As far as I am concerned it is derogatory, and I make it clear that I don't like to hear it, by stating that I am a "person". Using specific term to designate any group of people is the foundation of discrimination. I see it here on an hourly basis. When I point out the unease of some people when I have to deal with them, my wife says "Teerag, they are just shy". So? they shouldn't be.

So you can never refer to a group of people because "it is derogatory"?

If you'd say some indigenous group is against the building of a dam, or against drilling for oil in their area, what would you say? "Persons" disapprove?

We cannot refer to groups based on geography, ethnicity, affiliation, etc?

[DjSilver]

I am myself a white european and I myself use the word farang for other white people when I talk about other white people that I dont know.

[Foxy52]

This again? <deleted>

[Krataiboy]

Unless it is accompanied by a derogatory adjective, no. My Thai wife and her pals use the word falang in a totally neutral way to describe any pale-skinned foreigner who isn't obviously Asian.

 

Some of us need to grow thicker skins - particularly those among us who are constantly dissing Thai people.

[Berkshire]

31 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

 What I wonder about is  for each poster, ask yourself how many times  do you hear the word "foreigner" used in regular conversation in your home country?

 

I'm positive the USA, my home country,  has far more foreigners  living in it than Thailand will ever have , but in  all the decades I lived there  the word foreigner was  a rare word to use or hear.

 

I hear it constantly by thais.    Funny that..

Your premise and examples are completely wrong.  Firstly, farang does not mean foreigner, it means Caucasian person.  As for the USA, we are obsessed about race.  There is constant reference to one's race or ethnicity, whether African-American, or Hispanic, or Asian, or Muslim...it's constant.  So you are wrong on all counts.   

[connda]

This is a closed, xenophobic, nationalistic society.  Natives are Thai; everyone else is kon daang or literally: 'different people'.  Everyone who isn't Thai is an outsider and a foreigner.

 

Thais have descriptive words for people of other cultures and societies. Example:
Kon Farang - light complexioned people most likely with European ancestor

Kon Kaek - darker skinned people from India or Middle East
Kon Jin - people from China
Kon Yeepun - people from Japan

So in is base descriptive form, is it derogatory? 
In its pure descriptive form, not really.  It's a description. That's how most Thais probably look at it.
However, if someone is the type of person who is offended by the use of discriminative classifiers then the use of a description to pigeon-hole a cultural/ethnic/racial sub-set of people is probably considered derogatory by that person. 
So the answer is: "It depends."  It depends on a person's definition of what is offensive and what is not. 

[Nurseynutcase]

I do not have a problem being called a Farang/Falang, guess the pronumciation is where you live/come from.

 

I have many Thai friends and when they ask me what i am going to eat I often reply Farang food - what is there to be upset about?

 

When i first came here I found it more difficult being called Mama, but now I understand it is a term of respect for, hmm shall I say it? - an older person.

[Nurseynutcase]

Also - forgot to add, there is a poster on here whose name is;

 

I am a Farang.

[jackdd]

10 minutes ago, connda said:

Thais have descriptive words for people of other cultures and societies. Example:
Kon Farang - light complexioned people most likely with European ancestor

Kon Kaek - darker skinned people from India or Middle East
Kon Jin - people from China
Kon Yeepun - people from Japan

"Jin" means China/Chinese and "Yeepun" means Japan(ese), these are not "descriptive" words.

And it's "kun" or "khun" and not "kon". "kon" would mean body or pubic hair

[brewsterbudgen]

I am myself a white european and I myself use the word farang for other white people when I talk about other white people that I dont know.

Indeed; we're all farangs.

Sent from my SM-A500F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Pat in Pattaya]

How bored must you be to start this thread??

[jkcjag]

Similar to the use of the description "Asian" when being used in a western country to refer to someone from somewhere in Asia. It can be used in either manner, i.e. in a derogatory way, or in a completely neutral way, depending on the context.

[Black arab]

The Royal Institute DIctionary 1999   the official use of thai words class farang as "a person of white race".Imo it can be used as a derogatory term sometimes, but generally not.It doesnt bother me so much.

[rwill]

Hey, Guava!!!

[Cranky]

Mostly it's fair, just a description.  But when your brother-in-law of ten years says in Thai to the Wife 'Get The Farang to pay it grates abiy

[Cranky]

It grates on ones nerves a bit -- too quick on the submit button !!