Is "Farang" Derogatory?

[sanemax]

13 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

 

So if you like getting called farang or not, grin and bear it.

Not your country. 

Unless you are a Male "felang " who identifies as a female and then gets spoken too as "knab " , rather that "khaa" , just grin and bear it

[AlQaholic]

23 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

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

The word farang is a reference to the "bleachy" color of our skin. If they said "European" I wouldn't have a problem.

[bert bloggs]

I commented on this subject earlier , and i do not feel Farang is meant in a derogatory way , so i chatted to the wife on the subject,she lived in the UK for many years so is quite "British" in many ways , her take on it was that originally it was just a term used for a foreigner ,not derogatary but just a way of saying something , it bit like many years ago Pakistanies  were Pakies ,just a shortening of the name for the immegrants , but now it seems that it is being viewed by some as a derogatory term , so seems we have Thai "snowflakes" as well

Edited May 3, 2018 by bert bloggs

[natway09]

Just get on with it & stop being so touchy, touchy about it

[Tchooptip]

19 hours ago, Acemaker said:

Speak for yourself, must be due to the mostly Abnormal company you keep.  

By tooking it 100% as a  jai noi, you are a living proof I was not so wrong

ใจน้อย (jai noi) : easily irritated or offended; sensitive; touchy

Edited May 3, 2018 by Tchooptip

[Kieran00001]

2 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

I commented on this subject earlier , and i do not feel Farang is meant in a derogatory way , so i chatted to the wife on the subject,she lived in the UK for many years so is quite "British" in many ways , her take on it was that originally it was just a term used for a foreigner ,not derogatary but just a way of saying something , it bit like many years ago Pakistanies  were Pakies ,just a shortening of the name for the immegrants , but now it seems that it is being viewed by some as a derogatory term , so seems we have Thai "snowflakes" as well

 

The Oxford English Dictionary does not say list Paki as a derogatory term, it is the normal term for people from Pakistan in all the stans, it would be very strange for them to say Pakistani, it is like calling British people Britainish. 

 

Paki slang.
 (ˈpɶkɪ)Also Pakki, Pakky.[Abbrev. of Pakistani n. and a.]

 

 

 

 

 

[Kieran00001]

2 hours ago, AlQaholic said:

The word farang is a reference to the "bleachy" color of our skin. If they said "European" I wouldn't have a problem.

 

No, it isn't, its a derivative of Frank, nothing to do with skin colour but the people of Europe who the Persians first interacted with, so what is your problem?

[Jingthing]

9 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

No, it isn't, its a derivative of Frank, nothing to do with skin colour but the people of Europe who the Persians first interacted with, so what is your problem?

The word for foreigner in the Ethiopian language is Ferengi. 

[Kieran00001]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

The word for foreigner in the Ethiopian language is Ferengi. 

 

Yes, and there are similar derivatives in several countries.

[Kwasaki]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

The word for foreigner in the Ethiopian language is Ferengi. 

As in Star-Trek. 

[KiChakayan]

13 hours ago, ericthai said:

So where you come from there are no terms used to identity different races, religions etc? 

Well where I come from is totally irrelevant to this topic. The facts are the Thailand is an amazingly xenophobic country, the word farang and its most common use pertain to this paradigm. 

[Scouse123]

Well, it is to be expected that the term ' Farang ' is not really a nice description of us.It is hammered into them from an early age as though we are from outer space.

 

The Thai government preaches to the masses that all the country's woes are the fault of foreigners, meanwhile, they themselves, at U.N. leaders meetings, are seen sucking up to the West and pretending that the uneducated masses in Thailand, are the fault of past governments and they are really trying their utmost to educate them but it is an uphill process.

 

Thais in the main, who are not well educated or have not really traveled, are taught from birth to be Nationalistic and xenophobic ar every opportunity, starting with television, the schools, through their teens and into adulthood. Anything goes wrong in the country, blame the foreigner! The TV and newspapers seem to be actively encouraged to seek out foreigners who step out of line within their country and blast it non stop all over the media. It is social brainwashing.

 

They are also taught never to question or argue with their superiors,  and they must make sure the person they are addressing are treated like some kind of demi-god because they wear a uniform and some gold braid on it, even a few medal ribbons!.All this is ingrained and in their nature.

 

Of course, when these Thai people visit the West, they fully expect to be given equal treatment or better than the natives of the said country and complain like hell if they don't get what they want, be it buying land, visas, investing in business in our countries, divorce settlements, etc. They very quickly become conversant with Western laws that benefit them.

 

A friend who has passed away now, and was a very ' old hand ' from the early days in Thailand once said to me:- ' The Thais are polite, but they have no manners ' It took me a while to figure that one out, but he was right.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Scouse123

[i claudius]

 
The Oxford English Dictionary does not say list Paki as a derogatory term, it is the normal term for people from Pakistan in all the stans, it would be very strange for them to say Pakistani, it is like calling British people Britainish. 
  Paki slang.
 (ˈpɶkɪ)Also Pakki, Pakky.[Abbrev. of Pakistani n. and a.]          

What i want to know is if its derogotary to use paki for a pakistani is it the same if you call a welshman Taffy or an Irish guy paddy or a Scots guy geordie .or is it only derogatory if your not British or white? The other day i saw a clip where a black woman said "sit your white ass down" nothing was said but i cant imagine the uproar if a white person uded the term black ass down.

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[Kieran00001]

2 minutes ago, i claudius said:

What i want to know is if its derogotary to use paki for a pakistani is it the same if you call a welshman Taffy or an Irish guy paddy or a Scots guy geordie .or is it only derogatory if your not British or white? The other day i saw a clip where a black woman said "sit your white ass down" nothing was said but i cant imagine the uproar if a white person uded the term black ass down.

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Taffy is definitely derogatory, it is calling Welsh people thieves, Taffy being a thieving Welsh character from a song, although clearly not all Welsh people care about that.

 

Paddy is considered derogatory by some as it plays on the belief that all Irish men are called Patric, again, not all Irish people care, in fact many refer to themselves as being a Paddy.

 

Geordie is not derogatory, it is believed to come from the old Norse word for land, jord, so just means a person from that land and is no more offensive than saying British.

 

Back to paki, clearly it is derogatory to call someone a Paki if you do not know their origin, there are a lot of Muslims in the UK who are from India and Bangladesh, they also get called Pakis by some racists.  Also almost anything can be used derogatorily, if the intention is to insult then the term used is insulting in context.

 

As for the black woman clip you saw, any chance it was in America where they actually don't get all worked up about this stuff like we do in the UK due to their extreme freedom of speech extending to the freedom to be openly racist?

 

 

 

[Kieran00001]

4 hours ago, KiChakayan said:

Well where I come from is totally irrelevant to this topic. The facts are the Thailand is an amazingly xenophobic country, the word farang and its most common use pertain to this paradigm. 

 

Thailand is quite a xenophobic country, but I can't see how the use of an old Persian term for Europeans is an example of this.  Calling black people Chocolate, sure, but Farang, I can't see it, please explain your rationale.

[Jingthing]

 
Thailand is quite a xenophobic country, but I can't see how the use of an old Persian term for Europeans is an example of this.  Calling black people Chocolate, sure, but Farang, I can't see it, please explain your rationale.

You're confusing a theory about the origin of the word from the way its actually used today by Thai people. If you seriously haven't noticed that it is sometimes used as a slur I want to know where you bought your rose colored glasses. Enjoy!

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[Kieran00001]

8 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

You're confusing a theory about the origin of the word from the way its actually used today by Thai people. If you seriously haven't noticed that it is sometimes used as a slur I want to know where you bought your rose colored glasses. Enjoy!

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Just because a word is sometimes used to disparage does not make it inherently offensive, generally it is used to refer to white people, sometimes it is used as a slur, it's all in how it is said, but the same cannot be said for some words, some words were made to cause offence, farang is not one of those.

 

Edited May 3, 2018 by Kieran00001

[poanoi]

9 hours ago, AlQaholic said:

The word farang is a reference to the "bleachy" color of our skin. If they said "European" I wouldn't have a problem.

i think farang is a reference to how the french presented them self

when they discovered thailand : "we represent franceee" (insert french sound),

which thais came to refer to as falang, and ultimately everyone resembling a french

[grollies]

18 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

You're confusing a theory about the origin of the word from the way its actually used today by Thai people. If you seriously haven't noticed that it is sometimes used as a slur I want to know where you bought your rose colored glasses. Enjoy!

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You mean like graduating from 'paki' to '<deleted> kin paki' ?

[Jingthing]

 
Just because a word is sometimes used to disparage does not make it inherently offensive, generally it is used to refer to white people, sometimes it is used as a slur, it's all in how it is said, but the same cannot be said for some words, some words were made to cause offence, farang is not one of those.
 

You're not getting my point. In my view the way the use of that word in Thailand has evolved is that it is very often used in a derogatory way either mildly or more strongly with embellishments. That's my experience here and it has little to do with what may have been an innocent origin story of the word. I guess we'll just disagree on that. To add its not as if it bothers me. I just prefer to be conscious of stuff.

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[Kieran00001]

Just now, Jingthing said:

You're not getting my point. In my view the way the use of that word in Thailand has evolved is that it is very often used in a derogatory way either mildly or more strongly with embellishments. That's my experience here and it has little to do with what may have been an innocent origin story of the word. I guess we'll just disagree on that. To add its not as if it bothers me. I just prefer to be conscious of stuff.

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Do you not see that it is used 99% of the time in a non derogatory way?  Its like taking offence to the word fat because some people use it to hurt  people.

[grollies]

2 hours ago, i claudius said:

or a Scots guy geordie

Call a Scot 'geordie' you are going to have a problem. Try 'Jock' instead.

Edited May 3, 2018 by grollies

[grollies]

1 hour ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

Taffy is definitely derogatory, it is calling Welsh people thieves, Taffy being a thieving Welsh character from a song, although clearly not all Welsh people care about that.

I thought Taffy derived from the River Taff? I am quite probably wrong.

[The manic]

It is derogatory and lazy and impolite because it suggests that our skin colour makes us all  the same. There is a far more polite way to refer to foreigners in Thai. It does not offend me, however but the term is a product of ignorance.

[i claudius]

I thought Taffy derived from the River Taff? I am quite probably wrong.

Old rhyme Taffy was a welsh man Taffy was a thief Taffy came to our house and stole a side of beef.

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[Kieran00001]

Just now, grollies said:

I thought Taffy derived from the River Taff? I am quite probably wrong.

 

A lot of people think it comes from the river, but apparently it did not, but on looking it up I was also wrong, the song came later, in the 1800's whereas the term goes back to the 1600's at least and was based on the Welsh name Davyyd.

 

This is a verse from the song:

Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief;

Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef;

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy wasn't home;

Taffy came to my house and stole a marrow-bone.

 

This is from the OED.

a1700: B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, “Taffy, a Welshman or David. Taffy's Day, the first of March.”

1708: Brit. Apollo No. 98. 2/2 “Welch-men are called Taffies from the Corruption of the word David.”

 

[Kieran00001]

6 minutes ago, The manic said:

It is derogatory and lazy and impolite because it suggests that our skin colour makes us all  the same. There is a far more polite way to refer to foreigners in Thai. It does not offend me, however but the term is a product of ignorance.

 

How does having a term for white foreigners suggest that we are all the same?

[grollies]

5 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

A lot of people think it comes from the river, but apparently it did not, but on looking it up I was also wrong, the song came later, in the 1800's whereas the term goes back to the 1600's at least and was based on the Welsh name Davyyd.

 

This is a verse from the song:

Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief;

Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef;

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy wasn't home;

Taffy came to my house and stole a marrow-bone.

 

This is from the OED.

a1700: B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, “Taffy, a Welshman or David. Taffy's Day, the first of March.”

1708: Brit. Apollo No. 98. 2/2 “Welch-men are called Taffies from the Corruption of the word David.”

 

oh.........kay, so probably, before said Taffy came-a-stealing, numerous people were called Taffy, right? Just happened that one of them had a predilection for thievery, yes?

 

But that doesn't define the derivation of the name Taffy does it?

[Jingthing]

 
Do you not see that it is used 99% of the time in a non derogatory way?  Its like taking offence to the word fat because some people use it to hurt  people.

I don't perceive it that way. Enjoy your bubble.

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[Seligne2]

No, it's not.