"look, Look At The Falang"

[Tod Daniels]

This topic has been beaten to death, only to rise from the ashes like a mythical Phoenix. You say farang, he says falang, for what ever reason. It's a worthless and pathetic point to argue about how to spell a thai word in English, but argue away as it shows your vast superiority.

BTW; No matter how poorly your (in)significant other pronounces it, learning to read thai script (even marginally) would immediately show that there is NO "L" in the word: ฝรั่ง. That being said; thais routinely blur their r's and l's. I have found a distinct correlation between education (or lack thereof) and the degree they slur the two letters. Even newscasters when they are in a heated discussion will slip up. It was such a big deal that the government launched a countrywide promotion several years ago with commercials, posters, and famous spokespeople trying to get the populace to speak their ร's and ล's distinctly.

Now without further ado: BACK ON TOPIC

For the most part, I take the term ฝรั่ง with a grain of salt, especially up country where foreigners are scarce as hens' teeth. However in the city, especially anywhere tourists are plentiful or congregate; I take it as either just plain rude and/or offensive, depending on the context in which it is used. Hearing it makes me listen to what ever they're chattering on about.

Unfortunately the O/P's initial posting, (which somehow got hi-jacked by the differing factions on the forum) shows that he was in a fairly up-scale (for thailand) area, and I believe there was actually NO reason to be labeled like he was.

If this is the worst thing you have to contend with in the glorious "Land 'O Thais" living amongst the ever smiling, yet diminutive inhabitants; you need to get out more or find a hobby, believe me.

[spencerdharmagrafix]

Yesterday, I went to Chesters with my wife, and a young Thai couple came in to the restaraunt carrying their young girl. The girl looked to be about 2 years old. The child had a pair of glasses on that were the thickest I have ever seen in my life. The child had to have been essentially blind.

So the parents of the child see me, and began with the usual chant to their kid.... " Look, Look at the Falang."

I thought to myself.... I wish my son was here with me now, so I could say to him.... "Look, Look at the Blind kid."

I wonder how that would have gone over?

in europe saying to someone "look at my friend! his feet are the wrong way round and his hanbds too! he can walk backwards at a breackneck speed! would be impolite and hurtful.. i use this crazy example because it is exactly what a mate of mine said to me on introducinjg his extremely handicapped friend. his friend smiled and showed me his feet and hands as his frind joked about him and was not in the least offended. In the same way, it is quite normal in thailand to say "why are you so extremely fat?" to someone's face!

There are 2 perspectives to this social phenomenon/difference to our culture;

one; Thais are completely mannerless and ignorant. (true in a way)

two; We westerners are extremely hung up on disabilities and xenophobic.. because we think the blind girl or his her parent/s would be offended means we separate blindness and other disabilities in our minds and class them as inferior ; if not, why would we assume the act of noticing them as offensive?). whereas a Thai does not see an invalid and immediately think "oh dont look at him, he will see we are staring!" this is what i would call "kwam kid tee ubat mak" in thai (real cheap thinking).

Sop if you had pointed at them with your kid, unfortunately it wouldnt have worked.

This said, i must say i do recognize your point, as i myself live in thai area only thais no farang and see maybe one farang face a month.. i feel thai think thai eat speak read and write.. but with my face i still get the odd ignorant "hall farang" (to which i reply "why dont you shout at that thai guy over there and say "hello isan man"??? - yes i know. if you did he would punch you! so why call me? i fell like punching you too because i get it 20 times a day as well as the "pood thai geng yoo mueang thai gee pee kap?" ( oh <deleted> boring boring boring! 30 times a day for 7 years the same question ate every shop restaurant market satall and bust stop.. WHY do they ask always the same question?)

Last week i bought a fried chilli and basil on rice with a fried egg on top in a polystyrtene nbox and plastic spoon (take away) and sat on a step in front of a hairdressers to eat it...

3 meters along on the same steps sat a noodle woman eating a jowl of her noodles ... i looked out of the corner of my eye as she started nudhging her husband to "look at the farang! wow farang eats human food too he knows how to use a plastic spoon!"), by which time i was gazing at her husband who looked embarrased at me necause he knew i was watching what was happening.. his wife turned to see me and i said จะแปลกตรงไหนวะพี่คับ?? มนุษย์มันก็กินข้าวเป็นธรรมดานะ ผมก็มนุษยเหมือนเธอ ไม่เห็นว่าแปลกเลย .. ถ้าผมเป็นลิง หรือ สุนัก ก็จะว่าแปลกใช่คับ แต่เราไม่ใช่ลิงนะคับ ไปไหนก้ต้องโดนคนไทยมานินทาเราแบบนี้ก็รู้สึกเหมือนที่เราอยู่ในสวนสัตวืคับ น้อยใจจัง

for those who can't read thai i said;

I dont see whats so wierd about me eating food.. i am human and eat human food same as you.. if i was a monkey or a dog then yes it would be worth nudging your husband and pointing at for... but im just a man.. everywhere i go i have to experience this ignorance and feel like a monkey in a zoo...

i left her with an embarrassed husband and an open jaw.

summary;

Thais are extremely broad minded when it comes to accepting invalids and disabled people - many disabled and mentally disordered people are even movie stars here.

But oh gosh.. they still cant get over the sight of a farang! even though we are almost as common as newspapers now.

Dont ask me to explain why this is so.. its a mystery and something i would love to change...

i suffer a lot from this separatist racism of theirs.

unconscious racists!

[HYENA]

I'd just say (so the kid can hear, and be culturally educated-while smiling) "Mai sòo-pâap"!

(their racism is hardly unconscious) ever see the threads of refusal of service at restaurants. Thais hate Isaan's. They even changed the name of the country to give the Thai minority an upper leg on the majority. It reminds me of the USA 100 years ago.

Edited September 10, 2008 by HYENA

[Jingthing]

Spencer, you have described quite well the experience of a European descent person who is just acting normally in a Thai area. I think almost all of it who have left the Sukhumwit ghetto have had similar experiences. Sadly, this isn't going to change. Oh well.

Edited September 10, 2008 by Jingthing

[HYENA]

To start with it is not Falang it is Farang

That would depend on which rominization you are using... and the one I used, it is falang

So, start with that.

The "falang" / "farang" spelling argument has been done to death and only the pedantic amongst us really care how it's spelt.

I always thought it was spelt Farang but pronounced Falang due to Thais pronouncing the letter R as L, my wifes sisters name is spelt Rung but is pronounce as Lung.

it is not farang. it is not falang. it is ฝรั่ง

learn to read/write thai then there will be no need for petty "my transliteration is better than yours" debates.

And the vast majority of the ฝรั่ง here would have no clue what you were writing.

Most of us cannot read/write Thai.

I guess we have to bow to your superior knowledge.

Who really cares if he can write thai script, "look look there is the falungagung who can write thai", does that come with a side of amulets?

Maybe it would be more socially acceptable to wallow in a world of inaccuracy and incorrectness.

Until there is a definitive standard of transliterating thai(like chinese pinyin), then as far as I am concerned it is an exercise in futility debating the spelling of transliterations, the debate is unanswerable do to the subjectiveness of the many varied approaches to transliteration.

However , writing thai script IS a definitive standard, so in my opinion spelling discussions should be resolved in this domain, because they are answerable.

I can understand why some are so frustrated when posts like this get hijacked into ego battles and pronunciation. I believe the OP said nothing about pronunciation, yet it's taken a life of it's own. Perhaps starting a bickering thread would be more appropriate?

Regarding OP; every situation is different. When I don't feel it's appropriate, I jerk my head around with a smile and I let them see my smile disappear right at them. They get the point if done immediately after the farang comment is made and they nyep. Then I smile again. No harm done and all in subtle correction of manners.

[qwertz]

Can't fault your logic, Hyena, a sensible reaction.

[Mattchu9999]

I had a great post written, but due to the Large Hadron Collider's ability to spurn microscopic black holes at random I believe my post, and most of the frontal lobe of my brain was inadvertently sucked in the black hole, which then enveloped itself due to the massive amount of crap stored in my frontal lobe.