How Thai people will see us foreigners

[newbee2022]

Some days ago I got into a very interesting discussion with my wife about how Thai people will see us foreigners? What are they thinking about us?

Are they able to find out where the farangs are coming from?

Are they able to distinguish the origin of farangs?

Or are all farangs just farangs, no matter where they are coming from: Russia, Australia, UK, Spain, America, Germany aso.....

And can they feel in these days that there is a difference between Russians and the rest of farangs?

What are the "preferred" farangs?

And why did they got married to us? ATM? Reliability? Trust? Fidelity? Love? Traveling? 

What is your opinion??

[John Drake]

The woman living diagonally across the street from me recently asked my landlady if anyone was living in the house I rent? I've been there for 13 years.

[bob smith]

17 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

Some days ago I got into a very interesting discussion with my wife about how Thai people will see us foreigners? What are they thinking about us?

Are they able to find out where the farangs are coming from?

Are they able to distinguish the origin of farangs?

Or are all farangs just farangs, no matter where they are coming from: Russia, Australia, UK, Spain, America, Germany aso.....

And can they feel in these days that there is a difference between Russians and the rest of farangs?

What are the "preferred" farangs?

And why did they got married to us? ATM? Reliability? Trust? Fidelity? Love? Traveling? 

What is your opinion??

so you gave us your questions but I think most people want to know your wifes answers!! come on, spill the beans.

[pgrahmm]

9 minutes ago, John Drake said:

The woman living diagonally across the street from me recently asked my landlady if anyone was living in the house I rent? I've been there for 13 years.

Time to switch away from your camo wardrobe....

[OneMoreFarang]

IMHO many humans are fast to think that every [insert group] are like [insert whatever].

I.e. Americans are stupid, Nigerians are scammers, Chinese are loud, Africans (everybody in the whole continent) are underdeveloped, Muslims are radicals, the list goes on and on.

 

And in that way farangs don't want ice - because if a Thai saw 3 farangs who behave like X that means all farangs behave like X. They don't like spicy food, they have too much money, they all love dark and small girls, etc.

 

I think behavior like that is normal all over the word. Some of us, including Thais, keep an open enough mind to know that not everyone is the same. 

Edited August 12, 2023 by OneMoreFarang

[sqwakvfr]

This is my "2cents" worth.  I am American and of course I have an American Passport.  I am not Caucasian or as some say White.  I am what you can call as a Human Mutt.  I have been a regular at Chiang Mai Ram hospital in Chiang Mai for 7 years.  I even have a Hospital Identification Number.  Every time I go to this hospital I am asked two questions: 1) Do you speak English? 2) Do you need a translator?  This despite the fact that I had presented my American Passport to the reception counter just minutes before and had answered the preliminary question in English.

 

Recently I threw them a curve and said "yes, please get me a translator".  The lady replied "yes" and then stopped and pondered what I had just said in English.   We started at each other for almost 5 minutes as she pondered what had just happened.  I then said "no need for a translator".  i was then escorted to the vital signs check room.  

 

This is just my opinion but it appears some have a difficult time accepting me as an American who actually speaks fluent English even though I am talking to them in fluent English.  

 

I once even pulled out my California Drivers license when I was accused of lying about being from Cafliornia because "impossible for you to be American".  

 

TIT and 555.

[Dmaxdan]

There is only a small percentage of Thais that are interested in  foreigners. Basically the ones who choose to travel and then work in the places where foreigners tend to gather. The wolves follow the sheep...

 

The majority have zero interest in us because they have way more interesting things to occupy themselves. We are completely irrelevant within their lives.

 

 

 

[JensenZ]

43 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

Some days ago I got into a very interesting discussion with my wife about how Thai people will see us foreigners? What are they thinking about us?

Are they able to find out where the farangs are coming from?

Are they able to distinguish the origin of farangs?

Or are all farangs just farangs, no matter where they are coming from: Russia, Australia, UK, Spain, America, Germany aso.....

And can they feel in these days that there is a difference between Russians and the rest of farangs?

What are the "preferred" farangs?

And why did they got married to us? ATM? Reliability? Trust? Fidelity? Love? Traveling? 

What is your opinion??

You go first. We need to know what your wife said. Why did she marry you?

[thaitom]

32 minutes ago, John Drake said:

The woman living diagonally across the street from me recently asked my landlady if anyone was living in the house I rent? I've been there for 13 years.

I can't stop laughing.    Thank you

[Sticky Rice Balls]

I think they see me in $$$$$ signs.....

[BE88]

40 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

This is my "2cents" worth.  I am American and of course I have an American Passport.  I am not Caucasian or as some say White.  I am what you can call as a Human Mutt.  I have been a regular at Chiang Mai Ram hospital in Chiang Mai for 7 years.  I even have a Hospital Identification Number.  Every time I go to this hospital I am asked two questions: 1) Do you speak English? 2) Do you need a translator?  This despite the fact that I had presented my American Passport to the reception counter just minutes before and had answered the preliminary question in English.

 

Recently I threw them a curve and said "yes, please get me a translator".  The lady replied "yes" and then stopped and pondered what I had just said in English.   We started at each other for almost 5 minutes as she pondered what had just happened.  I then said "no need for a translator".  i was then escorted to the vital signs check room.  

 

This is just my opinion but it appears some have a difficult time accepting me as an American who actually speaks fluent English even though I am talking to them in fluent English.  

 

I once even pulled out my California Drivers license when I was accused of lying about being from Cafliornia because "impossible for you to be American".  

 

TIT and 555.

Who are you Human Mutt  ?

 

[Sandboxer]

Life became a lot easier here once I stopped caring what the locals think about me and I stopped being overly polite just to gain their approval. Was a total waste of time IMO. Being my regular aloof self while retaining just basic cultural courtesy gets me the same results.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Sandboxer

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

they all love dark and small girls, etc.

Who doesn't love small women?

If I wanted big manly women, I'd move to Australia.

If I wanted big fat women, I'd move to the USA.

[hotandsticky]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Who doesn't love small women?

If I wanted big manly women, I'd move to Australia.

If I wanted big fat women, I'd move to the USA.

 

You can actually find big manly, and fat, women in Thailand without looking too hard.

[Crossy]

1 minute ago, hotandsticky said:

 

You can actually find big manly, and fat, women in Thailand without looking too hard.

 

Yeah, but they really are men!

[BritManToo]

Just now, Crossy said:

 

Yeah, but they really are men!

I was gonna say that!

[ArnieP]

For a brief moment the OP’s post seemed reminiscent of GammaGlobulin.  
 

(No offence meant.)

[Crossy]

Just now, BritManToo said:

I was gonna say that!

 

Didn't we just have a "great minds" moment on a different thread???

 

Spooky!!!

 

Do do do do, do do do do!!

 

[OneMoreFarang]

9 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Who doesn't love small women?

If I wanted big manly women, I'd move to Australia.

If I wanted big fat women, I'd move to the USA.

Thanks for confirming the point of this thread.

Here is your big manly woman from Australia

 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by OneMoreFarang

[StayinThailand2much]

1 hour ago, newbee2022 said:

And can they feel in these days that there is a difference between Russians and the rest of farangs?

Do you know the difference? Oh, yes, they speak Russian, and the others don't...

[zzaa09]

Uncouth barbarians. 

[JensenZ]

50 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Who doesn't love small women?

If I wanted big manly women, I'd move to Australia.

If I wanted big fat women, I'd move to the USA.

Let's put this into perspective. There are plenty of very fine women in Australia and the USA, but they will not be interested in elderly men. It's what you can get, not what you can see, that counts.

[sqwakvfr]

1 hour ago, BE88 said:

Who are you Human Mutt  ?

 

Mixed race.  My first foster parents did not know what my actual ethnic backgrounds were.

[sqwakvfr]

1 hour ago, Sandboxer said:

Life became a lot easier here once I stopped caring what the locals think about me and I stopped being overly polite just to gain their approval. Was a total waste of time IMO. Being my regular aloof self while retaining just basic cultural courtesy gets me the same results.

You just described how I have been lately.  It took a few years to realized it did not matter if I was very courteous or not.  No need for me to smile.  Just go out and get what I needed to get done.  I am polite but no longer overtly friendly.  I realized to most of the locals "it just doesn't matter".  

[Trippy]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Who doesn't love small women?

If I wanted big manly women, I'd move to Australia.

If I wanted big fat women, I'd move to the USA.

If I wanted a big fat manly woman who never shut up, I'd move to the UK.

[scottiejohn]

11 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

it did not matter if I was very courteous or not.

What an arrogant attitude!

That is probably why to the locals you just don't matter!

When in Rome etc!

[bignok]

1 hour ago, Sandboxer said:

Life became a lot easier here once I stopped caring what the locals think about me and I stopped being overly polite just to gain their approval. Was a total waste of time IMO. Being my regular aloof self while retaining just basic cultural courtesy gets me the same results.

Life in general. Care 4/10 works best. 

[bignok]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

 

Yeah, but they really are men!

But more friendly than lots of ladies in the west.

[bbko]

To assume all Thais see all foreigners from their respective countries the same is a mistake.  Just as there's good, bad, polite, rude Thais; there's good, bad, polite, rude people from every country.

[Gecko123]

Out in the countryside, where the population density of foreigners is generally quite low, most of the time you're judged as an individual. People don't seem to harbor many preconceptions about people based on nationality, or for that matter, race. 

 

It has been my observation that when Thais do develop prejudices based on nationality or race in many cases these biases have been picked up through interaction with white foreigners who have indoctrinated Thais into their racial ideology. Maybe not always, but in many, many cases this is true, whether spread over the dinner table, by foreign bar or entertainment venue owners, or perhaps even by exposure to foreign media.

 

A prime example of this indoctrination is the painstaking explanations you hear on this forum about how the word farang should be reserved exclusively for white people, which implicitly raises all sorts of questions about why this is so important to the person expressing this view, and what nomenclature should then be used for anyone who doesn't neatly fit into a Caucasian pigeon hole. 

 

I occasionally am asked about my nationality. When I say American, the response seems to be fairly neutral, neither two thumbs up or two thumbs down. In the past, the reaction was more favorable than it is nowadays. When people ask about my nationality I think it's usually because they are curious about why I speak Thai as well as I do. I can't recall any Thais having strong opinions about specific nationalities, but I am sure in more heavily touristed areas, such attitudes do develop.

 

During the dark days of "good guys in, bad guys out" I did notice that policemen seemed to inquire about my nationality more often than usual, and I did suspect that they might be profiling based on nationality. But now that things have settled down, it's been several years since I've had a cop ask about my nationality. 

Edited August 12, 2023 by Gecko123