I've been with my wife for 20 years and apart from our son who is now 17 I have contributed in raising her two daughters from a previous marriage since they were small children, they each now have 2 children of their own who following their mothers example all call me Papa, one of the grandchildren, Jackie 4 lives with us permanently due to the nearness of a good kindergarten. A few days ago the three of us were shopping in Tesco's when an Englishman with his son brushed passed me and apologized, Jackie stared at him and pointed him out to my wife saying, "Look a falang", my wife shrugged and said so what, Papa is also a falang. Jackie looked at my wife with a sympathetic smile at her stupidity and shaking her head said, "No he's not a falang, he's Papa", my wife replied, "Yes and he's a falang", Jackie stood with her mouth gaping as if she had seen me for the first time. It would seem you are only a falang to a child if you aren't in a relationship, it caused all three of us to burst out laughing.

Innocent ignorance. 

It's not that different to anyone who encounters people from a different race.

 

Go to Bradford or Birmingham or Tower Hamlets. White person thinks, "There's P***s everywhere."

 

However, the South Asian that works with said White person will be known to the White person and they become a person rather than a just a P***.

 

The Thais just verbalise it.

A falang is not a falang when he is correctly called a farang.

 

A falang is also not a falang when he is called a farlang or a flang or a ferang or a felang or any other of the many silly names I have seen being used on this forum but cannot remember at the moment.

57 minutes ago, Maestro said:

A falang is not a falang when he is correctly called a farang.

 

A falang is also not a falang when he is called a farlang or a flang or a ferang or a felang or any other of the many silly names I have seen being used on this forum but cannot remember at the moment.

farang is the correct written word however the 'r' is usually pronounced as an 'l' by Thais.

6 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

farang is the correct written word however the 'r' is usually pronounced as an 'l' by Thais.

No it is normally pronounced as farung. No Thai says falang only "farungs".

No Thai ever says falang. It is always farung or farlung (if their accent is strong).

 

In English "lang" sounds nothing like "rung".

 

Farang is the more correct spelling though.

 

 

my wife calls me ahole

Everybody here calls me Loong except step grandchildren who call me Boo.

 

I've  been called worse.

At the grave risk of getting back to the topic … “Farang” is an ‘othering’ word to put people you don’t know into a group  that you do know.  
One may have prejudices against that ‘othered’ group; it is much harder to maintain those prejudices if you admit that your friends or family fall into that group.

Just now, Harrisfan said:

No Thai ever says falang. It is always farung or farlung (if their accent is strong).

 

In English "lang" sounds nothing like "rung".

 

Farang is the more correct spelling though.

 

 

Actually I believe it's chiefly in Bangkok that the 'r' is generally pronounced as an 'l', in Isaan they pronounce it correctly.It only sounds like an 'ung' to you because the  'a' is pronounced 'ar' but I'm not going to argue the toss as this is obviously very important to you.

Just out of curiosity, do you think thais would be offended if we referred to them as asian, even when we knew their name?

 

like we are watching the match and at halftime someone proclaims 'hey who wants KFC?,' yeah you mike, tommy, billy, how about you, asian?

 

regards,

Elvis. 

2 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Actually I believe it's chiefly in Bangkok that the 'r' is generally pronounced as an 'l', in Isaan they pronounce it correctly.It only sounds like an 'ung' to you because the  'a' is pronounced 'ar' but I'm not going to argue the toss as this is obviously very important to you.

No it's not. My Bangkok friends say farung or fararng if you want to be fussy. Nobody says falang except farangs with hearing problems. My drunk friend says falang and he's got hearing problems.

 

Put farang into any Thai language app you will hear farung/fararng not falang.

7 minutes ago, Elvis Presley said:

Just out of curiosity, do you think thais would be offended if we referred to them as asian, even when we knew their name?

 

like we are watching the match and at halftime someone proclaims 'hey who wants KFC?,' yeah you mike, tommy, billy, how about you, asian?

 

regards,

Elvis. 

Just call then asliarns

1 minute ago, Harrisfan said:

Just call then asliarns

how about aliens?

 

like immigration refer to us as...

 

regards,

Elvis.

1 minute ago, Elvis Presley said:

how about aliens?

 

like immigration refer to us as...

 

regards,

Elvis.

Assliens?

Just now, Harrisfan said:

Just call then asliarns

In my village everybody calls me by my name, even those I don't know, since I am the only westerner here since 19 years I suppose it's easier to remember one name.

Just now, soalbundy said:

In my village everybody calls me by my name, even those I don't know, since I am the only westerner here since 19 years I suppose it's easier to remember one name.

Challenging life. Villages are so boring. The people are mostly good but nothing to do. 

Just now, Elvis Presley said:

how about aliens?

 

like immigration refer to us as...

 

regards,

Elvis.

I've found the IO in my district to be friendly and polite.

8 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

I've found the IO in my district to be friendly and polite.

That doesn't change the fact that you are still referred to as an Alien on your visa extension/90 day report forms.

 

regards,

Elvis.

2 hours ago, Maestro said:

A falang is not a falang when he is correctly called a farang.

 

A falang is also not a falang when he is called a farlang or a flang or a ferang or a felang or any other of the many silly names I have seen being used on this forum but cannot remember at the moment.

 

westerners use the corrupted 'falang' as a disrespectful reference to some thai's inaccurate english pronunciation. ironically, i'd bet many of those using the corruption are themselves far from perfect speakers of the thai language.

2 minutes ago, Elvis Presley said:

That doesn't change the fact that you are still referred to as an Alien on your visa extension/90 day report forms.

 

regards,

Elvis.

Most of my immigration paperwork had my name on it.  None had ‘farang’ on it.

1 minute ago, StreetCowboy said:

Most of my immigration paperwork had my name on it.  None had ‘farang’ on it.

At the top of the form the word Alien would appear in the title.

 

Take a harder look next time you sign it.

 

regards,

Elvis.

Just now, Harrisfan said:

Challenging life. Villages are so boring. The people are mostly good but nothing to do. 

That's true, one has to be a bit of a philosopher and a meditater, I'm one of those weirdos that likes it here. I've lived for months by the sea as well but in the end everything becomes a routine where ever you are and whatever you are doing. You are the observer and experiencer, each experience has a quality of its own and is impermanent,  yesterday is just a memory no matter how exciting it was (and it often isn't even particularly interesting), most activities are simply time filling, the latest bar girl, the new restaurant at the beach, the late night bar with music, the boat trip......been there, done that, now what, the search for something else. The villages offer the simple 'ease of being' and the chance for introspection.....not something for randy 50 year olds admittedly but ideal for a 76 year old bear who has eaten his honey.

17 minutes ago, Elvis Presley said:

That doesn't change the fact that you are still referred to as an Alien on your visa extension/90 day report forms.

 

regards,

Elvis.

what is in a word? tourist, foreigner, alien, khon dang chard, they all mean the same thing, permanent residency doesn't change that, it's just a glorified visa extension with bells on, I lived and worked in Germany for over 35 years, was married to a German, had a German child, owned my own house but I was still an Ausländer, what difference does it make?

29 minutes ago, it is what it is said:

 

westerners use the corrupted 'falang' as a disrespectful reference to some thai's inaccurate english pronunciation. ironically, i'd bet many of those using the corruption are themselves far from perfect speakers of the thai language.

That's very true, I can read and write Thai fluently but I cant follow a Thai television program but I am comfortable reading a Thai book, I taught myself Thai by reading all the Harry Potter books in Thai. I speak English with my Thai/British son, and Thai with the wife, stepdaughters and grand kids. I will never be as fluent in Thai as I am in English and German.

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

Actually I believe it's chiefly in Bangkok that the 'r' is generally pronounced as an 'l', in Isaan they pronounce it correctly.It only sounds like an 'ung' to you because the  'a' is pronounced 'ar' but I'm not going to argue the toss as this is obviously very important to you.

 

In Isaan they say "falang" because Isaan is a Lao dialect, not a Thai dialect. 

 

Lao does not have a letter for the "R" sound.

 

Farang is more correct. If you hear 'R" pronounced as an 'L'  in Bangkok it's because you are hanging out with Isaan girls.

 

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

farang is the correct written word however the 'r' is usually pronounced as an 'l' by Thais.

 

Precisely. Farang is the correct written word, eg as written in a post on this forum, and is in line with the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS), the official scheme promulgated by the Royal Thai Institute, whereas falang is the RTGS transcription of a colloquial variant spoken by people in some geographic areas in Thailand or of certain levels of education.

 

Interestingly, farang has made it into some English dictionaries, eg Collins and a dictionary from Oxford Languages.

 

The discussion of pronunciation guides, such as farung and fararng for speakers of various types of English, as mentioned in some posts here, are best held in the Thai Language Forum.

3 hours ago, Elvis Presley said:

Just out of curiosity, do you think thais would be offended if we referred to them as asian, even when we knew their name?

 

like we are watching the match and at halftime someone proclaims 'hey who wants KFC?,' yeah you mike, tommy, billy, how about you, asian?

 

regards,

Elvis. 

 

Could you imagine if we did that in the West.

 

Asian

Asian

Asian

Asian

 

As Asian people walked by.

 

Oh the Asian needs directions Joe. Ok ill tell the Asian where to go.

 

Hey Asian guy go straight then left at the light.

 

Hey Joe did you give the Asian proper directions. 

 

Na Fred I just made up some bs so I didn't look stupid because I didn't know where the asian wanted.to go. 

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

That's very true, I can read and write Thai fluently but I cant follow a Thai television program but I am comfortable reading a Thai book, I taught myself Thai by reading all the Harry Potter books in Thai. I speak English with my Thai/British son, and Thai with the wife, stepdaughters and grand kids. I will never be as fluent in Thai as I am in English and German.

Oh fantastic,you Sir are a genius!