From A Thai Woman’s Curiosity, How Can You Know “what’s His/her Nationality When He/she Just Pass By?”

[MidoriApple]

Hi, guys (Not gays… Mr.LaoPo , but I do like gay people, definitely)

I had been so busy with my job all through 2 days before,

feel a bit ashamed that I didn’t have any chance to say anything in Forum

“Thai Using “Farang” I/O our Name in Conversation” while it has only 1-day old and already closed.

I come here in this website to practice my English’s skill,

moreover, need to get better in understanding the foreigners’ thinking.

And I do appreciate the warmth welcoming from members here …

I am happy Thai woman, and I don’t mind AT ALL if you guys would help me correct my writing sometimes….

Thai people love Peace, we always (most of us) avoid the violence,

you can see/hear we, Thai often say ‘Jai Yen Yen’ which means ‘Take it easy’

As reading topics here not so long, I sometimes quite tense you all guys posted like you will kill each other.

Very straight forward, this is so different from Thai webboard….. I have not yet felt familiar,

so please don’t feel like killing me, if I feel different or curious in some funny things… (which my friends often say.. I am ting tong)

OK, back to my head topic…. This is my wondering all the time..…

while I can know if a Chinese or Japanese just pass by.

Had talked to a NewYorker who’s once an expat in Thailand.

She told me she couldn’t see the difference between Thai/Thai people and Thai/Chinese people.

This is the same to me, as I can’t guess the nationality of all the Caucasian people.

My question is the head topic above and if you can know, please tell me how to?

PS. I am not troll at all, I may come back here 2-3 days later…

have to work (a bit) so hard before the Songkarn’s holidays.

[lardy]

Hi, guys (Not gays… Mr.LaoPo , but I do like gay people, definitely)

I had been so busy with my job all through 2 days before,

feel a bit ashamed that I didn't have any chance to say anything in Forum

"Thai Using "Farang" I/O our Name in Conversation" while it has only 1-day old and already closed.

I come here in this website to practice my English's skill,

moreover, need to get better in understanding the foreigners' thinking.

And I do appreciate the warmth welcoming from members here …

I am happy Thai woman, and I don't mind AT ALL if you guys would help me correct my writing sometimes….

Thai people love Peace, we always (most of us) avoid the violence,

you can see/hear we, Thai often say 'Jai Yen Yen' which means 'Take it easy'

As reading topics here not so long, I sometimes quite tense you all guys posted like you will kill each other.

Very straight forward, this is so different from Thai webboard….. I have not yet felt familiar,

so please don't feel like killing me, if I feel different or curious in some funny things… (which my friends often say.. I am ting tong)

OK, back to my head topic…. This is my wondering all the time..…

while I can know if a Chinese or Japanese just pass by.

Had talked to a NewYorker who's once an expat in Thailand.

She told me she couldn't see the difference between Thai/Thai people and Thai/Chinese people.

This is the same to me, as I can't guess the nationality of all the Caucasian people.

My question is the head topic above and if you can know, please tell me how to?

PS. I am not troll at all, I may come back here 2-3 days later…

have to work (a bit) so hard before the Songkarn's holidays.

Ask? but what difference does it make to the person asking, unless it means they then make a judgemnet on them???

[Huey]

I'm American and I can usually tell the difference between Americans and other nationalities by looking at them out here. Being Black I can almost (98% of the time) tell the difference between a Black American and any African or Arab..we just move different and our clothing and hair styles are usually different as well. As for other American ethnicities, I can USUALLY, its never 100% tell We tend to dress much more casual, almost TOOO casual as if we are on some kind of laid back safari, even as we shop in upscale places in BKK. We are usually a lil heavier too. I really had to admit it a couple weeks ago when I saw a group of American contractors working in Iraq and I am not exaggerating when I say at least 85% were over weight by 10+ kilo or more.

Edited April 10, 2008 by Huey

[candoman89]

If they are handsome, polite and muscular they must be Canadian!!

[Huey]

Thai people love Peace, we always (most of us) avoid the violence,

you can see/hear we, Thai often say 'Jai Yen Yen' which means 'Take it easy'

As reading topics here not so long, I sometimes quite tense you all guys posted like you will kill each other.

Very straight forward, this is so different from Thai webboard….. I have not yet felt familiar,

so please don't feel like killing me, if I feel different or curious in some funny things… (which my friends often say.. I am ting tong)

Had talked to a NewYorker who's once an expat in Thailand.

She told me she couldn't see the difference between Thai/Thai people and Thai/Chinese people.

This is the same to me, as I can't guess the nationality of all the Caucasian people.

My question is the head topic above and if you can know, please tell me how to?

Regarding the Nationality of Caucasians. As a Caucasian, no idea. We may guess, but as a bit less than 2000 years ago Europe was shook up by tremendous migrations all over the continent, and subsequent empires having been built and fell again, all of Europe (and the US and Australia) is a huge ethnic mix.

Certain fashions may be more typical to some nationalities (germans - white sox and sandals, big beergut, brits - football shirts with vomit stains ), so we may make an educated guess, but not more.

As to "peaceful Thais", i am sorry to differ. Statistics on violent crime do show the opposite, and some of the Thai webboards, particularly the political ones, are extremely nasty, and have already led to lawsuits in real life - even lese majeste cases were filed, such as after an article on prachathai.com, Chanapath Na nakhorn filed a lese majeste suit against the author.

Oh yeah Thai's aren't peaceful like us peaceful Americans and Europeans... Their history of violence, especially recent, can't hold a candle to American violence, we make violence a proper art form. I mean we find new reasons to hate every 10 or so years, and thats without dropping the OLD reasons.

I mean seriously, do you think we could have used the military to kick bush out and no one would have gotten shot??? We couldn't even break up a deranged little christan cult in Texas (Waco) without blowing the house up.

Edited April 10, 2008 by Huey

[edwardandtubs]

MidoriApple, instead of making silly generalisations ("Thai people love Peace, we always (most of us) avoid the violence") and trying to judge people according to nationality why don't you just focus on getting to know people as individuals. Instead of trying to "get better in understanding the foreigners’ thinking" and guessing people's nationality why don't you just get out more and talk to people?

[toptuan]

If they are handsome, polite and muscular they must be Canadian!!

Add intelligent, decisive, romantic, and they must be American!!

[misterman21]

Shaven head and tattoos - Brits

Dress shoes and socks with shorts - Swiss.

Hear before you see them - Americans or Australians

Baked sun tan and dirty toenails - Germans

No dress sense and smoking roll up cigarettes - Dutch

Angry/dower expression - air of false superiority - French

[PhilHarries]

To the OP, I'm not going to follow the sheep off topic with the old "Thias are/are not peaceful" line but I'll try and answer your question. I'll also avoid the old "why does it matter what nationality?" pseudo non-racist blurb.

How can you tell the nationality of a caucasian just from looks?

Well the simple answer is you can not. Even if you speak to the person in question you still can not be 100% sure. With the huge amount of Ethnic mixing that has gone on in Europe, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand nothing is certain. Even if you know their name there is no certainty, I'm from the UK and quite often will see an article about someone with a name like Zybrowski and it turns out he's third generation British but he may still have a strong Polish accent. I have worked with women of Asian descent, second generation, with very strong Scottish, Yorkshire and London accents so much so that if people went by accent alone they would say 100% British with a blood line back to 1066 and all that.

Can you tell the nationality of a person by the clothes they wear?

Answer : Despite all the TV sneer merchants will try and tell you again you can not. Unless, that is, they are wearing some form of national dress or sports clothing. Chances are if you see a man wearing an England football shirt chances are he is English or he is an Australian in denial (only joking mateys ). If you see a man wearing lederhosen he is quite likely a German or Austrian. But wearing normal clothing it is impossible to be sure.

The bottom line is to get to know people and don't be afraid of asking "where are you from?". That is a great way to start a conversation and anybody who takes offence at the question wasn't worth knowing anyway.

PS don't take too much notice of TV members personal attacks on each other. Basically they come down to two types:-

1. Keyboard warriors. These are "Hard men" behind their keyboards couched in the safety afforded by internet anonymity. These type would usually run away if ever they were confronted in the flesh.

2. P1ss takers. Very often certain nationalities will have a go at each other more in fun than seriously. Good examples are the British and Australians. The Aussies beat the Brits at just about every sport and don't let us forget it so when we win one back it is payback time. The other thing is that the Aussies are all descended from criminals deported from Great Britain so we have a dig at them over that. None of it true and it's all good natured, well most of the time .

Hope you can understand that little lot and it helps with your question.

[garro]

You can pick out the Irish by the twinkle in their eye.

[Naam]

Add intelligent, decisive, romantic, and they must be American!!

you forgot "well educated, speaking half a dozen foreign languages"

[ade100]

It’s a good question.

I have lived and worked in many European countries and there are many stereotypes concerning the different nationalities and how the look, dress and behave. However they are all wrong :-)

You can’t tell a person’s nationality until you hear them speak. And even then you can only guess.

[rick75]

You can tell the Irish they finish every sentence with the words " to be sure, to be sure"

[Naam]

How can you tell the nationality of a caucasian just from looks? Well the simple answer is you can not. Even if you speak to the person in question you still can not be 100% sure.

most of the time i can Phil, especially speaking to a person. looks, clothing, hair cuts and especially accents (and a lot of other factors) quite often reveal origins.

language examples:

indian/pakistani: i meet you at too dirty in dhe afternoon

tchermann: wudd you like to haff a bier wizz me ziss eeffnink?

african american: ah sez dis Thailand bee one wonderful country!

[MengWan]

It should be quite simple, by the language they speak ?

Russian -> Russian

Armenian -> Armenian

Georgian -> Georgian (this one is hard to guess) ...

I should not post because I am not from Caucasus, it's pure scolar knowledge

[the highlander]

I think that Midori apple has an excellent point!!

The Thais were derided by some BMs for using the term Farang as an all encompassing word for foreigners!

She know asks how she and others can tell the difference between nationalities so she can use the correct terminology!

The answer is "You cannot tell the difference". What a joke!!

Typical western politically correct leftie crap!!

People the world over will always use the differences in people to make others aware who you are talking about!

It it not rude to do so, only efficient!!

Please do not infect Thailand with your touchy feely PC nonsense!!

[sylviex]

With the huge amount of Ethnic mixing that has gone on in Europe, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand nothing is certain.

I certainly agree about the genes getting mixed, but there are identifiable cultural aspects of dress, body language and other such cues that will allow observers with a good range of exposure to the "target group/s" to make an educated guess about both ethnicity and culture that will often be correct.

I can quite often tell a Thai from a Thai Chinese though I might find it somewhat difficult to pinpoint the reasons. (We internalise much of this information.)

No reason to assume this will lead to "making judgements" about them in any way.

You can pick out the Irish by the twinkle in their eye.

Absolutely !

Edited April 10, 2008 by sylviex

[colino]

Baking hot day Black T-shirt shorts white socks and sandals sweating like mad

English

100%

[Nysan]

Hello

It is hard to explain, but is the same way thai people can say if someone is from Korea or Myanmar or from some other place. How can you see if someone is Thai-Chinese? It is just more easy for people to see the differance in people in the area they come from. The avarege farang in europe would say all people from asians looks the same "they have black hair and their faces are same"

I am from Sweden. For me, people from England and Scandinavia looks pretty much the same. But it is quite easy to see if someone is from southern europe or even eastern europe. I can see if someone is from Russia easy.

My mother works for a big company called Ellos, who sell clothes in Scandinavia. Belive it or not, but the company have to adjust they clothes patterns when they sell garments to Finland. In Finland males tend to have broader shoulders and a bit longer arms than the rest of the nothern people. In the same way the poeple are abit shorter in southern europe. As a result of this the standard bed in Spain is about 200 cm long, and that can be a problem for englishmen and people from germany and Scandinavia who want to buy a bed in Spain. But this is details that are to see even if you are from europe.

Edited April 10, 2008 by Nysan

[AlexLah]

Hi all,

Can we please stop this BS of putting/judging people where they come from.

People are people no matter where they come from.

Just select the ones who are openminded and not.

Go for the openminded that is all I can say.

Peace ya all!

[LaoPo]

Shaven head and tattoos - Brits

Dress shoes and socks with shorts - Swiss.

Hear before you see them - Americans or Australians

Baked sun tan and dirty toenails - Germans

No dress sense and smoking roll up cigarettes - Dutch

Angry/dower expression - air of false superiority - French

And Misterman21 is from:...................................................

I noticed right away, even from a distance.

LaoPo

[DavidOxon]

Hi all,

Can we please stop this BS of putting/judging people where they come from.

People are people no matter where they come from.

Just select the ones who are openminded or not

Go for the openminded that is all I can say.

Peace ya all!

At the risk of being (is flamed the right term?) isn't that a little un-openminded of you?

David

[kmart]

I hate all of you regardless of your creed, colour, or nationality. I however lack the Latin skills to be judgmental.

[MidoriApple]

Can't help myself logging in immediately after arrivng home...

Oh..man... please take it easy...

You know what? I had taken some time thinking that, should i post this topic while I already realized you guys in this forum

will seriously do the arguments. I asked myself as I am a happy woman and of course come from simply Thai family,

we are quite soften each other in the family, I asked myself if i am ready to get the very straight forward opinions.

Yes....., I decided to take risk and it is come out as I did expect !!!!

You guys are so strong to show off your opinions, I did expect these.

But what I didn't is "Thai people love peace"-solution. I didn't mean any relative to the politic-things at all.

I said this just because I am new here and I don't feel familiar when you all guys argue everything very confidently,

seems like some of you are lack of sense of humour IHMO.

Thai people in my post mostly means only "me". I am not born killer

........................................................................

Some of you said Thai are so violence as the argument in some Thai website....

You know what? I once like to read/get news in those website and I found out that most of the arguments there

that some Thai did which quite rude and sarcastic, some topics seemed exaggerated.

These Thai people, the posters, they were hired to do that.......

This is one kind of commercial... to persuade some innocent people to believe news/details or even rumors..

as you know most Thai people are low-educated... they can easily be deluded...

and badly hate someone... by no reasons... this is so disgusting tactic in Thai Politics...

I can bet, these posters...they are just coward...they can only say behind the scene

what if challenge them coming out and talk as a mature and civilized person....

I can bet, just a few... a little few dare to take that challenge

I gave up reading those ridiculous websites for so long....

have to say, sometimes what if there is any bad situation about my Thailand, I watch CNN or BBC

just to get the truth of it. I don't believe in Thai channels at all, as you know, in Thailand, money can buy "everything"

Also The Southern Thailand's bombs, the Political Crisis in the year 1971, 1976

and the famous one - The Thaksin against human's right in Tak-Bai....

Yes, we did have these violences but please compare to other countries, you will see we have less in statistic, don't we?

........................................................................

About my question: Right...it might look "silly" to some of you civilized guys

it may be my fault that I don't hint why to ask...

even the question is silly and very simple but it means a lots to me.

Let's me tell you, this Q is related to my career.

My family produce a kind of food ourselves in Thailand, mostly they are western style.

and I take responsibility to a small shop in a fine shopping mall you all guys mostly go...

Yes, of course, most of my clients are foreigners.

As an intention to make good services to the clients, after saying "sawasdee", I always observe the clients

and try to help them select some of my products which they suppose to buy, among of my almost hundred kind of products.

What if I can know the clients' nationalities, this would help me very much of making good impression.

Mr.edwardandtubs, I have tried sometimes asking from the clients.

Most of them said he/she is Bangkokian, or let me guess. This is teasing...I know (Westerners with lots of humourous sense... )

I am not sure IS THIS STORY UP ABOVE REASONABLE ENOUGH FOR YOU TO ANSWER MY CURIOUSITY?

........................................................................

One more thing I have learnt from this website is some of you are too arrogant.

I once thought westerners are always civilized and mature but the truth is we are all equal as human.

There are good/rubbish, smart/dump, weird/simple, pride/greedy, well-educated/un-educated "mix in" all over the world.

By the way, I love to judge people by their own personalities and always give people the chance to improve themselves.

It is waste of time and too narrow-minded to just speak out loud for other's adjustment to you.

........................................................................

Last, I must say... I do appreciate all the guys who are not sarcastic and intend to reply me by no offensive,

even some of you tried to pamper me.... That's so sweet

Thank you so much, indeed. I intend to use your info to test with my clients.

Well,... let's see, what will the result come out....

This is lonnnnnggggggg writing, right? Yes, it comes out from the bottom of my heart....

[MidoriApple]

I think that Midori apple has an excellent point!!

The Thais were derided by some BMs for using the term Farang as an all encompassing word for foreigners!

She know asks how she and others can tell the difference between nationalities so she can use the correct terminology!

The answer is "You cannot tell the difference". What a joke!!

Typical western politically correct leftie crap!!

People the world over will always use the differences in people to make others aware who you are talking about!

It it not rude to do so, only efficient!!

Please do not infect Thailand with your touchy feely PC nonsense!!

right... may be this Q is related to "The farang-word" problem..

while I cant know what to call you westerners before knowing your name...

By the way, for the farang-word, in Thai's saying there are two more of this.

fa-rang-mang-kha ฝรั่งมังค่า (I don't know the meaning)

fa-rang-ta-nam-khao ฝรั่งตาน้ำข้าว (means= white people/caucasians who have blue, grey, green, purple eyes' colors..)

These two words, we rarely say due to they are too long word and only Thai old people may use these.

Edited April 10, 2008 by MidoriApple

[Misplaced]

as you know most Thai people are low-educated... they can easily be deluded.

No I didn't know that but Thank you for being so informative. You don't think you are superior than other Thai people because you are more educated do you?

As far as I'm concern, more education, more money, more cars, more houses...etc doesn't make you better person that the next. Other people may not have had the same opportunity as you and I so give them a break and stop making that type of statement.

[the highlander]

as you know most Thai people are low-educated... they can easily be deluded.

No I didn't know that but Thank you for being so informative. You don't think you are superior than other Thai people because you are more educated do you?

As far as I'm concern, more education, more money, more cars, more houses...etc doesn't make you better person that the next. Other people may not have had the same opportunity as you and I so give them a break and stop making that type of statement.

Typical PC crap!!

Midori apple is right!!

I cannot see where she said she feels she is superior or that it has anything to do with being poor!!!

Most Thais are poorly educated (compared to Falang) and there is blindingly obvious evidence that they are easily deluded!!

[Misplaced]

as you know most Thai people are low-educated... they can easily be deluded.

No I didn't know that but Thank you for being so informative. You don't think you are superior than other Thai people because you are more educated do you?

As far as I'm concern, more education, more money, more cars, more houses...etc doesn't make you better person that the next. Other people may not have had the same opportunity as you and I so give them a break and stop making that type of statement.

Typical PC crap!!

Midori apple is right!!

I cannot see where she said she feels she is superior or that it has anything to do with being poor!!!

Most Thais are poorly educated (compared to Falang) and there is blindingly obvious evidence that they are easily deluded!!

You got 1 thing right " typical PC crap". Everyone has an opinion, yours may be a bit skewd, but nevertheless, its you opinion. I know many people who feels differ than you but you have the right to yours. I just want to know how you arrived with your conclusion? Did you do a survey of the farang are more educated than Thai surveys, or is it another one of your "pc crap"? Do enlighten me please.

[AFKAFSinLOS]

I'm confused. You mean there are different countries / nationalities outside Thailand? I thought everyone was either Thai or not Thai.

[stress]

This better be troll.